Exploding cars forbidden in China: "Mark Frauenfelder:


This sign makes it clear that cars are prohibited from exploding in China. Violators will be shots and their parents will be charged for the bullets.

Rachel says: 'I saw these strange signs all over Beijing when I was there this past summer. None of the native Chinese people I traveled with knew what they were supposed to mean. Even our taxi driver didn't know. Anyone have a clue?' Link (If you know what the sign really means, post your comment here. Please don't email me about it.)

Update:

(Click on thumbnail for enlargement) Spoilsport convenience store in Nagoya, Japan forbids customers from bringing bombs with lit fuses and skulls on them into the store. (Thanks, Michael!)

(Click on thumbnail for enlargement) In this Cambodian store, you're asked to leave your knife, pistol, grenade, and dog at the door. But machetes, sawed-off shotguns, and C4 aren't expressly prohibited. (Thanks, Waylon!)

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

For Dining Only anti-laptop sign at restaurant: "Cory Doctorow:


Just snapped this 'FOR DINING ONLY' sign at an Austin restaurant -- it includes a laptop in a circle with a line through it. I get the point -- laptop users squat on tables, reducing the turnover. But I can sit and read a newspaper or a book at a table for hours, too -- why not have a 'NO READING -- FOR DINING ONLY' sign? And how about those great, social meals where you chat with your friends for hours? 'NO READING, LAPTOPS OR TALKING: FOR DINING ONLY!'

Link

(via Wonderland)

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

HOWTO make a paperclip Enterprise: "Cory Doctorow:


David's built a sweet little paperclip Starship Enterprise -- and he's posted directions for you to make your own. No pushpin pig is safe -- fire photon torpedoes!

Link

(Thanks, David!)

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Life-size beasties straight out of EC Comics: "Cory Doctorow:


Sculptor Tom Kuebler's life-size macabre figures ('as collected by Gene Simmons!') feature grim and whimsical personages that seem to have stepped out of the pages of a vintage number of EC Comics. This is great stuff -- I want to throw a dinner party for these people.

Link

(via Neatorama)

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Warren Ellis's NEXTWAVE: subverting the underwear perverts: "Cory Doctorow:
'Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.: This is What They Want' is the first volume of collected Nextwave comics from savage funnybooks genius Warren Ellis. Ellis -- creator of the seminal Transmetropolitan -- is known for his scorching attacks on 'underwear pervert' comics featuring caped crusaders with super-powers fighting the bad guys.

Nexwave does a thoroughgoing job of subverting the underwear pervert genre. Ellis takes a handful of Z-list Marvel superheroes and turns them into wisecracking, angry rogues who are stuck fighting their handler, who has sold out their war on terror to a group of Halliburton-esque profiteers. They curse, they screw up, they trade angry barbs, and they fight the most ridiculous super-monsters you've ever seen.

I laughed aloud a dozen times while reading these first six issues (the total run will be twelve issues long) and when I closed the book, I immediately wished for volume two.

MONICA RAMBEAU used to be known as Captain Marvel. She once ran the Avengers. She will tell you this. A lot. An unlikely veteran of superhero combat, wanting to do her bit for her country, she found herself leading this team. AARON STACK used to be called Machine Man, but his name is Aaron Stack, and it's none of your business that he's wired his robot brain to be affected by alcohol. ELSA BLOODSTONE is the daughter of near-immortal monster hunter Ulysses Bloodstone, wears the same creepy gem that makes her superhumanly resistant to harm, works in the family business and tends to come off like Lara Croft's evil twin sister. THE CAPTAIN claims not to remember his real name -- his chequered career has seen him basically be every crap Marvel character called Captain something. TABITHA SMITH used to be Boom Boom in the New Mutants and Meltdown in X-Force, and she's a terrible kleptomaniac, and it's because of her light fingers that The Next Wave Squad discovered that...

...well, it seems that H.A.T.E. isn't fighting the same war on terrorism as everyone else.

Link

See also:

Warren Ellis' graphic novel FELL #1 online for free

Warren Ellis's Desolation Jones - Savage noir spy comic

Warren Ellis's Mek and Reload omnibus edition

Complete Warren Ellis comic online

Transmetropolitan #1 as a free download

I come to praise Transmetropolitan

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

and Walnut Creek is the best in WC

Why Apple is the best retailer in America - March 19, 2007: ""

(Via .)

The Search for Dark Matter and Dark Energy: "mlimber writes 'The New York Times Magazine has a lengthy article on dark matter and dark energy, discussing the past, present, and future. 'Astronomers now realize that dark matter probably involves matter that is nonbaryonic ['meaning that it doesn't consist of the protons and neutrons of 'normal' matter']. And whatever it is that dark energy involves, we know it's not 'normal,' either. In that case, maybe this next round of evidence will have to be not only beyond anything we know but also beyond anything we know how to know.''

"

(Via Slashdot.)

so say we all

Is Daylight Saving Shift Really Worth It?: "Krishna Dagli writes 'Two Ph.D. students at the University of California at Berkeley say that Daylight Saving Shift will not do any good or create any energy savings. We are already spending money for software upgrades in the name of saving energy and after reading following article I wonder has congress really studied the impact of DST shift? ' I also read some back story on the concept; OTOH, I found TiVo's suggestions that I manually change everything on my Series 1 device to be somewhat...insulting.

"

(Via Slashdot.)

Dirty movies: "The drive-in prepared you for life by revealing what was shameful, filthy, corrupt'and frightening about the world, in which there were more women’s jungle'prisons than Burger Kings, where karate grudge bouts were staged in the Roman Coliseum, where apes kept humans in bamboo cages, where the dead rose to eat the living and where a grown man could melt in front of your eyes.''' "

(Via MORLOCKS.)

This is for Joe

Surfing with a motor is still surfing, guys: "

Who says you need waves to surf? I mean, beyond the laws and physics and stuff. Sure, you won't be going anywhere on still water with a normal surfboard, but a normal surf board isn't loaded up with an engine and propeller. The Hydroglider, on the other hand, totally is.

Not only does it get you moving, but it does so with a 'wing that lifts the surfboard and you up out of the water, greatly reducing drag and allowing you to achieve speeds up to an exhilarating 25 miles per hour.' You know what, that actually sounds pretty badass, I'm not gonna lie. Sure, it might not be pure surfing, but pure surfing doesn't shoot you along flat water at 25 mph, now does it? — Adam Frucci

Inventist, via Crave

"

(Via SCI FI Tech Blog.)

I want to believe in the jackalope

Origins of the jackalope?: "Mark Frauenfelder:
Andrew says:

I could be mistaken, but [your post about the poor fellow with the unusual skin condition] looks like a virus that rabbits get that
causes what look like horns growing out of them called Shope
papillomavirus. That was the first thing i thought when i saw it,
although it's probably not related. I have several pet rabbits and
they don't go outside because there are rabbits with that in the area,
and once you see it, you never forget it.

Is this the real-life origin of the mythical jackalope? Link

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

my high school chemistry teachr's fave joke was to drink a glass of dihydrogen monoxcide

People happily sign petition to ban water: "Mark Frauenfelder:


Here's a YouTube clip of a Penn and Teller stunt in which people were convinced to sign a petition to ban 'dihydrogen monoxide,' also known as water.

When I was a Wired editor back in the 1990's, another Wired editor and I sent around email to the company with an anti 'dihydrogen monoxide' screed ('I even saw our chef wiping down the counter with this stuff -- it kills hundreds of people a year!')

Link (Bonus -- super old Boing Boing vestigial page about deadly 'dihydrogen monoxide.') (Thanks, Coop!)

Reader comment:

Grayson says:

DHMO information site. They have links to the CDC and EPA (and more), so they're for reals.

Also, Snopes has a story about a 14 year old's 1997 high school science project using info nearly identical to yours.

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

big buffy fan - just fun - came to it late tho after it ended

Buffy at 10: "

Ten years ago, my wife was taking a night class in San Francisco, so I was sitting at home flipping around the channels when I spied a TV show on the fledgling WB network. What I found -- and wrote about for TeeVee -- was Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Ten years ago today, Buffy premiered, and I actually caught a bit more than half of that initial premiere airing. I say that with pride, because with ten years' hindsight, Buffy is high on my list of the best shows of all time.

Back in 1997 I said that Buffy was 'campy and goofy and not to be taken as serious drama.' As proud as I am that I liked the series immediately, I got this bit completely wrong. Although Buffy cloaked itself in the conventions of campy horror, it turned out to have an emotional depth that allowed it to cross over from dumb fun into incredibly smart fun.

So on the occasion of Buffy's 10th anniversary, I provide you with a link to the story we posted on the day of Buffy's final episode, featuring the favorite Buffy episodes of three of the vidiots.

And if you're a Buffy fan who's sad that it's all over but the shouting, haven't you heard? Buffy season 8 is right around the corner.

"

(Via TeeVee.)

kewl baaad movies

Dirty movies: "The drive-in prepared you for life by revealing what was shameful, filthy, corrupt'and frightening about the world, in which there were more women’s jungle'prisons than Burger Kings, where karate grudge bouts were staged in the Roman Coliseum, where apes kept humans in bamboo cages, where the dead rose to eat the living and where a grown man could melt in front of your eyes.''' "

(Via MORLOCKS.)

must see this

Movie Review | 'The Host': It Came From the River, Hungry for Humans (Burp): "‘The Host’ is a loopy, feverishly imaginative genre hybrid about the demons that haunt us from without and within."

(Via NYT > Movie Reviews.)

surprise surprise - reminds me of the Outer Limit episode - who watches the watchers

DoJ: FBI misused Patriot act in domestic spying activities: "Xeni Jardin:

A Justice Department audit released today concludes that the FBI broke the law in its use of the Patriot Act to secretly obtain phone, business, and financial data about people in the US.

The report also found that for three years, the FBI understated to Congress how frequently it forced businesses to hand over that private information.

PDF LINK to a copy of the 199-page report, 'A Review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Use of National Security Letters.' IMAGE above, a diagram from page 24: 'How the NSA uses National Security Letters.'

FBI Director Robert Mueller told reporters today 'I am to be held accountable,' then added that he has no plans to resign.

Snip from AP story:

At issue are the security letters, a power outlined in the Patriot Act that the Bush administration pushed through Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The letters, or administrative subpoenas, are used in suspected terrorism and espionage cases. They allow the FBI to require telephone companies, Internet service providers, banks, credit bureaus and other businesses to produce highly personal records about their customers or subscribers - without a judge's approval.

About three-fourths of the national security letters were issued for counterterror cases, and the other fourth for spy investigations.
Fine's annual review is required by Congress, over the objections of the Bush administration. The audit released Friday found that the number of national security letters issued by the FBI skyrocketed in the years after the Patriot Act became law.

In 2000, for example, the FBI issued an estimated 8,500 letters. By 2003, however, that number jumped to 39,000. It rose again the next year, to about 56,000 letters in 2004, and dropped to approximately 47,000 in 2005.

Over the entire three-year period, the FBI reported issuing 143,074 national security letters requesting customer data from businesses, the audit found. But that did not include an additional 8,850 requests that were never recorded in the FBI's database, the audit found.

Also, Fine's audit noted, a 2006 report to Congress showing that the FBI delivered only 9,254 national security letters during the previous year - on 3,501 U.S. citizens and legal residents - was only required to report certain types of requests for information. That report did not outline the full scope of the national security letter requests in 2005, nor was it required to, Fine's office said.

Link, here's a related NYT story: Link. Wired's 27B Stroke 6 blog has a related post here.

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

watch this

Big Brother State -- GENIUS animation about surveillance society: "Cory Doctorow:



Markus sez, ''Big Brother State' is a nice animation about surveillance society with examples of trusted computing and CCTV. It is released under a Creative Commons sampling licence by David Scharf and you can download the short film in several formats.'

This is brilliant -- some of the best work on the subject I've ever seen. Watch it NOW.

Link

(Thanks, Markus!)

Update: Eric sends in this YouTube mirror

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

lol

Abba the Hutt: "Cory Doctorow:


Abba the Hutt is a poster for a notional Star Wars/Abba mashup ('The album includes an irresistible mash up of seventies Swedish pop music and Tatooinish sex funk. Features timeless hitsongs such as 'I Ho, I Ho, I Ho, I Ho', 'Dancing Queen Amidala' and 'Super StormTrouper'. In a planet near you soon!') that begs out to be actually made.



Link

(Thanks, Hendrik!)

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

i am … sppechless

Chandelier made from gummi-bears: "Cory Doctorow:


YaYa Chou's 'Chandelier' is made of gummi bears, beads, monifilament, plastic, metal and light bulbs -- it's as delicious as it is translucent.

Link

(via Make!)

See also:

Chandelier made from penis-pumps

HOWTO make a 'fractal chandelier' - simple and ingenious

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

LOL

Hooked on heroin: "Ok, I find this video fucking hilarious.

I'm trying to figure out if it's because I have a visceral dislike of the Reagans, or whether the editing is utterly brilliant.

"

(Via Geekable.com.)

interesting

Walt Disney bio pulls no punches, leaves Walt intact anyway: "Cory Doctorow:


I've just finished Neal Gabler's stupendous biography, 'Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination.' I have a funny relationship to Disney -- the man and the company -- I am a gigantic fan of the themeparks, but I'm entirely indifferent to the characters, the animation, the live films, and I have nothing but antipathy for the political meddling in the copyright system. But if you're a fan of the Disney parks, it's inevitable that you end up spending some time thinking about Disney the man.

Gabler was the first biographer ever to gain full access to the Disney archives, and his research really makes the book hum. Working from logs and diaries, Gabler carefully paints a picture of the daily life of Walt Disney throughout his career, from the times he went broke to his many successes, his mental breakdowns and his obsessions.

Gabler's Disney is a complicated man. In some respects, he's a savant, possibly a genius, possessed of the visionary talent of identifying opportunities that no one had ever seen before (incredibly, Walt's biggest contribution to animation per Gabler is deciding that cartoons would be better with characterization and storylines -- pretty obvious in hindsight!). On the other hand, Gabler paints a picture of Disney as a naif, someone who accidentally throws his lot in with a pack of paleoconservative anti-Semites without realizing it; someone who botches labor disputes so badly that the resulting rifts never heal, someone who is stupendously clueless about business and money.

Gabler isn't exactly flattering to Disney, but he does honor the man. In Gabler's history, Disney's personality changes from moment to moment. When he is engaged and passionate about his work, Disney is a delight, someone who inspires his people to do more than they ever thought possible, who sweeps those around him along on his dream.

But when Disney loses interest -- something that happens at the drop of a hat -- look out. He becomes cantankerous, abusive, meanspirited and even vicious. The Walt Disney Story is a story of passions found and abandoned, deep infatuations that come and go without rhyme or reason.

Gabler pulls no punches -- for example, he is unflinching in exposing Disney's naive, reactionary politics, his phobia of communism, his collusion with Joe McCarthy and his testimony against his own employees to the House Un-American Activities Committee. At the same time, Gabler takes great pains to find a sympathetic backstory for this, to contextualize it in the frame of Disney's life as a man who pays little attention to the things that don't interest him, and brings a laser focus to those things that do.

Though I don't care much for animation, particularly Disney animation, the chapters on the early history of the medium are fascinating, especially for anyone who's lived through the rapid maturation of the Internet's many art-forms. I wish that Gabler had taken the same care and detail in describing the evolution of Disneyland. After all, many have outdone Disney in the cartoon department, but no one has come close to matching the theme-parks.

The final chapter of the book is perhaps the most interesting. That's where we find Walt on the verge of his terminal lung-cancer diagnosis, planning his magnum opus, EPCOT, the Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow, a planned town built on the same grandiose scale as the rest of Disney's projects. This was Walt at his weirdest and most American, full of ambition, eager to remake the world to suit his tastes and values. Alas, it is all too short -- as with all the theme-park material.

Having read Gabler, I don't think I'll ever be able to visit Disneyland in the same way again. Like all great books, 'Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination' changed the way I see the world.

Link

Update: A reader writes, 'Michael Barrier, the elder statesman of animation history and commentary, and arguably one with much more access than Gabler ever was given, is keeping a list of problems with Gabler's Disney tome, including page numbers and notes from his own personal interviews and visits to the archives over the past years.'

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

I thought so

Box office numbers decoupled from piracy: "Cory Doctorow:
Variety has an in-depth look at last year's amazing box-office numbers from the MPAA. The thing that struck me is that the box numbers went way, way up and that those gains were driven by box-office returns in Brazil, China and India (where there is more 'piracy' than ever), and my a return to the cinema in North America (where there is more 'piracy' than ever). Even more: people with great home theaters are also more likely to go the cinema (duh -- if you're a 60' screen videophile, you're almost certainly a theatrical release junkie) and that young men (the world's most prolific downloaders) are also the most likely to go to the movies.

Seems to me that downloading and box-office slumps are unrelated phenomena. In other words, the recent bad box-office years have been driven by crummy movies, not piracy.

Link

(Thanks, Butch!)

Update:

Stephen sez, 'Back in November 2006 when the preliminary numbers came out, I wrote about the sales increase and some of the MPAAs anti-piracy propaganda, in which they determine that they lost $18.2 billion due to piracy in 2005.

Fully 200% of their box office total *on a growth year*.

How did they arrive at this number? They say only this:

'Piracy loss calculations are based on the number of legitimate movies - movie tickets and legitimate DVDs - consumers would have purchased if pirated versions were not available.'

Very scientific!'

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

ugly on a stick, uhh 4 sticks

iGo desk might be too much of a good thing: "

Apple's computers look really great and classy on a normal desk, standing out from the wood surface with their clean lines and futuristic designs. However, when you try to make a desk that 'compliments' Apple's designs, you often end up with ugly overkill. Case in point: these iGo desks.

Seriously, what kind of apartment or house would you have to live in to have these blend in with the décor? I can appreciate that they're kind of 'cool' looking, but as functional pieces of furniture they're kind of eyesores. I'll stick to my boring wood desk, thanks. — Adam Frucci

iGo Desk, via Born Rich

"

(Via SCI FI Tech Blog.)

the lying liars

Wikipedia trumps all MSM coverage of Libby verdict: "Xeni Jardin:

Link, since defaced and corrected many times. Spotted here on Wonkette. 'Irve' was found guilty today of 4 out of 5 charges. Earlier posts on the trial in Wonkette's archives here, and a straightfaced account here in the New York Times.

UPDATE: Fox News had a different take on the verdict (thanks, Webbie).

Reader comments: Steve Glista says,

Just saw the Libby conviction wiki post. I think your readers should
know that a lot of the credit for blogging this story should go to
Marcy Wheeler, Jane Hamsher and Christy Hardin Smith at firedoglake.

They've been KILLING the libby story, right
from the start, even before any charges were filed. You linked to
Wonkette, but the FDL bloggers have done all of the legwork on this
case. And Marcy (emptywheel) has a book out that discusses all the
details: Link.

Kris

Just a note on your screen-grab from Fox News about Scooter: he was technically found not guilty of lying to the FBI. He was, however, found guilty of everything else. Fox's one-liner isn't technically incorrect, but you'd have to say it's not exactly the key message of the verdict...

Steve says,

In response to Fox's take on the Libby verdict, they most certainly did technically get it 100% wrong. From the Wiki article (as per the NYT article):

'The jury rendered its verdict on March 6, 2007. It convicted Libby on four of the five counts against him—two counts of perjury, one count of obstructing justice in a grand jury investigation, and one of the two counts of making false statements to federal investigators—and acquitted him on one count of making false statements.'

No doubt Faux News was attempting to do just as Kris suggests and only report the specific spin that they cared to. Obviously they can't even do that right...

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

ouch bad phone

Savage, funny mobile phone review: "Cory Doctorow:
Charlie Brooker, writing in the Guardian, reviews his phone under the headline, 'My new mobile is lumbered with a bewildering array of unnecessary features aimed at idiots.' It gets even better from there.

This may be the best mobile phone review ever written.

It is lumbered with a bewildering array of unnecessary 'features' aimed at idiots, including a mode that scans each text message and turns some of the words into tiny ani- mations, so if someone texts to say they have just run over your child in their car, the word 'car' is replaced by a wacky cartoon vehicle putt-putting onto the screen. There is also a crap built-in game in which you play a rabbit ('Step into the role of Bobby Carrot - the new star of cute, mind-cracking carrot action!').

When you dial a number, you have a choice of seeing said number in a gigantic, ghastly typeface, or watching it moronically scribbled on parchment by an animated quill. I can't find an option to see it in small, uniform numbers. The whole thing is the visual equivalent of a moronic clip-art jumble sale poster designed in the dark by a myopic divorcee experiencing a freak biorhythmic high. Worst of all, it seems to have an unmarked omnipresent shortcut to Orange's internet service, which means that whether you are confused by the menu, or the typeface, or the user- confounding buttons, you are never more than one click away from accidentally plunging into an overpriced galaxy of idiocy, which, rather than politely restricting itself to news headlines and train timetables, thunders 'BUFF OR ROUGH? GET VOTING!' and starts hurling cameraphone snaps of 'babes and hunks' in their underwear at you, presumably because some pin-brained coven of marketing gonks discovered the average Orange internet user was teenage and incredibly stupid, so they set about mercilessly tailoring all their 'content' toward priapic halfwits, thereby assuring no one outside this slim demographic will ever use their gaudy, insulting service ever again. And then they probably reached across the table and high-fived each other for skilfully delivering 'targeted content' or something, even though what they should really have done, if there was any justice in the world, is smash the desk to pieces, select the longest wooden splinters they could find, then drive them firmly into their imbecilic, atrophied, world-wrecking rodent brains.

Link


(via Beyond the Beyond)

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

George W. Bush: "'I believe that freedom is the deepest need of every human soul.'

"

(Via Motivational Quotes of the Day.)

go mac users

22 Million Mac OS X Users: "We often wonder how many of us there are. While Apple produces numbers on a regular basis of the number of active Mac OS X users, it's been harder to pin the tail to the total userbase donkey. Bank of America Securities, however, thinks is has that number: 22 million Mac OS X users of all versions of the operating system. It's highly likely that there are uncounted millions of Mac OS 9 and earlier users, too.

AppleInsider reported today on some financial projects by the security firm, but I'm p..."

(Via TidBITS.)

I don't get steampunk

Steampunk magazine: "Cory Doctorow:
Steampunk Magazine is a new $3 print/free PDF zine celebrating the steampunk aesthetic with fiction, art and articles. The premier issue is truly a thing of beauty with fiction by Michael Moorcock, a HOWTO for 'electrolytic etching,' and some very tasty use of recycled, gloomy Victorian woodcuts. Bravo!

Before the age of homogenization and micro-machinery, before the tyrannous efficiency of internal combustion and the domestication of electricity, lived beautiful, monstrous machines that lived and breathed and exploded unexpectedly at inconvenient moments. It was a time where art and craft were united, where unique wonders were invented and forgotten, and punks roamed the streets, living in squats and fighting against despotic governance through wit, will and wile.

Even if we had to make it all up.

Link

(via Warren Ellis)

See also:

Steampunk Star Wars

Steampunk watch

Beautiful steampunk laptop

HOWTO make a steampunk keyboard

HOWTO make etched brass steampunk journals

HOWTO make a steampunk spinning-wheel

Steampunk walking robot

Steampunk cartoon from SciFi channel: Amazing Screw-On Head

Homebrew mechanical steampunk lion from Belgium

Steampunk robotics

Steampunk weekly serial - handsome editions

Steampunk rayguns

Steampunk Transformer-bots

Ukrainian steampunk plane

Steampunk casemod with a 'furnace'

Steampunk submarine free paper toy

Steampunk/dead media photoshopping contest

Brighton's steampunk rolling sea-platform

Steampunk Slashdot

Steampunk mecha-wars

Steampunk car-wars

New York's steampunk pneumatic subway

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

for shame

Best Buy admits to keeping fake rip-off site: "Cory Doctorow:
Best Buy has admitted to maintaining a fake version of its website for internal use at its stores. This is part of a scam where Best Buy lists cheap prices online and invites customers to come to the store to take advantage of them. When the customer gets there, a dirtbag salesman loads up the fake website and shows them that the price has 'gone up' while the customer was driving over to the store and offers to sell the item for the new price.

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal ordered the investigation into Best Buy's practices on Feb. 9 after my column disclosed the website and showed how employees at two Connecticut stores used it to deny customers a $150 discount on a computer advertised on BestBuy.com.

Blumenthal said Wednesday that Best Buy has also confirmed to his office the existence of the intranet site, but has so far failed to give clear answers about its purpose and use.

Link

(via /.)

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

heh heh

Finding Nemo at the sushi bar: "Cory Doctorow:



I'm 99.99% sure that this Finding Nemo sushi is a fake, but oh, man, if Disney had the guts to actually release this as a product, wouldn't that be the best thing ever?

Link

(via Neatorama)

Update:
Regina sez, 'The Nemo was actually done up as a campaign in New Zealand...I so want one!'

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

I just love Apple statistics

Analyst: Mac Sales Grew Over 100% In January: "According to Pacific Crest Securities (reported by AppleInsider), Mac sales grew over 100% year over year during the month of January.



The firm based its numbers on recent NPD data which had implied that 'year-over-year growth..."

(Via MacRumors.)

and I believe it

Market share gains: "Check this out. New study says we've got 6.38% market share. That's up 2 points in the past six months. Watch out, Gateway! And take that, SEC and US Attorney's office! Better yet, says here that 9,000 people a day switch from Windows to Mac. Nice."

(Via The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs.)

oh oh again

Microsoft Vista, IE7 Banned By U.S. DOT: "An anonymous reader writes 'According to a memo being reported on by Information week, the US Department of Transportation has issued a moratorium on upgrading Microsoft products. Concerns over costs and compatability issues has lead the federal agency to prevent upgrades from XP to Vista, as well as to stop users from moving to IE 7 and Office 2007. As the article says,'In a memo to his staff, DOT chief information officer Daniel Mintz says he has placed 'an indefinite moratorium' on the upgrades as 'there appears to be no compelling technical or business case for upgrading to these new Microsoft software products. Furthermore, there appears to be specific reasons not to upgrade.'''

"

(Via Slashdot.)

oh oh

Is Vista a Trap?: "logube writes 'BBC has up an article about the trap of installing Vista in your existing desktop. Written by Tim Weber, a self-confessed 'sucker for technology', this article is a good introduction to the pain and extra money required to get going with the newest version of Windows. See how you can spend an extra 130 british pounds, and still have no working webcam! Says Weber, 'It took me one day to get online. The detail is tedious and highly technical: reinstalling drivers and router firmware didn't work, but after many trial and error tweaks to Vista's TCP/IP settings, I had internet access. Once online, Creative's website told me that my sound card was a write-off. No Vista support would be forthcoming.''

"

(Via Slashdot.)

i like it

Steampunk Star Wars: "Cory Doctorow:
Bonnie sez, 'Artist Eric Poulton mixes the retro factor of Star Wars characters with the coolness of steampunk to make some truly unique art.'

More machine than man, Vader is the Empire's most decorated General and a very powerful practitioner of the Force's dark arts. He is obsessed with communicating with the spirits of the dead, spending every sleepless night trying in vain to contact his lost love. Twisted and broken in body and mind, Vader is driven with sadistic passion.

Link

(Thanks, Bonnie!)

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

words fail me - hee haw

Lonely man in latex with donkey in hotel room arrested (hoax?): "Mark Frauenfelder:
Check into a hotel wearing latex and handcuffs with a donkey in Ireland, get arrested.

A man who was found dressed in latex and handcuffs brought a donkey to his room in a Galway city centre hotel, because he was advised ‘to get out and meet people,’ the local court heard last week.

Thomas Aloysius McCarney with an address in south Galway was charged with cruelty to animals, lewd and obscene behaviour, and with being a danger to himself when he appeared before the court on Friday. He was also charged with damage to a mini-bar in the room, but this charge was later dropped when the defendant said that it was the donkey who caused that damage.

Link

Update: Many a kind reader has written to inform me that this is a hoax.

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Dear CSPAN: you're not Disney, Congress isn't Mickey: "Cory Doctorow:
Carl sez, 'Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi posted a minute of video
of herself testifying on her blog. C-SPAN sent her a take
down notice and she caved in complied. The Speaker should have stuck
to her guns and told C-SPAN to fuck off that she was asserting
her fair use rights to that material. C-SPAN told the New York Times that they were simply protecting
their copyright 'like CNN.' But, C-SPAN is not like CNN or
Disney. In this open letter to C-SPAN's CEO, I submit my
purchase order for 6,251 congressional hearings and assert my fair
use rights.

If C-SPAN were Disney, I might understand (though I would not sympathize with) a desire to milk an asset for every penny allowable by law. But, C-SPAN is not Disney and you should not treat the U.S. Congress like Disney would treat Mickey Mouse.

C-SPAN is a publicly-supported charity. Your only shareholders are the American public. Your donors received considerable tax relief in making donations to you. You and your staff were well paid for your excellent work. Congressional hearings are of strikingly important public value, and aggressive moves to prevent any fair use of the material is double-dipping on your part. For C-SPAN and for the American public record, the right thing to do is to release all of that material back into the public domain where it belongs.

Link

See also: Ripping (off) the Congressional video record

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

heh heh - just wait till Leopard if you want WOW

Dim Vista - Forbes.com: ""

(Via .)