OBEY

Charles Darwin has a posse -- free bookmarks and stickers.

Darwin Day was February 12th, but the fight for good science goes on.

Win 3 Free Songs on iTunes

Colgate® Max Fresh™ is having a daily conetst. Check it out and maybe you can win (I didn't)!

Disneyland's 50th



Just back from our SoCal trip - Getty, Disneyland, King Tut!

Doesn't Sleeping Beauty's castle look nice with 5 crowns on the spires?

Bargain Hunter

Guess this site has been around for a while but it was new to me:

www.cairo.com

Search ad flyers by ZIP code!

Another UnPerson For Room 101

Even as Republican senators called for the rights of foreign terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay prison to be legally defined, the increasingly Orwellian Bush administration said the inmates could be jailed "in perpetuity."

The prison camp opened on the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in January 2002 in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and currently is believed to be holding roughly 520 inmates. Many of the detainees have been held for more than three years, and thus far only four have been charged.

More over at Yahoo!News.

Savage Chickens

Interested in some seriously funny single panel cartoons that prove that the best work done in an office is never about the work at hand?

Get yourself to Savage Chickens: Chicken Cartoons by Doug Savage (Sample: "I have an irrational fear of plaid" "You oughta keep that in check".

Sony to iPod Users: Drop Dead

Today's Mercury News reports that the Music industry in an attempt to stamp out what they call, "casual piracy" they will now copy-protect EVERY CD sold in the United States.

"Sony BMG Music Entertainment plans to copy-protect all music CDs sold in the United States by the end of the year. Another major label, EMI will introduce copy-protected CDs in its two largest markets - the US and the United Kingdom - in the coming weeks.

The copy protection raises an even bigger problem for the millions of people who own Apple's iPod digital music player and use its iTunes software to organize their music and create custom CDs. Apple has refused to license its FairPlay rights-management software -- even to the labels. That means certain copy-protected CDs won't work with iTunes or the iPod without employing time-consuming work-arounds.

"They do not play on iPods simply because Apple has this proprietary approach,'' said Hesse of Sony BMG's copy-protected CDs. "We would be willing and able to put'' FairPlay "on CDs in an instant if Steve Jobs would flick the switch and allow us to do that.''

Apple refused to comment. However, well-placed sources within the music industry said the computer maker is still in active discussions with the labels to find a solution.

According to an accompanying article, to get the songs onto your iPod, Windows users will have to employ familiar work-arounds to move music off a copy-protected CD and onto the device. For EMI's releases, that involves burning individual tracks onto a CD and importing them one by one into the iTunes music software. For Sony's tracks, that means burning the songs to a CD and then importing them into the iTunes music management application.

The article does not say what Mac users can do to get the music they have paid for onto a portable device.

Fair and Balanced

MoveOn and the saving of PBS and NPR:

Sign the petition to Congress opposing these massive cuts to public broadcasting. Tell your senators and representative:

"Congress must save NPR, PBS and local public stations. We trust them for in-depth news and educational children's programming. It's money well spent."

The House is threatening to eliminate all public funding for NPR and PBS, starting with "Sesame Street," "Reading Rainbow" and other commercial-free children's shows.

Cringely Postulates Apple+Intel Merger

Apple's Decision to Use Intel Processors Is Nothing Less Than an Attempt to Dethrone Microsoft. Really.

I think he's nuts, but an interesting read.

On the Subject of Pictures Inside Casinos

Check out this 6 page gallery devoted to casino carpeting.

Biggest Little City

Back from Reno, NV for a quick birthday trip via The California Zephyr.

I think this:

was my favourite slot machine of the whole trip.

Click here for pictures of this 'in the wild.'

How to Save Apple Until 2007

With Apple switching to Intel chips I am betting that most people are going to hold off on buying new hardware unless it's at a steep discount. While Apple does have the iPod to help with cash coming in here is my Million Dollar Idea, free.

First, a little background: I am sure you have all seen the shot-glasses, pins and shirts that the Hard Rock Cafe sells and many of you have noticed the Starbucks Bearistas and city-specific mugs available in many of their cafes, right? Even if you don't have any yourself I am willing to bet that you know someone who has at least one if not a whole collection of them.

Well, can you think of a brand name that has equally fanatical followers? A computer company that has been rapidly opening stores in majour shopping malls and tourist destinations? Stores that have people lining up days before they open just to get a limited edition t-shirt? If you said Apple you would be correct - so why not leverage those fans and start selling shirts, pins, etc. No sense in letting eBay and Redlightrunner make all the money.

I have been to Apple stores all across the US and bought software once and brought in and picked up an ailing G5 but for the most part I have stopped in to play with a camera, check out new hardware or check my eMail without having to pay for internet access. The G5 was repaired under warranty and obviously checking mail generated no dollars to Apple's bottom line. Meantime, on my last trip I have bought another Starbucks City mug (we are up to four now) and a Hard Rock pin (getting to be too many to count), neither of which we needed nor really have space for but for <$20, figured "why not?"

So what's stopping Apple from tapping this same collectors market? Can't be the profit margin - how much are they making per iTunes track? Pennies? The mark-up on a t-shirt or pin has got to be more than that....

Power Mac G3 1998

Power Mac G3 1998, originally uploaded by Kernel Panic.

From a collection of Apple homepages over the years.

One of the more ironic now as things turn out.

Apple on Intel

Wow. Didn't think even with all the C|Net reports being blogged and reblogged that it would be true and really didn't think OS X on x86.

Certainly puts a damper on buying that new G5 'round these parts, knowing that IBM chips inside have more or less 'been made redundant.'

In related news, BoingBoing mentions the same thought I had over the week-end, why did Apple sue the blogging kid from Harvard but not C|Net??

Design for Dreaming (1956)

The classic industrial film from General Motors "Design for Dreaming" is now available (free) from The Preliger Archives.

You may remember this film as Mystery Science Theatre's short before "12 To The Moon."

Dark Side of the Garden


Threadless has this fab new shirt, "Dark side of the Garden", by Glenn Jones" for only $10!

Hurry!

Film Sound Cliches

Some good ones including:

*Dolphins always make that same "dolphin chatter"
sound when spinning, jumping, etc

*Snakes are always rattling

*Bombs always have big, blinking, beeping timer
displays

*Every helicopter shutting down emits the
chirp-chirp-chirp sound of the rubber drive belts
disengaging, in spite of the fact that only the famous
Bell 47G (the M*A*S*H chopper) actually makes this
sound

*The first spoken words in a microphone must be either
'Testing, Testing' or 'One Two,One Two'

the Freaky Universe of McDonald's Advertising

Check out these commercials from McDonald's past....

[btw: this is an eMail test post]
edited to correct URL

Airport Express Does It All

Airport Express does it all, originally uploaded by fscklog.

"...loading the iPod shuffle, warming my tea. convenient."

UK TrafficCam+GoogleMaps Mashup

I could spend all day looking at these cameras.

Every time I have been to London I have traveled almost exclusively via Tube - now you can see how those that travel above ground must face.

Do Not Pass GO, Do Not Collect $200

When asked to comment about Amnesty International’s report during a White House Briefing President Bush said: "I'm aware of the Amnesty International report, and it's absurd. (…) The United States is a country that promotes freedom around the world. When there's accusations made about certain actions by our people, they're fully investigated in a transparent way."

Read the Amnesty International report and find out what our government is doing in our name and how this damages what is left of our international reputation.