21 Mar 2009
Toilet arsonist reward not to be sniffed at

Sometimes I have to blog based solely on a headline ...

A US firm is offering a major reward as they hunt an arsonist who has attacked a host of portable toilets across San Francisco

(link) [BBC News]

14:04 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link

Ballmer Scorns Apple As a $500 Logo

Hey Steve - you know what that logo means to folks? It says "This Works!" I think it's pretty much a no brainer to buy something like that, as opposed to buying something that says, "Hey! This might work!" I don't think it's as much of a challenge for people as you believe. And more importantly, neither do Apple's sales statistics.

Speaking at a conference in NYC, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer did his best to refan the flames of the Mac vs. PC rivalry: "Now I think the tide has really turned back the other direction [against Apple]," Ballmer said. "The economy is helpful. Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment — same piece of hardware — paying $500 more to get a logo on it? I think that's a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be."

(link) [Slashdot]

14:01 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Enemies of What State?

Kevin Carson of the Mutualist Blog has a fine essay posted the Center for a Stateless Society:

There are all too many people in American politics whose real concern, concealed behind all the “free market” rhetoric, is not so much “statism” per se as statism that benefits the wrong class of people. A good example: it was quite amusing to hear some Republicans, during yesterday’s Congressional hearings on the AIG bonuses, wringing their hands over the prospect of “interfering with the management of private business” and “altering the terms of contracts.” Last night Rachel Maddow ran clips of some of the very same people, last December, crowing about how they were forcing the UAW to renegotiate it’s contract and accept lower wages in return for bailout loans to the auto industry.

Spot on, Kevin! It's these kinds of imbeciles and charlatans that make me cringe when identifying my political proclivities as "libertarian"... 'cause they'd say the same thing, and they wouldn't know Liberty if she ran over them with a dump truck.

10:08 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Fossil fragments reveal 500-million-year-old monster predator

This fellow's been all over the science news of late: check out the reconstruction of what he looked like at The Globe and Mail. And even better version of the same artists work can be found at Fox News - under the amusing headline Giant Bug Terrorized Ancient Seas. Leave it to Fox!

Hurdia victoria was originally described in 1912 as a crustacean-like animal. Now, researchers from Uppsala University and colleagues reveal it to be just one part of a complex and remarkable new animal that has an important story to tell about the origin of the largest group of living animals, the arthropods. The findings are being published in this week's issue of Science.

(link) [EurekAlert!]

09:53 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link