The "Get A Job Sir!!!" News Item of the Day

Okay, so this guy does have a job, and a good one at that. He's a professor at NYU. I only mock him because he's planning to use the resources provided to him to surgically implant a camera in the back of his head that will take a photo every minute for a year.

A little more from CNN:

What will museum visitors see? Well, that depends on Bilal's travels, which is where the controversy comes in. Questions have been raised as to whether he will have the camera on while he teaches at NYU and whether students' privacy may be invaded. NYU is looking into the issue.

Read the full piece here.

Thanks to Steve "Big Katt" Geller for sending this over

They're pitching boxed water now

Not joking here. One company argues that buying your water by the box is better for the environment than the plastic bottle and they've created a product to support that. While the box of water does, in fact, have a smaller impact on the environment than the plastic bottle, it still has an impact and a MUCH greater impact than delicious tap water.

Dear everyone, please stop f'ing around, go buy a reusable water bottle and even if you need to get a water filter or something like that, drink from your tap.

Anyway, here's a photo of the product below.

Worst name for a corporate initiative?

From Barnes and Noble, this allows authors to self-publish in eBook format. They really missed with the name.



My favorite quote today relating to this:

"So, everyone's good with this name for our new initiative? No one sees anything wrong with it? OK, then!"

- Tim Carvell

Circling Back With Double Rainbow Guy

TCD has covered - award winningly - the Double Rainbow guy in the past. Now this beardo is prolonging his 15 unintentional minutes with the intentional launch of his own iPhone app. It's $.99 and does the following: (From Mashable.com)

The Double Rainbow guy has an iPhone app now. It’s not exactly groundbreaking, and it will get old very quickly, but hey, it’s only 99 cents.

When you load the app [iTunes link], you’re greeted with a colorful message that simply says, “FULL ON.” The next screen is the only screen in the app: It’s just like the default camera app for the iPhone, but it puts a transparent double rainbow “all the way across the sky” in every image.

Purely judging by appearance, I'm assuming he did NOT develop this himself which means that someone out there is jointly cashing in. This raises the question: What's been the most profitable acid trip in American history? HST in Las Vegas? (or course that wasn't only acid). Everything Ken Kesey did?

Fundies: Underwear built for two

This product is absolutely for real. In fact, here's the link to purchase the on Amazon



The marketing copy disappoints unfortunately:

* Just when you thought underwear couldnt get any more fun weve come up with Fundies
* What are Fundies you ask? Theyre underwear built for two!
* That means twice the fun just how will you put them on?

The 87 Worst Predictions of All Time

You might disagree with some of these, but I've included a couple of highlights that I really like below. (full list here).

"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."
- Irving Fisher, economics professor at Yale University, 1929

"And for the tourist who really wants to get away from it all, safaris in Vietnam"
- Newsweek, predicting popular holidays for the late 1960s.

"Four or five frigates will do the business without any military force."
– British prime minister Lord North, on dealing with the rebellious American colonies, 1774. (HAHA! Suck it! AMERICA!!!)

Okay whackos...take it easy

In preparation for potential upcoming nuclear fallout, one dude is beginning to develop long-term underground dwellings. $50k gets you access, half price for kids. Basically, you can watch TV (if you still get TV channels - may be better to count on DVDs) and surf the net (if it still exists). All the while, the people above ground are developing zombie-like traits and and learning to thirst for human blood (if Hollywood has taught me anything).

Anyway, here's the creepiest marketing video you've ever seen. Enjoy eternity with the other weirdos.

From TIME Magazine: The 50 Worst Inventions of All Time

This is great stuff. Check the full list here, but a couple of highlights below.

The Baby Cage



In the 1930s, London nannies lacking space for their young ones resorted to the baby cage. It's exactly what it sounds like: a creepy wire contraption, patented in the U.S. in 1922, that lets you claim that space outside your city window for your infant.

New Coke



The "newer, sweeter" version, introduced April 23, 1985, succeeded in blind taste tests but flopped in the real world. Phone calls, letters and rants from Coke die-hards flooded in, and just three months after its debut, New Coke was removed, and the word Classic was added to all Coke cans and bottles

*Two conspicuous absences here: Crystal Pepsi (although nice use of Van Halen in the marketing) and neo-cons.

You can buy this for $24.99..if you actually want it

Go for it here.

Airline Rant

My full first name is "Samuel". Samuel is on the list of pretentious names. Sure, it's exponentially less pretentious than Augustus or Maximilian, or Alexander, but my point is that I go by "Sam" instead.

Sadly, I have a government issued ID that gives my full first name. And somehow the TSA thinks that terrorists would be dumb enough to go by "Sam" on their boarding pass, and "Samuel" on their ID. What the hell would that accomplish?

Well the TSA, in conjunction with the airlines, have accomplished wasting absurd amounts of my time.

To update my frequent flier profile with Delta, at least changing my name, I have to fax them a signed authorization. No joke. What happens to all the poor women in Delta's Frequent flier program who get married and decide to change their name? Every time they're expected to send a fax. Get the f*ck out of here Delta!

US air wouldn't change my name over the phone, or online. I have to do it at the airport. Thanks, because what I need is more stuff to do at what is surely the most depressing public space in any city.

It's simple: The US airlines, Jet Blue, Virgin America and Southwest aside don't deserve to be in business. (Please suggest others that don't deserve to die in the comments)

American

United

Continental

Delta

US Air

There is no good reason that any of them should be operating as independent companies anymore.

There is just one bad reason. Foreign companies can't own more than 25% of voting shares in US airlines. In practice, this protects US airlines from competition. They can provide shitty service and get away with it.

I'll point out that they are also further protected from competition by the US's lack of anything approaching high-speed rail. Think about how stupid it is that there are something like 40 188 flights between Boston and NYC (94!?! each way are you kidding me? And 122 each way between NYC and DC. Insanity). I never fly between these two cities, taking the train every time, - occasionally the bus if I'm skint. But the train is slow as shit. The train would be fast enough to travel 200 miles in less than two hours if it ran in the following countries:

France

Germany

Spain

Italy

Holland

Austria

Japan

South Korea

China

If Amtrak was fast enough to make the Boston - NYC trip in less than 2 hours, then I will guarantee that there would be no more than 10 flights a day between Boston and NYC, similar math for NYC - DC. Beautiful, open skies, ready to accept flights to other cities.

Oh and the NYC airports are the most congested in the country and commonly lock up half of the country's air traffic system.

You can go even further and say that we give additional lift to short-haul routes because we haven't adopted autobahn speed limits. If I could drive the 140 miles from Ft. Myers to Miami in 1.5 hours instead of 3, I surely wouldn't have suffered the propeller plane that flies that route.

America is a big country, and we should fly to many parts of it. But all that necessary flying would be much more pleasant if we killed the crappy airlines, and cut out the unnecessary flying.

And we only need to do two things to bring flying nirvana to the US of A, one free and simple, the other expensive and hard but worth it:

1. End the ban on foreign airlines owning US carriers.

2. Build a real high-speed rail system, starting with Boston - D.C. and San Diego to Sacramento, followed by a Texas line, a Florida line, a Chicago circuit, and several other obvious corridors.

Swiss ski maker teams up with Bentley for a branded ski...ah, ok

I won't lie, I think this is a stupid idea.

http://www.zaiforbentley.com/#/en/bentley-ski/data-sheet/