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Holiday Shmoliday: Perfect Summation

Giania — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 01:56:59 +0000

Hot:

Simple links that summarize my feelings for this particular pseudo holiday that inspires more jealousy, depression, and ill-will than possibly even Christmas!

Wordlab – $122.98 Says I Love You In which the spending habits of the besotted and pussywhipped are discussed.
Ectomo – Lupercalia: Happy Fucking Valentine’s Day In which the dubious history of the holiday’s Christian/pagan associations is discussed.
The Sherman Foundation – New Word Order: Honey Trapper In which the definition of a newer phrase says a lot about modern relationships.

Enjoy tomorrow’s discount candy!

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Screw You Comcast

Giania — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 08:44:38 +0000

Hot:

Did it ever occur to you that I might work from home?

I’m cancelling the minute I find a viable alternative. In the meantime? I’ll be checking this out.

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Prince Loses Points: DMCA Nonsense

Giania — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:23:33 +0000

Hot:

I came across an article in The Register a little while ago about one mom’s fight to keep a 29 second video clip of her son dancing to Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” up on YouTube.

In summary: The PA resident, Stephanie Lenz, had placed a 29 second clip of her dancing baby boy up on YouTube in order to share with family and friends. Universal (Prince’s label) contacted YouTube purportedly at the artist’s behest, citing the DMCA

Momma contacted the EFF and also filed a suit against the record label, Universal Music Group, to get the clip put back up as well as damages.

Current the clip is back up on YouTube, but as of the Register’s October 30th article, the lawsuit is still underway.

Without further ado, the “objectionable” clip.

I’d love to hear people’s thoughts on this. I personally feel like the artist and recording company have lost face with this action, and that the more public this becomes, the worse it will look for the two of them. The mother has nothing to lose but time, and possibly some serious lawyer’s fees. In my mind this is not a landmark case in terms of establishing laws, but in enforcing them. And of course the neverending “Corporate vs. Consumer” idea that pervades the culture these days.

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So, I heard you like Mudkips…

Giania — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 16:25:22 +0000

Hot:

Perhaps so much that you wish you were one?
Deck out your hellspawn in Mudkips this year for halloween, via BuyCostumes.com. Note the maniacal expression on the model’s face. Clearly, he loves him some Mudkips.

Tip off courtesy of loyal reader from the ormgas IRC: efiloN! :D

Editor’s note: you may have come here because you noticed a small notice at the bottom of the “wizard has turned you into a mudkips” picture. I want to go on record as saying I did NOT create that image. However, a lot of people were hotlinking to the copy of it posted above. Rather than shut down hotlinking altogether, I have opted to let people know where the image they are hotlinking to is being hosted. I’m glad you stopped by. :) Please feel free to peruse the rest of the site and comment.

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Carbon Footprint Labels on Food Seems Like a Waste of Ink

Giania — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 17:14:08 +0000

Hot:

Via The Underwire:
UK Food retailer Tesco is going to spend $10 million on testing of foods at Oxford University in order to develop a carbon labeling system, letting their customers know exactly what kind of “carbon footprint” their cereal and steaks leave on the environment.

It seems to me that putting “Carbon Footprint” labels on foods is just another waste of energy. It would require more paper, more ink, more physical printing (which adds to the carbon footprint!), and would require a lot of changes to current labels. Not to mention the inherent consumer education issues. It is very popular to be passionate about the environment, especially the Global Warming issue and humanity’s role in it. However, does that mean that a lot of day-to-day consumers are going to understand these labels if and when they are implemented? Not likely.

How many people read and understand current labels? Do you know what Riboflavin is? How many diabetics use the exchange list information accurately?

Incidentally, for a quick reference on all the food you eat, I recommend NutritionData.com. They break things down much more in depth than the food labels can. (Incidentally, I bet the carbon footprint of running their servers for ANYONE to access this information is much smaller than the printing, applying, and shipping of all the individual labels, not to mention all the other work needed to get said labels to the consumers!) Take one of my favorite foods: Liverwurst (hush, it’s not gross!). Nutritiondata tells me how filling it is versus how nutritious it is. It will tell me exactly what vitamins and minerals are in the average serving. I can search for substitutions for liverwurst based on my needs, like weight loss, optimum health or weight gain. Granted, not all the data options are FDA approved, but the FDA also allows a certain amount of wasps’ heads in your fig newtons, too. Go ahead, scroll down and read it, I’ll wait. Yeah, don’t read the rest of that.

Still I think the poster that Underwire writer Sonia Zjawinski cited, from the NY Farm Bureau, really does sum things up the best.
Reposted here for your convenience: