Just-Stam

Mind the Gap, Crazy American

2007-11-26T18:04:00.000-06:00

Tube announcer fired over spoof messages
Reuters

LONDON - An official announcer for London's Tube system has been sacked after making spoof messages mocking American tourists, peeping Toms and sweaty commuters.

Voiceover artist Emma Clarke, 36, recorded the announcements in the same smooth tones that have warned millions of passengers to "Mind The Gap" and posted them on her Web site.

The messages include:

* "We would like to remind our American tourist friends that you are almost certainly talking too loudly."

* "Would the passenger in the red shirt pretending to read the paper but who is actually staring at that woman's chest please stop. You are not fooling anyone, you filthy pervert."

* "Would passengers filling in answers on their Sudokus please accept that they are just crosswords for the unimaginative and are not in any way more impressive just because they contain numbers."

* "Here we are crammed again into a sweaty Tube carriage ... If you're female smile at the bloke next to you and make his day. He's probably not had sex for months."

Clarke said it was "just a bit of a laugh." But Tube operator Transport for London (TfL) failed to see the funny side and dropped her, after eight years.

"London Underground is sorry to have to announce that further contracts for Miss Clarke are experiencing severe delays," a TfL spokesman told the Evening Standard on Monday.

All the recordings are at: www.emmaclarke.com/fun/mind-the-gap/spoof-london-underground-announcements

Israelis do it again

2007-09-07T17:13:00.000-05:00

Very cool image resizing technology demonstration. Very simple but very clever.

From Pogue's Posts

Great Names

2007-09-06T10:59:00.000-05:00

The winners of Freakonomics' Aptonym Contest have been announced. (An aptonym is a name that also describes what ones does). Paige Worthy, a magazine fact-checker, was the inspiration for the contest.
Continue reading...

Wild

2007-08-09T00:01:00.000-05:00

Amazing video of the wild
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM

h/t nf

Catch it while you can

2007-07-26T12:37:00.000-05:00

Obesity is 'contagious,' study finds

Obesity can spread among a group of friends like a contagious disease, moving from one person to another in an epidemic of fat.

That's the finding of a novel study released Wednesday that reported that having close friends who are fat can nearly triple your risk of becoming obese.

Rest of article

It's Electric

2007-07-12T12:18:00.000-05:00

Burned jogger shows lightning, headphones don't mix

By Gene Emery

BOSTON (Reuters) - Here's a handy tip for joggers: If you think you might get caught in a thunderstorm, leave your music player at home.

Doctors at Vancouver General Hospital in Canada said a 37-year-old jogger wearing an iPod was burned on his chest, neck and face after the man and a nearby tree were struck by lightning in 2005. The burns traced the path of the earphones, they said.

Article

Google Predicted in 1964

2007-06-27T14:06:00.000-05:00

Pretty cool prediction from 1964

What a ride!

2007-04-19T21:08:00.000-05:00

US Home prices adjusted for inflation plotted as a roller coaster
Very cool!

The graph is here:
http://www.speculativebubble.com/videos/real-estate-roller-coaster.php

Based on Robert Schiller's analysis.
From Freakonomics Blog

Always Double Check Those Google Map Directions

2007-03-29T14:00:00.000-05:00

Interested in going from Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Kings College, Cambridge, England?

Step 12 may be a little difficult:

Swim across the Atlantic Ocean

From Google Blogoscoped

Can't use this green leaf for karpas

2007-03-27T13:53:00.000-05:00

No pot on Passover

In bad news for its religious Jewish supporters, an Israeli pro-marijuana party announced Tuesday that pot is forbidden on Passover.

Cannabis is among the substances Jews are forbidden to consume during the week-long festival, which begins on Monday, said Michelle Levine, a spokeswoman for the Green Leaf party.

Biblical laws prohibit eating leavened foods during Passover, replacing bread with flat crackers called matza.

Later injunctions by European rabbis extended those rules to forbid other foods like beans and corn, and more recent rulings have further expanded the ban to include hemp seeds, which today are found in some health oils - and in marijuana.

Green Leaf is a small political party that supports the legalisation of marijuana. Although it is by no means a Jewish religious authority, the group decided to warn its observant supporters away from the drug on Passover.

"You shouldn't smoke marijuana on the holiday, and if you have it in your house you should get rid of it," Levine said. The edict was first reported in The Jerusalem Post.

But not everyone needs to give up their habit for the duration of the festival. The rabbinic injunctions banning hemp were never adopted by Sephardic Jews, who come from countries in the Middle East and North Africa. That means there is no reason they can't keep smoking marijuana, Levine said, except that it remains illegal, despite her party's best efforts.

Green Leaf contested the last three national elections but never won a seat, despite gaining popularity as a protest vote. According to Levine, the party has a large number of religious supporters.

Plagiarism

2007-03-18T21:27:00.000-05:00

Intereting article from the UK on students plagiarizing their medical school application essays:

The study found that nearly 800 medical applications had personal statements containing phrases directly taken from three online example statements. Ucas said 370 applications contained a statement starting with "a fascination for how the human body works"

234 included a statement relating a dramatic incident involving 'burning a hole in pyjamas at age eight', and 175 candidates wrote about 'an elderly or infirm grandfather'.

From Freakonomics Blog

Mr. Wicked

2007-03-15T22:54:00.000-05:00

Interesting NY Times Magazine article on Wicked.

Elphaba is a play on the name of the author of the "Wizard of Oz." How about that.

Secret Jamba Juice Menu

2007-02-28T15:57:00.000-06:00

Like In-N-Out's secret menu, Jamba Juice also has secret flavors:
Blue Gummy Bear
Peanut Butter and Jelly
Push Pop
Skittles
Pink Starburst
Raspberry Dreamin'
Pineapple Dreamin'
Bluetopia
Tropical Tango
Sourpatch Kid
Now and Later
Peanut Butter and Jelly
Apple Pie
Fruity Pebbles
Strawberry Shortcake
Red Gummy Bear
Green Gummy Bear
White gummy bear
Chocolate gummy bear

White Gummy Bear is supposed to be the best of the bunch.
Try at your own risk.
From the Consumerist

Greatest Pizza Recipe

2006-09-21T10:03:00.000-05:00

This guy spent 6 years perfecting the recipe. Impressive.
Pizza Recipe.

Urban Notification Cards

2006-09-15T15:13:00.000-05:00

Urban asshole notification cards.
What a great gift!

Your Privacy Rights

2006-09-05T21:50:00.000-05:00

How to Opt Out of Online Data Vendors and Information Brokers.

Surfing at Work: It's Okay

2006-04-24T17:29:00.000-05:00

From the WSJ's Evening Wrap:
Is surfing the Web the same thing as reading the newspaper or talking on the telephone? According to John Spooner, an administrative law judge in New York, it is indeed. In recommending only a light punishment for a city worker accused of disregarding warnings to stay off the Internet while at work, the judge wrote that "It should be observed that the Internet has become the modern equivalent of a telephone or a daily newspaper, providing a combination of communication and information that most employees use as frequently in their personal lives as for their work.''

And You Thought Your Cell Phone Company Was Screwing You

2006-04-11T10:29:00.000-05:00

From Yahoo ! News: Man Gets $218 Trillion Phone Bill

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - A Malaysian man said he nearly fainted when he recieved a $218 trillion phone bill and was ordered to pay up within 10 days or face prosecution, a newspaper reported Monday.
ADVERTISEMENT

Yahaya Wahab said he disconnected his late father's phone line in January after he died and settled the 84 ringgit ($23) bill, the New Straits Times reported.

But Telekom Malaysia later sent him a 806,400,000,000,000.01 ringgit ($218 trillion) bill for recent telephone calls along with orders to settle within 10 days or face legal proceedings, the newspaper reported.

It wasn't clear whether the bill was a mistake, or if Yahaya's father's phone line was used illegally after after his death.

'If the company wants to seek legal action as mentioned in the letter, I'm ready to face it,' the paper quoted Yahaya as saying. 'In fact, I can't wait to face it,' he said.

Yahaya, from northern Kedah state, received a notice from the company's debt-collection agency in early April, the paper said. Yahaya said he nearly fainted when he saw the new bill.

Government-linked Telekom Malaysia Bhd. is the country's largest telecommunications company.

A company official, who declined to be identified as she was not authorized to speak to the media, said Telekom Malaysia was aware of Yahaya's case and would address it. She did not provide further details.

01-02-03-04-05-06

2006-04-04T17:56:00.000-05:00

Clock Watching
From the WSJ Evening Wrap:
"If you happen to be awake at 1:02:03 a.m. ET on Wednesday, April 5, you might want to reflect on how rare that particular moment is. Or you might just want to get some sleep. On some digital clocks in the U.S., that precise second will be reflected as 01-02-03-04-05-06, something that doesn't happen all that often. If you want to celebrate the moment at a more reasonable hour, you can use Universal Time; 1:02 a.m. Universal Time comes at 9:02 p.m. ET. In any event, numerologists aren't getting worked up about this moment, noting that the year is really 2006, not '06,' throwing off the neat progression of numbers."

BBQ Not So Good

2006-04-03T22:32:00.000-05:00

Barbecue meats linked with prostate cancer
From Yahoo! Health

A compound formed when meat is charred at high temperatures -- as in barbecue -- encourages the growth of prostate cancer in rats, researchers reported on Sunday.

Their study, presented at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, may help explain the link between eating meat and a higher risk of prostate cancer.

It also fits in with other studies suggesting that cooking meat until it chars might cause cancer. The compound, called PhIP, is formed when meat is cooked at very high temperatures, Dr. Angelo De Marzo and colleagues at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore reported. It appears to both initiate and promote the growth of prostate cancer in rats, they said.

"We stumbled across a new potential interaction between ingestion of cooked meat in the diet and cancer in the rat," De Marzo said in a statement.

"For humans, the biggest problem is that it's extremely difficult to tell how much PhIP you've ingested, since different amounts are formed depending on cooking conditions."

For the study, Yatsutomo Nakai and other members of De Marzo's team mixed PhIP into food given to rats for up to eight weeks, then studied the animals' prostates, intestines and spleens. They found genetic mutations in all the organs after four weeks.

More Gefilte Fish

2006-03-28T10:28:00.000-06:00

Gefilte Fish Sales to Soar Worldwide this Passover
(Kosher Today) New York- The bird flu panic in Israel has already caused a drop in poultry sales, but the beneficiary this Passover will be gefilte fish, according to Gidon Regev of M. Prop & Son. Regev says that sales of gefilte fish have already risen 15%. M. Prop & Son is the Israeli distributor of Manischewitz products. Regev predicts that Israelis will eat 450 tons of gefilte fish patties at the Passover Seder, amounting to 4.2 million patties. He said the increase in sales was because much of the public would prefer eating fish at the Seder, rather than poultry, due to fears about bird flu."

The Simpsons

2006-03-12T22:50:00.000-06:00

A Real Life Simpsons Intro

Free Coffee

2006-03-09T11:26:00.000-06:00

From Slashfood:
On Wednesday, March 15th, Starbucks will host a nation-wide coffee break. At stores across America, from 10am to noon, Starbucks baristas will be giving out free tall cups of freshly brewed coffee. There will also be coffee-experts on hand to answer questions about the coffee itself or the brewing process, as well as any questions about brewing at home or the specialty drinks on the menu. For reference, the 'tall' cup size is 12-ounces and the drink served will be black coffee, not lattes, though the condiment bar will be available for those who take cream and sugar.

Fluffernutter Kerfuffle

2006-03-08T22:47:00.000-06:00

From the WSJ Evening Wrap:
Nearly 90 years ago, World War I veterans H. Allen Durkee and Fred L. Mower returned from the Western Front and bought the secret formula for Marshmallow Fluff. Today, the Massachusetts company they founded, Durkee-Mower, is going to the trenches again, this time in a fight with Williams-Sonoma. The company has sued the upscale kitchenware retailer, accusing it of improperly using the name 'Fluffernutter' to describe a marshmallow/peanut butter/chocolate treat it sells through its Web site and catalog. Durkee-Mower claims Fluffernutter is its own registered trademark and is seeking unspecified damages. 'Williams-Sonoma has no right to trade on our hard-earned reputation with their so-called Fluffernutter confection,' the company said in a release.

How Did They Do That?

2006-02-16T15:27:00.000-06:00

Full Motion Stamp
From:
Core77
Dutch agency Solar Initiative did a pretty cool job developing two sets of dynamic postal stamps for TPG Post. This paper short movie - featuring Dutch speed skater Yvonne van Gennip - has been realized using a lenticular effect technology (New Zealand partners) combined with a unique printing process (Australia partners). Incredible how this global innovation package gets available for... exactly, 39 Eurocents."

Clean Your Street Clothes

2006-02-02T15:57:00.000-06:00

From Engadget:
Sanyo's AQUA AirWash ozones out germs and odors

While Sanyo's new AQUA washing machine isn't necessarily of the water free variety, it does reduce water consumption with what they call AirWash, a function that generates ozone during the wash or takes care of your dry clean only garments with an ozone-only 30 minute waterless cycle.

Apparently the AQUA's ozone-infused wash cycles kill bacteria and vaporize odors (in addition to making your home smell like someone just shorted a fat electrical circuit).

From Akihabara News

Sleeping

2006-01-13T11:06:00.000-06:00

From To-done.com: "Tips for getting to sleep faster & sleeping better"

These are mostly common sense, but a good compilation. The comments section is good, too.

The Four Matriarchs

2006-01-12T17:45:00.000-06:00

From the WSJ Evening Wrap:

"About 3.5 million of the world's Ashkenazi Jews-- the Yiddish-speakers who settled Central Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries and today make up about 80% of the world's total Jewish population-- are the descendants of just four women, according to a new DNA analysis by Israeli researchers. There are about 11 million Ashkenazis in the world today, of a total global Jewish population of about 14 million. The four ancestors, who apparently lived in Europe or in the vicinity of Israel at some point within the past 2,000 years, left a DNA signature that shows up in their descendants today."

Solving the mystery of the elusive "short" cappuccino

2006-01-10T09:52:00.000-06:00

Starbucks Economics by Tim Harford in Slate:

"Here's a little secret that Starbucks doesn't want you to know: They will serve you a better, stronger cappuccino if you want one, and they will charge you less for it. Ask for it in any Starbucks and the barista will comply without batting an eye. The puzzle is to work out why.

The drink in question is the elusive "short cappuccino"—at 8 ounces, a third smaller than the smallest size on the official menu, the "tall," and dwarfed by what Starbucks calls the "customer-preferred" size, the "Venti," which weighs in at 20 ounces and more than 200 calories before you add the sugar.

The short cappuccino has the same amount of espresso as the 12-ounce tall, meaning a bolder coffee taste, and also a better one. The World Barista Championship rules, for example, define a traditional cappuccino as a "five- to six-ounce beverage." This is also the size of cappuccino served by many continental cafés. Within reason, the shorter the cappuccino, the better.

The problem with large cappuccinos is that it's impossible to make the fine-bubbled milk froth ("microfoam," in the lingo) in large quantities, no matter how skilled the barista. A 20-ounce cappuccino is an oxymoron. Having sampled the short cappuccino in a number of Starbucks across the world, I can confirm that it is a better drink than the buckets of warm milk—topped with a veneer of froth—that the coffee chain advertises on its menus.

This secret cappuccino is cheaper, too—at my local Starbucks, $2.35 instead of $2.65. But why does this cheaper, better drink—along with its sisters, the short latte and the short coffee—languish unadvertised? The official line from Starbucks is that there is no room on the menu board, although this doesn't explain why the short cappuccino is also unmentioned on the comprehensive Starbucks Web site, nor why the baristas will serve you in a whisper rather than the usual practice of singing your order to the heavens.

Economics has the answer: This is the Starbucks way of sidestepping a painful dilemma over how high to set prices. Price too low and the margins disappear; too high and the customers do. Any business that is able to charge one price to price-sensitive customers and a higher price to the rest will avoid some of that awkward trade-off.

It's not hard to identify the price-blind customers in Starbucks. They're the ones buying enough latte to bathe Cleopatra. The major costs of staff time, space in the queue, and packaging are similar for any size of drink. So, larger drinks carry a substantially higher markup, according to Brian McManus, an assistant professor at the Olin School of Business who has studied the coffee market.

The difficulty is that if some of your products are cheap, you may lose money from customers who would willingly have paid more. So, businesses try to discourage their more lavish customers from trading down by making their cheap products look or sound unattractive, or, in the case of Starbucks, making the cheap product invisible. The British supermarket Tesco has a "value" line of products with infamously ugly packaging, not because good designers are unavailable but because the supermarket wants to scare away customers who would willingly spend more. "The bottom end of any market tends to get distorted," says McManus. "The more market power firms have, the less attractive they make the cheaper products."

That observation is important. A firm in a perfectly competitive market would suffer if it sabotaged its cheapest products because rivals would jump at the opportunity to steal alienated customers. Starbucks, with its coffee supremacy, can afford this kind of price discrimination, thanks to loyal, or just plain lazy, customers.

The practice is hundreds of years old. The French economist Emile Dupuit wrote about the early days of the railways, when third-class carriages were built without roofs, even though roofs were cheap: "What the company is trying to do is prevent the passengers who can pay the second-class fare from traveling third class; it hits the poor, not because it wants to hurt them, but to frighten the rich."

The modern equivalent is the airport departure lounge. Airports could create nicer spaces, but that would frustrate the ability of airlines to charge substantial premiums for club-class departure lounges.

Starbucks' gambit is much simpler and more audacious: Offer the cheaper product but make sure that it is available only to those customers who face the uncertainty and embarrassment of having to request it specifically. Fortunately, the tactic is easily circumvented: If you'd like a better coffee for less, just ask."

That's Coordination

2006-01-09T15:35:00.000-06:00

CNET News.com: "A team of skydivers set a canopy formation world record as dusk descended on rural Florida. The team, with a record 81 people, included three Kennedy Space Center Engineers: Dave Hillebrandt of United Space Alliance, Kevin Keenan of Lockheed Martin and NASA's James Bolton. The skydives took place Nov. 25 and 26, 2005, over Lake Wales, Fla."

Strange Sounds

2006-01-09T13:09:00.000-06:00

People have long said that some songs contain hidden messages when played backwards. Today's edition of the Wall Street Journal highlights a website that makes it easy to listen to songs backwardsstrange messages. There's some strange stuff.

Backmasking

Circuit City False Advertising

2005-12-05T09:27:00.000-06:00

Saga of Circuit City False Advertising and Customer Abuse

A good read for the holidays.
Buyer beware.

Just For the Money

2005-11-16T17:46:00.000-06:00

From WSJ Evening Wrap:
Now Entering DISH

Lots of towns have good reasons for civic pride. Cawker City, Kan., for example, boasts of having the world's largest ball of twine. The town of Clark, Texas, (pop. 125) was looking for such a distinction, and EchoStar Communications, parent of the DISH satellite television network, had just the ticket. EchoStar recently offered free DISH service to every home in one U.S. town willing to change its name to DISH. Clark -- named for L.E. Clark, the man who founded the town just five years ago -- decided it wanted to take the challenge, and Mayor Bill Merritt successfully lobbied EchoStar for the honor of a new name. All of the town's signs have been changed and now include the motto 'Home of Free DISH Network Satellite TV.' Anybody who moves to town will get free DISH service.

'We really look at this as kind of a rebirth for our community,' Mr. Merritt told the Associated Press. 'We want everybody to come here.' L.E. Clark, who recently lost to Mr. Merritt in a mayoral race, said he would use neighboring Justin, Texas, which has the same zip code as DISH, for any future correspondence."

Out to Get Ali G.

2005-11-15T23:06:00.000-06:00

From Yahoo! News:
"Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry threatened legal action Monday against a British comedian who wins laughs by portraying the central Asian state as a country populated by drunks who enjoy cow-punching as a sport.

Sacha Baron Cohen, who portrays a spoof Kazakh television presenter Borat in his "Da Ali G Show" has won fame ridiculing Kazakhstan, the world's ninth largest country yet still little known to many in the West, on British and U.S. channels.

Cohen appears to have drawn official Kazakh ire after he hosted the annual MTV Europe Music Awards show in Lisbon earlier this month as Borat, who arrived in an Air Kazakh propeller plane controlled by a one-eyed pilot clutching a vodka bottle.

"We do not rule out that Mr. Cohen is serving someone's political order designed to present Kazakhstan and its people in a derogatory way," Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman Yerzhan Ashykbayev told a news briefing.

Cohen's earlier jokes about the Central Asian state include claims that the people would shoot a dog and then have a party, and that local wine was made from fermented horse urine."

Airport Security Update: Please Do Not Remove Your Shoes At This Time

2005-11-08T15:29:00.000-06:00

From Gizmodo:
"People get all worked up about taking off their shoes at the airport. When I get a chance to take off my shoes and relax, I always take it. Unfortunately, GE Security now has a device that scans shoes while they are on the person. Simply place your feet on the device, and a a few seconds later you are cleared to move onto the next security checkpoint: the cavity search. I tried one of these at an airport once — must have been an unwitting beta tester because I’ve never seen it again. And my foot developed this strange fungus soon after…"

Link: Device Scans Luggage, Shoes for Bombs

Email Is Worse Than Pot

2005-11-01T11:04:00.000-06:00

From Lifehacker:

Discover Magazine cites a study where two groups of people took IQ tests: one that was under the influence of marijuana and the other that was interrupted by email messages - and the potheads performed better.

Certainly, the (BING!) interruption cost of a new email message (BING!) arriving every 10 minutes throughout the day (BING!) while you work is a high one. The solution? Pull the plug. Shut down your email client while you work and open it up only when you need to send a message. Or simply set it to check for new messages only once an hour. It doesn’t matter that right this moment you’ve got mail. You’ve also got something else more important to do than buy Cialis online.

Article:E-Mail Making You Crazy?

Blade Wars

2005-09-14T21:40:00.000-05:00

From the WSJ Evening Wrap:
Thirty years ago, mocking Gillette's claims about its twin-blade razor, the Trac II, Saturday Night Live made a commercial parody for a product called the "Triple-Trac" a three-bladed razor. "Because you'll believe anything," the commercial said. The writers of that SNL gag might not have believed how prescient they were. In 1998, Gillette introduced a three-bladed razor called the Mach3. Schick countered in 2003 with a four-bladed razor, the Quattro. And today, Gillette upped the ante, unveiling a five-bladed razor, the Fusion. "Gillette Fusion is more than just a next generation shaving brand," Gillette CEO James Kilts said in a statement, "it's the future of shaving." Until somebody adds another blade, at least.

Color Is All Relative

2005-08-14T00:02:00.000-05:00

Think you know your colors? Some cool illusions that demonstrate that color is really relative. What do you think?

From Google Blogoscoped

Elevator Hack

2005-08-02T22:10:00.000-05:00

Cool trick the next time you are on an elevator:
The designers of some elevators include a hidden feature that is very handy if you're in a hurry or it's a busy time in the building (like check-out time in a hotel). While some elevators require a key, others can be put into 'Express' mode by pressing the 'Door Close' and 'Floor' buttons at the same time. This sweeps the car to the floor of your choice and avoids stops at any other floor. This seems to work on Most elevators that I have tried! Most elevators have the option for this to work, but on some of them the option is turned off by whoever runs them. This is a rather fun hack, so the next time you are on an elevator, give it a try, you have nothing to lose.

Pedometer

2005-07-28T21:16:00.000-05:00

A Google Pedometer

Evidence of Bigfoot?

2005-07-26T17:54:00.000-05:00

From the WSJ Evening Wrap:
The world may be one hair away from finding out if the legendary Sasquatch really exists. On Monday, researchers at the University of Alberta began DNA testing on a clump of hair found in Teslin, Yukon. Two men said they saw what appeared to be a 9-foot-tall creature lumbering upright through their back yard early one morning, leaving behind a large footprint and some dark, brown hair. They are convinced they have seen a Sasquatch, a mythical, Yeti-like creature, also known as Bigfoot, that allegedly haunts the wilds of North America. University of Alberta wildlife geneticist David Coltman, who will be doing the testing, thinks the hikers saw a bison. But if the hair's DNA doesn't match that of a bison or any other known species, then it might be time to wonder. 'Well that would be kind of cool, wouldn't it?' he told CBC News. 'We might as well have a look-see.' Results are expected to be ready by the middle of the week."

Grocery Executives Study Kosher Lifestyle

2005-07-25T15:28:00.000-05:00

From KosherToday:
(Los Angeles) Supermarket executives have long associated customer lifestyle with the level of food buying. Orthodox Jews tend to have structured mealtimes throughout the week, but particularly on at least two meals on the Shabbat, a fact that grocery executives accounts for larger grocery baskets than average consumers. A growing number of supermarkets have in recent years made strong efforts to attract the Orthodox buyers who also have larger families.

In the general society, executives say, “Flexi-eating' is becoming more common as consumers base their mealtimes around their lifestyles rather than having structured mealtimes. Mealtimes are becoming more fragmented, informal and less important to consumers as other activities take priority. This trend has crept into the busy lifestyles of Orthodox Jews as well, but the weekly meals of the Shabbat has kept them distinctly apart from general consumers. One supermarket executive guessed that his Orthodox customers spend as much as 40% more than other consumers, “a good deal
of it tied to the Shabbat.”

What's Your Secret?

2005-07-14T21:22:00.000-05:00

PostSecret

Hot Potatoes

2005-06-20T22:43:00.000-05:00

From the WSJ Evening Wrap:
It has been fairly common in recent years to see protests against epithets and stereotypes that are harmful to various groups of people. But the world may be entering a new era of political correctness when such protests are made in the name of vegetables, which are presumably incapable of taking offense at much of anything. The British Potato Council may have ushered in that era by rallying at the U.K. Parliament against the use of the term "couch potato." Specifically, the group wants the term removed from the Oxford English Dictionary, where it's defined as "a person who spends leisure time passively or idly sitting around, especially watching television or video tapes." "The potato industry are fed up with the disservice that 'couch potato' does to our product when we have an inherently healthy product," Kathryn Race, head of marketing at the British Potato Council, told the AP.

Welcome to New Jersey

2005-06-02T16:45:00.000-05:00

From the WSJ Evening Wrap:
As if travelers didn't already have enough reasons to be excited about venturing into New Jersey, drivers crossing the Delaware Memorial Bridge into the Garden State will be greeted by a billboard reading, in red capital letters: "Welcome to New Jersey: A horrible place to do business." The billboard is the work of Mount Laurel-based developer William Juliano, embroiled in a long-running dispute with the state's Department of Environmental Protection. Mr. Juliano owns the billboard and says it is costing him about $10,000 a month not to rent the billboard to other advertisers. He said he also plans to add two more signs along the New Jersey Turnpike. The state warned it may consider legal action, though it's not certain what it could do, exactly. Meanwhile, state business leaders aren't exactly rushing to Mr. Juliano's defense. An official with the state Chamber of Commerce told the Associated Press, "I would question how many actual CEOs or businesspeople would drive by, see that and say, 'That's it, I'm not going to come to New Jersey.'"

Inhale Deeply

2005-06-02T12:44:00.000-05:00

From the WSJ Morning Brief:
A Swiss-led research team has produced a potion that, when sniffed, makes people more likely to give their cash to someone to look after, the scientific journal Nature reports. "The team tested their creation on volunteers playing an investment game for real money," Nature says. "When they inhaled the nasal spray, investors were more likely to hand over money to a trustee, knowing that, although they could make a hefty profit, they could also lose everything if the trustee decided not to give any of the money back." The potion's key ingredient is oxytocin, a chemical that is produced naturally in the brain. The theory is that people only decide to trust each other -- when forming a sexual or business relationship, for example -- when the brain's oxytocin production is boosted.

Oxytocin production is triggered by a range of stimuli, including sex and breastfeeding, and it is known to be important in the formation of social ties, such as mating pairs and parent-offspring bonds. Experts think that oxytocin exerts its range of effects by boosting some social behaviors -- it may encourage animals or people to overcome their natural wariness when faced with a risky situation.

15 Yards For UnSportsman-like Conduct

2005-06-02T09:41:00.000-05:00

49ers' personal foul: Team's in-house training video includes lesbian porn, racial slurs, barbs at Newsom

From SFGate.com:
It was meant to be funny — but no one is laughing now in the San Francisco 49ers' front office over an in-house training film that featured off- color racial jokes, lesbian porn, a spoof of gay marriage and a trio of buxom, topless blondes frolicking with team public relations director Kirk Reynolds.

The 15-minute video (see it here), some of which was filmed in the City Hall office of Mayor Gavin Newsom — who comes in for a few unsubtle swipes — was intended as a primer on how players should handle the media in diverse San Francisco.

Instead, it's turned into a team embarrassment — with PR man Reynolds looking for another job. Continue the article...

Keep Your Ice Cream Safe

2005-05-31T08:32:00.000-05:00

To prevent unauthorized ice cream eating- especially straight from the tub: The Ben & Jerry’s Pint Lock. It's real!

Via Engadget

Can You Catch Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?

2005-05-24T09:32:00.000-05:00

From the NY Times Magazine:

To suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder, many patients say, is to ''know you are crazy.'' Other forms of psychosis may envelop the sufferers until they inhabit the delusion. Part of the torture of O.C.D. is, as patients describe it, watching as if from the outside as they act out their obsessions -- knowing that they are being irrational, but not being able to stop. They describe thoughts crowding their minds, nattering at them incessantly -- anxious thoughts, sexual thoughts, violent thoughts, sometimes all at the same time. Is the front door locked? Are there germs on my hands?

Continue

The Power of MSPaint

2005-05-23T18:48:00.000-05:00

This incredible painting was created entirely in MSPaint. It took the artist 500 hours to do it. That's some talent.

The Apprentice Life

2005-05-20T13:50:00.000-05:00

According to Newsweek report , previous Apprentice winners Bill Rancic and Kelly Perdew are hardly making big-time decisions for Trump's empire. Instead, they mostly perform PR duties for the show, reliving their Apprentice glory days for CEOs and prospective real estate buyers. Perdew's desk is actually in a 'small, windowless space' next to the assistant of Trump's wife.

My Google

2005-05-19T17:42:00.000-05:00

Google is starting to beta test a portal. Interesting.

Keep Tabs on Your Representatives

2005-05-19T14:34:00.000-05:00

A new blog that provides current information on what our representatives are doing in Congress.
Progress.com

Don't Let Your Silver Tarnish

2005-05-16T13:32:00.000-05:00

Tricks of the Trade: Jeweler: "To help prevent the tarnishing of silver jewelry, place a stick of white blackboard chalk in the drawer or jewelry box to absorb the sulfur compounds that cause silver to blacken.

Via LifeHacker

Funny Commercial

2005-05-12T09:17:00.000-05:00

Very funny commercial for Levi's 501 jeans that rips on the metrosexual trend.

Via B2Day

Candy Bar Wrappers

2005-05-11T13:31:00.000-05:00

Syracuse University thesis on the history of candy bar wrappers.
Pretty interesting.

Via BoingBoing

Graph Paper

2005-05-11T09:23:00.000-05:00

If you ever need graph paper, you can print it out yourself here.
All different sizes.

The Phone

2005-05-10T17:09:00.000-05:00

An entertaining puzzle.

Dieting

2005-05-10T11:34:00.000-05:00

In Consumer Reports' June edition, they rank diet plans. Weight Watchers comes out on top.

Most Sucessful Diets. Via Yahoo!News:

You are right

Jimmy Kimmel- One Year Of Unnecessary Censorship

2005-05-09T08:01:00.000-05:00

Jimmy Kimmel- One Year Of Unnecessary Censorship, from his April 15, 2005 show. Hilarious.

Possession is 9/10 of the Law

2005-05-05T18:48:00.000-05:00

From the WSJ Evening Wrap:
Possession may be nine-tenths of the law, but most law enforcement agencies don't quite see it that way when it comes to stolen property. A Baltimore man found that out the hard way, according to police. He stole a car at gunpoint last month, drove it for two weeks and then left it parked not far from where he stole it, police said. The owner happened to see the car, called the police and had it towed. The alleged carjacker then called police and reported the vehicle stolen, police said. He was taken downtown for questioning, where he eventually confessed to taking the car, police said. He reported it stolen because he had left his wallet in it, police said. "Again, this really happened," detective Gregory Jenkins wrote in his report.

Candy Bar Giveaway

2005-05-05T15:37:00.000-05:00

Get a free TAKE 5 candy bar . This is my new favorite candy bar.

Penny for Your Thoughts

2005-05-04T18:24:00.000-05:00

Cool structures built out of pennies

Via Pogue's Posts

I Spy

2005-05-04T14:23:00.000-05:00

Let's watch a football game

Ok. No more Google Maps for a while.

Mass Media Is Learning... But Slowly

2005-05-03T12:12:00.000-05:00

ABC.com has now streamed Desperate Housewives and Lost so that you can watch the previous week's episode of online.

Via Lost Remote

Feeling Stupid? Blame Your Computer

2005-04-27T13:01:00.000-05:00

Talk about unintended consequences: the emails, text messages and instant messages that supposedly make people better-connected can also make them more stupid, according to a new study. In a project sponsored by Hewlett-Packard, Glenn Wilson, a professor at King's College London, tested the impact on workers of a steady bombardment of electronic messages and found that workers temporarily lost 10 points of IQ as a result of trying to handle all the incoming information -- more than double the four-point effect of smoking marijuana and roughly matching the effect of missing a full night's sleep.

From the Wall Street Journal

What a moron

2005-04-22T12:16:00.000-05:00

Yahoo! News - Woman in Wendy's Finger Case Arrested
Woman in Wendy's Finger Case Arrested

The woman who claimed she found a finger in her bowl of Wendy's chili last month has been arrested, the latest twist in a bizarre case about how the 1 1/2-inch finger tip ended up in a bowl of fast food.

Anna Ayala was taken into custody late Thursday at her Las Vegas home. She was arrested on a warrant alleging grand larceny and attempted grand larceny, Las Vegas Police Sgt. Chris Jones said.

Authorities said would not provide further details until a news conference Friday afternoon in San Jose, Calif. — the city where Ayala claimed she bit down on the finger in a mouthful of her steamy stew.

As it turns out, Ayala has a litigious history. She has filed claims against several corporations, including a former employer and General Motors, though it is unclear from court records whether she received any money. She said she got $30,000 from El Pollo Loco after her 13-year-old daughter got sick at one of the chain's Las Vegas-area restaurants. But El Pollo Loco spokeswoman Julie Weeks said last week that the company reviewed Ayala's February 2004 claim and paid her nothing.

Punk'd

2005-04-21T11:04:00.000-05:00

Kutcher 'Punk'd' by Secret Service
After Ashton Kutcher turned the tables on the crew of his MTV celebrity prank show 'Punk'd' with the help of Britney Spears, he declared himself 'unpunkable.' That was before he ran into former senator and vice presidential candidate John Edwards.

While promoting his latest film, 'A Lot Like Love,' Kutcher reluctantly admits that he was indeed the butt of a practical joke during the 2004 presidential campaign, thanks to Edwards.

'Well, it was sort of a 'punk,' but it sort of wasn't because it was real,' he says at a small press conference at the Four Seasons hotel. 'I was campaigning in Minnesota and we were flying back to Iowa ... on his, like, Air Force One jet that they have with all the press in the back of the plane. John has his cushy area in front, and the Secret Service is there.'

After boarding the plane, Kutcher was approached by a Secret Service agent who asked if the grey bag being checked in on the tarmac belonged to him. When the 'That '70s Show' star confirmed it was, he became increasingly alarmed when the agent continued to question him, asking whether he carried a firearm and if he had planned to go hunting.

'Well, we're going to have to detonate your bag on the runway,' he was told.

Kutcher freaked. 'I was like, 'Are you kidding? Detonate it. I'm not trying to kill anyone, I promise. Detonate it. Do it. Please. I don't want it on the plane, either.'

At that point, the agent informed him, 'You just got 'Punk'd,'' to which Kutcher replied, 'That's not even fair. You're like actual Secret Service. You're not an actor. That doesn't count.'

Although a camera captured the incident, don't expect to see it on MTV anytime soon.
'I'm trying to confiscate the videotape,' he says."

Deep Trouble for Laptop Thief

2005-04-21T08:50:00.000-05:00

Berkeley laptop thief is scared out of his wits by professor
The last few minutes of this video from a biology class at Berkeley is of a professor explaining the terrifying consequences that will soon befall the student that stole his laptop.
Lecture transcript

Via Boing Boing

First toast, now an underpass.

2005-04-18T08:27:00.000-05:00

Faithful Flock To Virgin Mary Image Found Under Kennedy

Photo

Go figure

More GoogleMaps

2005-04-17T00:01:00.000-05:00

People are always talking about the parking lot of airplanes in the desert.
Here it is.

A list of some sights to see.

Area 51

2005-04-15T17:27:00.000-05:00

So tonight I spied on Area 51... with Google Maps.

See for yourself:
Link 1
Link 2

Israeli Prisoner Idol

2005-04-15T10:54:00.000-05:00

Six contestants from six different prisons in the center of the country went up against one another for the title of the Prisons Service's 'New Star.'

Unlike Kohav Nolad (Israel's version of American Idol), where the winner achieves instant fame and the chance to produce an album, the prisoners competed for a 24-hour furlough.

Continue reading...

The Power of Math

2005-04-14T17:41:00.000-05:00

Via The J-Walk Blog:

US Patent #6,751,348 B2: Automated detection of pornographic images:

A method for use in detecting a pornographic image comprising: analyzing a questionable image, said analyzing including (a) preparing a final color prototype database having a plurality of final color prototype values, said final color prototype database prepared from selected skin image samples from a plurality of images;

It all boils down to simple math:

Click for more

Road Sign Math

2005-04-14T17:21:00.000-05:00

Road Sign Math: a fun road trip game.

Great Application of Google Maps

2005-04-14T14:40:00.000-05:00

This website combines Google Maps with apartment rental and for-sale listings from Craig's List. You can browse through neighborhoods and see what's available.

Really cool tool if you know people looking to move. (Works for all cities that are in Craig's List, i think.)

http://www.paulrademacher.com/housing/

Via ResearchBuzz

Your Rankings

2005-04-14T10:23:00.000-05:00

Law School Ranking Game

"What kind of game is this? You tell us.

We Americans love rankings. The creators of some rankings play to win your money. Law schools play ranking games to win your attendance.

The Ranking Game lets you make your own rankings of law schools based on your preferences."

From the WSJ's The Numbers Guy.
Have Fun

What's in a Name

2005-04-13T17:31:00.000-05:00

Slime-Mold Beetles Named for Politicians
From the WSJ Evening Wrap:
Grumps and cynics often compare politicians to worms, bugs and other creepy-crawly creatures. Now, some bugs have been named after three of the world's most powerful politicians. Two American entomologists have named three newly discovered species of slime-mold beetles after President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Lest anyone think that Agathidium bushi, Agathidium cheneyi and Agathidium rumsfeldi were named out of spite for Messrs. Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, their nomenclators insist it's a sign of respect.

"We admire these leaders as fellow citizens who have the courage of their convictions and are willing to do the very difficult and unpopular work of living up to principles of freedom and democracy rather than accepting the expedient or popular," said former Cornell entomologist Quentin Wheeler, now the head of entomology at the Natural History Museum in London.

Think of that next time you see the Agathidium bushi feasting on mold in its stomping grounds in southern Ohio, North Carolina and Virginia (all red states, in the last election).

'Apprentice' Chris Arrested

2005-04-11T13:09:00.000-05:00

CNN.com - 'Apprentice' Chris arrested

From CNN.com:

TAMPA, Florida (AP) -- Real estate millionaire Chris Shelton, a contestant on NBC's 'The Apprentice,' was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge.

Shelton, 22, one of six remaining contestants competing for a job with Donald Trump, was taken into custody early Sunday at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. He was released after posting $250 bail.

'He was loud and he just wouldn't calm down,' Bitner said. Shelton was peeved over a $20 cover charge for the hotel bar. Shelton 'was at the lobby causing a scene,' the police report said. 'There were several patrons in the area who were visibly shaken by his actions. After several attempts to calm Shelton, he continued to yell and curse, refusing to calm down and stop causing a scene.'

What a punk. How is he a millionaire?

Google Sightseeing

2005-04-08T16:20:00.000-05:00

Sightseeing through Google maps.

Record Wig Wearers

2005-04-07T12:42:00.000-05:00

Fans at a Detroit Pistons game last night set an unofficial world record of 6,638 people wearing wigs at the same time in the second quarter. The current Guinness record is 6,213, set in a Pistons game last season.

Stupid Customer Service

2005-04-07T12:31:00.000-05:00

From The Baltimore Sun:

A tale of customer service, justice and currency as funny as a $2 bill

I'm thinking, 'I'll stage my little comic protest. I'll pay the $114 with $2 bills.'"

At Best Buy, they may have perceived the protest -- but did not sense the comic aspect of 57 $2 bills.

"I'm just here to pay the bill," Bolesta says he told a cashier. "She looked at the $2 bills and told me, 'I don't have to take these if I don't want to.' I said, 'If you don't, I'm leaving. I've tried to pay my bill twice. You don't want these bills, you can sue me.' So she took the money. Like she's doing me a favor."

He remembers the cashier marking each bill with a pen. Then other store personnel began to gather, a few of them asking, "Are these real?"

"Of course they are," Bolesta said. "They're legal tender."
Continue the story

Via Gizmodo

The Importance of Keyguard

2005-04-05T16:57:00.000-05:00

From WSJ Evening Wrap:
Sheriff's deputies in Hawkins County, Tenn., said they foiled a burglary after the alleged burglars accidentally discussed their plans in a 911 call. One of the accused men had a cell phone with raised numbers in his pocket while he talked with his alleged accomplice about stealing a refrigerator from a mobile-home dealership, the deputies said. The phone automatically dials "911" when the number 9 is pressed, and as luck would have it, that's exactly what happened while the men were planning the crime, deputies said. The deputies at first thought the call was an April Fools' prank, but they drove to the mobile-home dealership just in case. The alleged burglars walked out of the dealership with the refrigerator into the waiting arms of the Hawkins County Sheriff's Department, deputies said. The deputies said they planned to listen to the 911 call again to see if other accomplices were identified.

Daylight Savings Time

2005-03-30T15:08:00.000-06:00

Just Wake Up Earlier
Benjamin Franklin is often credited with creating the concept of Daylight Savings Time when he wrote a letter to the Journal of Paris. However, what is little known is that the article was humorous. He was really suggesting that people wake up and go to bed earlier- not a bi-annual changing of the clocks.

From his letter:

I went home, and to bed, three or four hours after midnight, with my head full of the subject. An accidental sudden noise waked me about six in the morning, when I was surprised to find my room filled with light; and I imagined at first, that a number of those lamps had been brought into it; but, rubbing my eyes, I perceived the light came in at the windows. I got up and looked out to see what might be the occasion of it, when I saw the sun just rising above the horizon, from whence he poured his rays plentifully into my chamber, my domestic having negligently omitted, the preceding evening, to close the shutters.

Continue

From Wikipedia

Walking It Off

2005-03-28T18:01:00.000-06:00

From the WSJ Evening Wrap:
Weighing in at a Rubenesque 9,200 pounds, Maggie, an African elephant at the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage, could stand to lose a few hundred pounds. To that end, zookeepers have commissioned a massive treadmill, to be built free of charge by Conveyer Engineering, an Idaho mining-equipment maker. The treadmill will be 20 feet long and five feet wide and will have guard rails on either side of it. "Our biggest concern is that we break the elephant," a Conveyer Engineering official said.

Animal-rights activists People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, however, believe Maggie is still getting a raw deal. They note that, in the wild, African elephants walk some 16 hours a day, foraging for sustenance. What's more, African elephants are accustomed to climates warmer than Alaska's, and Maggie's been alone since her buddy Annabelle died in 1997. PETA wants Maggie moved to a wildlife sanctuary or a warmer climate.

Though other zoos now want elephant treadmills of their own, the controversy will keep Conveyer Engineering out of the business for good. "When we're done with this one, we're going to turn the plans over to EquiGym," a Kentucky company that makes treadmills for horses, a Conveyer Engineering spokesman said. "Mining is controversial enough."

More Details...

2005-03-24T17:59:00.000-06:00

From the WSJ Evening Wrap:
Sitophobia is an abnormal fear of eating food. It's rare, but an unnamed woman who ate a horrifying meal at a San Jose, Calif., Wendy's restaurant earlier this week would certainly seem to be at risk of catching it.

She was eating a bowl of chili when she bit into something unusual. She spit the unusual thing out, a one-and-three-eighths-inch-long section of human finger, decorated with a long, painted nail. She had the presence of mind to warn other customers in the restaurant to stop eating, but then vomited "a number of times," according to a Santa Clara County health official. The official said the woman was at no risk of disease, since the finger had been thoroughly cooked.

Wendy's said it was working with investigators to figure out the finger's origin. It apparently did not belong to any employees at the Wendy's restaurant. "We asked everybody to show us they have 10 fingers and everything is OK there," a health official told the Associated Press.

Hilarious Spoof

2005-03-24T13:25:00.000-06:00

OnlyTzaras.com : "Share your tzaras (problems) with everyone"

(Not to be confused with onlysimchas.com)

Worse Than a Fly in Your Soup

2005-03-24T10:07:00.000-06:00

Diner finds finger in chili
From CNN.com

SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- A diner at a Wendy's fast food restaurant in San Jose, California, found a human finger in a bowl of chili prepared by the chain, local officials said Wednesday.

"This individual apparently did take a spoonful, did have a finger in their mouth and then, you know, spit it out and recognized it," said Ben Gale, director of the department of environmental health for Santa Clara County. "Then they had some kind of emotional reaction and vomited."

Local officials launched an investigation after the incident Tuesday night and the medical examiner determined Wednesday that the object was a human finger.

Officials are trying to determine whether the finger came in the raw materials Wendy's used to prepare the chili, Gale said.

Via I write, therefore I blog

The Daily Show

2005-03-21T13:48:00.000-06:00

Daily Show Clip Archives

Great Website

2005-03-21T13:02:00.000-06:00

Ever need to send attachments that are too large for email?
YouSendIt will host your email attachment and let others download it from their server.
Pretty cool.

No need to plead the 5th

2005-03-16T16:30:00.000-06:00

From the WSJ Evening Wrap:

Getting away with crime is difficult enough, but it's especially hard when the criminal advertises his or her crimes to the world in advance.

Cases in point: Police in Quincy, Mass., discovered a man sleeping in a stolen car in the parking lot of a CVS pharmacy, wearing a stocking on his head and holding a cap gun and a note saying: "I have a Gun DO NOT Press any Alarms or let Custermors [sic] know Empty the All the register."

And police in Moorhead, Minn., arrested a man for drunken driving last week who had a personalized license plate that read "TIPSY." "It doesn't mean I drink and drive," the defendant explained to the Associated Press. "It just means I have a good time."

Who's on First?

2005-03-16T09:35:00.000-06:00

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Who's on First?
BY CHRIS GAVALER

(A CUSTOMER steps up to a video-store counter with a stack of videos.)

CASHIER: Hi. Did you find everything you wanted?

CUSTOMER: (Handing over membership card.) Yes, thanks. (Pause.) When is this one due back?

CASHIER: The day after tomorrow.

CUSTOMER: Yeah, when's it due back?

CASHIER: The day after tomorrow.

CUSTOMER: Yes. The Day After Tomorrow.

CASHIER: Right.

CUSTOMER: Right. When's it due back?

CASHIER: The day after tomorrow.

CUSTOMER: I mean the movie. The Day After Tomorrow. When is it due?"

Continue...

The Big Drip

2005-03-15T16:19:00.000-06:00

From the WSJ Evening Wrap:

At more than 20 years and nearly $15 billion, the Big Dig, which diverted I-93 into tunnels underneath Boston, has been the biggest, most expensive highway project in U.S. history. And you may not want to drive in it. After an inspection of the I-93 tunnels, one of which sprung a massive leak in September, an independent engineer told the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority that he couldn't guarantee their safety.

The engineer, Jack Lemley, told Massachusetts lawmakers in November that the tunnels were safe, but he has since discovered hundreds of smaller leaks, the latest black eye for a project dogged by cost overruns and controversy. Mr. Lemley also said that turnpike officials had withheld information about the problems and had no plan to fix them. The Turnpike Authority stood by the safety of the tunnels: "If we ever had a reasonable inkling otherwise, we'd close the tunnels," a spokesman told the Boston Globe, which broke the story.

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said he would ask the state's Supreme Court if he could fire the Turnpike Authority's chairman. Mr. Romney told the AP that he'd keep driving through the Big Dig, but "I don't feel as safe in the tunnels today as I did yesterday."

Just Get Even

2005-03-15T12:50:00.000-06:00

No Need to Stew: A Few Tips to Cope With Life's Annoyances
By IAN URBINA
NY Times
March 15, 2005

When Seth Shepsle goes to Starbucks, he orders a 'medium' because 'grande' - as the coffee company calls the size, the one between big and small - annoys him.

Meg Daniel presses zero whenever she hears a computerized operator on the telephone so that she can talk to a real person. 'Just because they want a computer to handle me doesn't mean I have to play along,' she said.

When subscription cards fall from magazines Andrew Kirk is reading, he stacks them in a pile at the corner of his desk. At the end of each month, he puts them in the mail but leaves them blank so that the advertiser is forced to pay the business reply postage without gaining a new subscriber.

Life can involve big hardships, like being fired or smashing up your car. There is only so much you can do about them. But far more prevalent - and perhaps in the long run just as insidious - are life's many little annoyances."

These, you can do something about.

To examine the little weapons people use for everyday survival is to be given a free guidebook on getting by, created by the millions who feel that they must. It is a case study in human inventiveness, with occasional juvenile and petty passages, and the originators of these tips are happy to share them.

"They're an integral part of how people cope," said Prof. James C. Scott, who teaches anthropology and political science at Yale University, and the author of "Weapons of the Weak," about the feigned ignorance, foot-dragging and other techniques Malaysian peasants used to avoid cooperating with the arrival of new technology in the 1970's. "All societies have them, but they're successful only to the extent that they avoid open confrontation."

The slow driver in fast traffic, the shopper with 50 coupons at the front of the checkout line and the telemarketer calling at dinner all inflict life's thousand little lashes. But some see these infractions as precious opportunities, rare chances for retribution in the face of forces beyond our control.

Wesley A. Williams spent more than a year exacting his revenge against junk mailers. When signing up for a no-junk-mail list failed to stem the flow, he resorted to writing at the top of each unwanted item: "Not at this address. Return to sender." But the mail kept coming because the envelopes had "or current resident" on them, obligating mail carriers to deliver it, he said.

Next, he began stuffing the mail back into the "business reply" envelope and sending it back so that the mailer would have to pay the postage. "That wasn't exacting a heavy enough cost from them for bothering me," said Mr. Williams, 35, a middle school science teacher who lives in Melrose, N.Y., near Albany.

After checking with a postal clerk about the legality of stepping up his efforts, he began cutting up magazines, heavy bond paper, and small strips of sheet metal and stuffing them into the business reply envelopes that came with the junk packages.

"You wouldn't believe how heavy I got some of these envelopes to weigh," said Mr. Williams, who added that he saw an immediate drop in the amount of arriving junk mail. A spokesman for the United States Postal Service, Gerald McKiernan, said that Mr. Williams's actions sounded legal, as long as the envelope was properly sealed.

Sometimes, small acts of rebellion offer big doses of relief.

"I've come to realize that I'm almost addicted to the sick little pleasure I get from lashing out at these things," said Mr. Kirk, 24, a freelance writer from Brooklyn who collects and returns magazine inserts.

When ordering a pizza from Domino's, Mr. Kirk says he always requests a "small," knowing that he will be corrected and told that medium is the smallest available size. "It makes me feel better to point out that their word games aren't fooling anyone," he said.

The Internet offers a booming trade to help with this type of annoyance-fighting behavior. For example, shared passwords to free Web sites are available at Bugmenot to help people avoid dealing with long registration forms. To coexist with loud cellphone talkers, the Web offers hand-held jammers that, although illegal in the United States, can block all signals within a 45-foot radius.

Mitch Altman, a 48-year old inventor living in San Francisco, said that in the last three months he has sold about 30,000 of his key-chain-size zappers called TV-B-Gone, which can be used discreetly to switch off televisions in public places. "When you go to a restaurant to talk with friends, why should you have to deal with the distraction of a ceiling-mounted television?" Mr. Altman said.

Some Web sites specialize in arming people against online annoyances. The site Slashdot posted the name and the mailing address of one of the worst known spammers, encouraging people to sign the spammer up for catalogs and other junk mail to be sent to the spammer's home. Mr. McKiernan of the Postal Service said that this tactic also appeared to be legal, but might constitute harassment.

Some groups are more frustrated than others. In 2002, Harris Interactive, a market research group based in Rochester, conducted a phone survey called the Daily Hassle Scale that asked 1,010 people to rank the aggravations they faced in a typical day. The survey found that poor people and African-Americans suffer the most stress from the everyday annoyances such as noisy neighbors, telemarketers and pressure at work, but it did not explain why.

Sometimes, the resistance to these frustrations is organized.

Work slowdowns are methods commonly used by labor unions to apply pressure without actually striking. During the Solidarity movement in Poland, people expressed their disapproval of the government-run news media by taking a walk with their hats on backward at exactly 6 p.m. when the state news program started. When the government noticed the trend, it issued curfews, but people then put their televisions in their windows facing outward so that only the police walking the streets would see the broadcasts. "You have to remember, in Poland during those years showing up drunk at work was seen as a patriotic act because people hated the bosses so much," Professor Scott said.

But even on less coordinated levels, shared frustration is often the augur of countercultural trends. Mr. Shepsle said he took great solace in discovering his irritations with Starbucks' lingo summed up on a popular T-shirt in Chicago. The shirt, which mocks the pretentiousness of a certain Chicago neighborhood, features two names. Next to Lincoln Park it says "Tall, Grande, Venti." Next to Wicker Park it says "Small, Medium, Large." "It's nice to know I'm not alone," said Mr. Shepsle, 28, who works for a theater company in Manhattan.

Most people participate in this sort of behavior on some level, Professor Scott said, adding that his own habit was to write "England" rather than "United Kingdom" on letters he sends to his British friends. He described this as his way of disregarding British claims to Wales and Scotland.

"As a tactic, it doesn't amount to much except a way to provide a tiny and private sense of satisfaction," he said. "But that's something."

A Joking Matter

2005-03-11T14:51:00.000-06:00

Judge Says Leno Can Joke About Jackson

By TIM MOLLOY, Associated Press Writer

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno may joke about Michael Jackson (news) despite a gag order on the prospective witness in the molestation case, the judge ruled Friday.

Responding to a request by Leno's attorney, Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville clarified that the gag order would not prevent the comic from making jokes about Jackson in his monologues.

Leno, who may be called to testify about a phone call with Jackson's accuser, has been having other celebrities tell Jackson jokes on his show since being subpoenaed. Media attorney Theodore Boutrous Jr. argued for the clarification on grounds Leno's First Amendment rights were violated.

The judge said the gag order barred Leno from talking about the specific areas on which he may testify, but it wouldn't prevent him or anyone else covered by the gag order from commenting generally about Jackson.

He said he would not even try to make Leno stop telling jokes that assume Jackson is guilty.

"I am not attempting to prevent anybody from making a living in the normal way that they make their living," he said.

The judge also joked: "I'd like him to tell good jokes ... but I guess I can't control that."

Jackson attorney Robert Sanger said Leno has made "very cruel jokes" about Jackson that could affect how he might testify and he urged the judge to restrict Leno further.

"We're not putting him out of his business if he can't talk about Michael Jackson for a few weeks," Sanger said.

The judge said he didn't believe such a limit would be constitutional.

The defense is expected to call Leno as part of its effort to show that the accuser's family has sought money from many celebrities including the "Tonight Show" host. According to the defense, Leno called police after talking with the accuser because he thought accuser's family was looking for a "mark."

Sanger noted that Leno's testimony would be favorable to the defense.

The judge said that during questioning, Jackson's lawyers would be free to note that Leno has made jokes about Jackson if they think it's relevant.

Outsourcing at McDonalds

2005-03-10T17:07:00.000-06:00

Ordering a Big Mac via Fargo? McDonald's ponders call centers for drive-thrus

By Jennifer Waters
March 10, 2005

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Call centers for McDonald's drive-thrus?

That's on the menu as the world's largest hamburger chain looks at ways to speed up accuracy and timing for drive-thru customers who contribute more than half of all restaurant sales. Instead of being on site, the liaison between customer and cook could be thousands of miles away from a local Golden Arches.

At an analyst conference in New York on Thursday, McDonald's executives said they are testing the use of call centers -- with professional order takers who have strong communication skills and do nothing other than take orders down.

At this point, it's not likely the order takers will be in Bombay or Bangladesh, but they won't be behind the window. Some, however, may be fluent in foreign languages, regardless of where they are.

"So if you're in L.A. and you hear in a year or so a Spanish-speaking person taking your order in a North Dakota accent, you'll know what we're up to," Chief Executive Jim Skinner said.

Funny Signs

2005-03-02T09:12:00.000-06:00

"Adding insult to injust"

More signs from Flickr

Birthday Ice Cream

2005-03-02T08:49:00.000-06:00

Yahoo! celebrates its 10th birthday with ice cream!
Yahoo! 10th Anniversary Ice Cream Giveaway

Robin Williams' anti-Disney, pro-Pixar "Song of Freedom"

2005-03-01T12:18:00.000-06:00

From Boing Boing:
During a press junket for the upcoming Fox CG film Robots, Robin Williams -- who plays robot 'Fender' in the film -- burst into a hilarious impromptu riff about Pixar's departure from Disney. Yeah, I know. Everything Williams does is an impromptu riff.

Link to MP3

Lost and Found

2005-02-25T13:29:00.000-06:00

1972 Crash Survivor's Wallet Recovered

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) -- One of 16 survivors of a 1972 Andes plane crash made famous by a book and movie has gotten his wallet and jacket back 32 years after leaving them in the mountain snows.

Eduardo Strauch, who survived 72 days in high mountain snows, received the aged wallet, drivers license and other personal items Wednesday, a week after they were found in the Andes by a mountain climber.

Strauch, now a 57-year-old architect and father of five, was aboard a flight with fellow rugby players, relatives and friends when their plane crashed high in the Andes on Oct. 12, 1972.

'Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors' by Piers Paul Read publicized the story with accounts of how survivors ate flesh from some of the victims to survive. The story was later dramatized in a Hollywood movie.

A Mexican hiker chanced upon the items just yards from the site where the plane went down.

The hiker passed the items on to a local hotelier took who gave them to Alvaro Mangino, another Uruguayan who survived the flight and happened to be in western Argentina at that time. Mangino delivered to Strauch.

'This is just a feeling that's impossible to describe,' Strauch told The Associated Press on Thursday. 'It's incredible, amazing that this episode continues to speak for itself.'"