Saddam spectacle, fringe economy, apple suits, back taxes

Last post of 2006! Hope you all have a fun and safe New Year's celebration!
A few items to read when you have the day off work tomorrow:

• Saddam execution shown on tv and web (links to a story about this; I'm not linking to any execution footage). I hope I'm not the only one that finds this absolutely horrendous. I will not be looking for this footage. I don't care what you thought of him, I think it is disturbing that anyone would want to watch footage of someone dying. It is vengeful thinking or extreme morbid curiosity. For it to be shown on CNN and Fox is no better, in my opinion, then terrorists floating around videos of killing captives. (And yes, I know those were available on the web too, and that people here would want to watch that makes me sick.) The trial and fact he was executed is certainly news, but that can be covered adequately without showing this footage. I fear it is only a few years before real executions are part of America's reality tv culture. Time to rebuild the Coliseum for gruesome entertainment!
  
• Millions living in America's "fringe economy". Read this if you get a chance, because it was fascinating and sad. It is amazing to think about how much money these people are losing, just in order to survive. It also will further divide the rich from the poor in this country.
• Apple facing more lawsuits: Is iTunes/iPod an illegal monopoly? Does the iBook G4 logic board fail at an unusually high rate? Does the Nike/iPod infringe on patents? Stay tuned in 2007 for the exciting answers!
• Mystery billionaire pays $200M in CA back taxes, almost single-handedly closing their revenue shortfall. That's a lot of tax, and my question is how did the state not know someone owed $200 million?
  

Tough job, expiring leader, apple options

Here's a few more links for you:

• Think your job is bad? This guy was arrested for barring his employees from leaving, under feeding them, and arranging beatings. But what is the health insurance like?
• Saddam to be hanged by Sunday. Or one of his many look-alikes will be hung. Hmmm.
• Questions raised in Apple stock options. But then they gave the investigator iPods and no one cared anymore.
  

Ford, fees, finds, fun, fleece

Happy Holidays! I hope your holidays are going well; mine have been great!
Here's a few quick links for you to browse while finishing off the Christmas cookies:

• President Gerald Ford passed away this week. The link goes to various quotes from the former president.
• Might be a bit late for your holiday travels, but it's worth reviewing the 35 most outrageous fees (and how to avoid them).
• As we reach the close of 2006, what have we learned? 50 things we know now that we didn't know at the same point in 2005.
• At ROXIK, there is a cool interactive drag-and-drop people in the wind thing. (Better to see than to take my feeble description.)
• Lastly, a couple of fun looking projects at Instructables:
• Customizable fleece hats for the cold winters ahead.
• Low cost illuminated signage for your leftover Christmas lights.
  

Eragon

Tonight, I went to the movie Eragon. I've not read the book, but thought it looked to be OK based on the commercials. It is maybe geared for a slightly younger audience (as long as they like a little blood and violence). The effects are alright, but I noticed something early on about the plot.

At this point, I will reveal a lot of spoilers, so stop reading if you don't want to know.

Eragon is Star Wars.
Please see the following plot summary that applies to both movies:

• The knights rule peacefully until one betrays them and ends up wiping them all out.
• A princess steals something that belongs to the head bad guy.
• The thing ends up in the hands of a small town farm boy.
• The farm boy meets up with a mysterious stranger with a noble past.
• The farm boy realizes he might have a destiny.
• The bad guys (technically the ruling empire) kill the farm boy's uncle.
• The farm is burned down.
• The farm boy and the mysterious old, oh let's say knight/wizard, go on the run.
• The knight/wizard helps the farm boy learn to tap into his magical powers.
  
• They are looking to meet up with the rebels.
• They take a detour to save the princess from the bad guys' stronghold.
• The older knight/wizard is fatally wounded and dies during this.
• They are helped by a scoundrel with a shady past, but ultimately a good heart.
• The farm boy, princess, and scoundrel meet up with the rebels.
• The rebels and bad guys fight.
• The farm boy plays the critical role that wins them the fight. This involves fancy flying and trusting in yourself.
  

The evil king lives on for the next movie, and I will cringe if we find out he is the farm boy's real father. Sorry, I suppose I should have also included a Star Wars spoiler warning for you as well.

It wasn't a terrible movie (not nearly as good as when it was Star Wars, of course), but the pacing was bad. Everything happened so fast that you never really cared about any of them, and never felt that it was even remotely believable (for a movie about dragons and magic, that is).

Ageless turtles, coicidence, bad hack, vacuum shoes

Hi, just a few items for you today:

• Turtles may be immortal. Bow before the might of Turtle!
• 15 strange coincidences. Includes that tired Lincoln/Kennedy one. The others are interesting, but I wonder how many are just urban myth or stories.
• Logic bomb backfires on hacker and costs him $23,000. Well thought out, sir.
• Electrolux unveils "vacuum shoes" concept. Great, how am I supposed to walk under the coffee tables?
  

Country quiz, seven wonders, scams, txting

Here's a few items for the day:

• World geography quiz; a cool little test that I unfortunately did not do as well at as I'd hoped.
• The Seven Wonders of every US State, of the ones I looked at there are a lot of not so impressive wonders.
• Keep your eyes open for the top 10 scams of the year. I guess I take for granted that some of these scams would be obviously suspicious to most people, but apparently a lot of money is lost to them.
• Text messaging blamed for bad English. I'm totally fine with texting where appropriate, but I think it is disappointing that people can't write more formally, IMHO.
  

Food safety, nullity, scary mary, scrubs Christmas

Hi, here's some things to look at:

• Nine people get food poisoning at a buffet at a food handling training conference. I suppose that's one way to train. Kind of like letting your kid touch the hot pot on the stove. They won't do it again (and may need medical attention).
• A computer scientist has solved the age old "divide by zero" problem by inventing a new "number" called "nullity". So dividing anything by 0 results in nullity. Wait, how does this solve anything? I agree with one comment poster that divide by zero isn't a computer "problem", it is an exception and the problem is if the programmer didn't handle it correctly. Also, I need more things "in quotes".
  
• I don't browse a lot of YouTube (usually finding things from external links instead), but occasionally there's some good things out there. Like this clever recut of Mary Poppins footage to make it looks like a horror movie "Scary Mary".
• Or, this clip of the Charlie Brown Christmas redubbed by the cast of Scrubs. Ha!

Healthy states, evd, gadget bag, lottery prank, player displays

Hello, new collection of items for you today:

• Hey, I'm in the healthiest state in the union! I'm sure Whitmarshall is greatly influencing that rating.
• Can't decide between Blu-ray and HD-DVD? Just wait for the EVD format when China takes over the world.
• I don't need this at all but thought it was a cool idea: Elekson's keyboard/gadget bag.
• If you were thinking about creating a fake winning lottery ticket as a prank, don't.
• Pitch speed meters, digital line markers, the glowing FOX hockey puck? All ancient technology. What's next? Electroluminescent displays on player uniforms.
  

Trivia, vista, digestion, ps4, riddles, hamster

Hello! Here are a few interesting things to take up your time:

• 50 Things Everyone Should Know (or 50 useless, but mildly interesting facts). It is a nice list of trivia, and since I found it on the Internet, I can only guess that some of it might be true.
• Why Vista might be the last of its kind. An interesting perspective on Microsoft Vista (versus Google tools and such). The thing I found most amazing in the article was that it took Microsoft 10,000 employees for 5 years to create Vista! Wow!
• Can't finish that last bit of food? You can put it in the digestive table, which is simultaneously neat and gross.
• I haven't gone for a Sony PS3 yet, but why bother now that they've announced the PS4 will be available shortly (in 2010)?
  

Site of the day:

Weff Riddles - a very fun and challenging web puzzle path. It was refreshing how clever it is even though it is very low-tech.

And just for fun, here's a clever and cute YouTube video of a live action hamster video game: