Life On the Wicked Stage: Act 2

Ryan Block and Popover Ads: Just Say No

Well, actually Ryan Block of Engadget tells his friends to stop doing popover ads with language a little more robust than “just say no”. But the intent is the same and I’d love to see this scourge go away.

Amen, Ryan.

German Restaurant Goes Automated

This is bad news for aspiring actors and actresses everywhere. A German restaurant has canned the wait staff and gone completely automated. The owner thinks this will save big bucks. Got to love that personal service.

Via Crunch Gear

A&P Caught With Pants Down

Well, kinda. file this under think before you do something stupid.

Turns out two brothers made a gangsta rap parody filming it in the produce section of the local A&P where they worked. Although they didn't mention their employer, A&P, someone got steamed in management somewhere and obviously wasn't thinking. So, A&P is suing the duo for a million smackers and of course has fired them, and has now called attention to itself in ways that the video never would have.  Just because A&P deserves it, here's the video. Until it gets pulled. 

They Found Iraqi WMD

At the UN. Go figure.

DMCA Circles Within Circles Within...

Wow. So this guy creates a video. Viacom, without his permission includes part of that video on a VH1 Show called Web Junk 2.0. The guy who created the video puts a clip of that on YouTube. Viacom, waving its DMCA flag demands that YouTube pull the video. YouTube complies.

Christopher Knight is the guy. He's blogging about it. Somewhere inside Viacom someone isn't laughing, but the legal billings keep piling up.

Amazing.

Technorati Tags: Viacom, YouTube, Christopher Knight

Burning Man Gets Burnt Early

Somebody apparently wanted to get the burning going early and lit up the Burning Man a few days early. Turns out the guy is an actor. Guess he didn't like waiting in the wings or didn't get the right cue line.

Technorati Tags: Burning Man

via MSNBC

Diaper-Free Babies?

I don't get this. I guess it is becoming a trend though. Parents are potty-training toddlers earlier on the belief that we are born with an innate sense to signal that we need to do the do. Some are starting the training at birth. This trend leads to diaper free babies and uses "elimination communication" to read kid's body language. EC mimics the sounds that a child associates with the bathroom.

Reading further this practice, though most likely not as dressed up as our culture will make it, happens in rural third world areas where diapers are in short supply.

Still this one is a puzzler for me.

Via MSNBC

Defend Fair Use

Picked this up from Google Blogoscoped today. The new site, Defend Fair Use set up by the Computer & Communications Industry Association to promote the concept of Fair Use. Not a bad idea. Actually a good one. The concept of Fair Use is constantly under attack on many fronts.

Phillip Lenssen who wrote the post also points out that there is an intriguing juxtaposition in that the CCIA is basically backed by Google, Yahoo, & Microsoft, each of which has made deals with the devil when it comes to Digital Rights Management and the DMCA  in order to advance products and services. Twisted and Faustian as that may be, it points up how complex the issue is, and how immature and perhaps too expedient decisions along the way have led to the morass we have today.

With the treasure chests of Microsoft and Google I'd love to see them woo away some of the legal beagles from the other side in this fight.

Read more on Fair Use here.

Technorati Tags: Fair Use

Chris Brogan on Tuning Twitter

Chris Brogan who is a prolific Twitterer has written an interesting post on how to Tune Twitter for value. Well worth a read if you Twitter. I think he nails it.

Now That's What I Call Sea Foam

Wow. This looks, er.... um... foamy. Apparently Mother Nature decided to stir up some foam on the shore of North Sydney in Australia. According to the Daily Mail article this happens when the ocean wants to puke up some impurities such as salts, chemicals, dead plants, decomposed fish, and excretions from seaweed. That looks like a lot of seaweed excretions to me.

Via The J-Walk Blog