Other: News, Week 4

I won't mention Haiti, because it's too damned depressing and everyone should know what's going on by now. I did have a realization last night when I was listening to NPR and whoever was on was talking about how the ability to donate money via SMS to various organizations was a sign of "the democratization of giving." I realized that the word "democratization" is waaaay over-used these days and that's starting to annoy me. Now, let's move on. (Seriously, it's not like there were ever any real barriers to making donations to groups. Yes, texting makes it much easier, but having had, in the past, to make a credit card donation over the phone or the web was hardly an onerous task.)

Now with C++-style comments! Because I'm bored and I can!

Dumbassbook:

• Facebook and clickjacking: "Reseacher Nitesh Dhanjani also said a design flaw in Facebook is granting third-party apps permission to access user profile data without express approval from users." karen.shocked(0);
• Facebook employee tells all. karen.shocked(-1);

Just plain WTF?

• Researchers at a Washington state university decided to conduct an experiment to see how distracting cellphone use really is. They put a clown suit on a guy on a unicycle and sent him riding around a campus square. Only 25% of people on cell phones noticed him. While they did have control groups of people walking with friends (71% noticed the clown), listening to music (61%), or walking alone (51% -- wow, I guess most people space out as much as I do), they didn't have one of people who were walking and chewing gum at the same time. if (karen.walking == true && karen.gumchewing == true) { karen.faceplant(force.hard); }
• A maker of rifle scopes with a Pentagon contract has been etching Biblical scripture onto the scopes it has already been shipping to the U.S. military. karen.head.desk(force.hard);
• A technology-focused middle school in San Diego was put in lockdown because officials thought an 11-year-old student's science project, a motion detector made from a Gatorade bottle and some electronics, might be an explosive device. karen.head.desk(force.harder);
• In spite of at least one recent poll which said that the vast majority of people will not pay to subscribe to online newspapers and the fact that the New York Times abandoned another Web subscription model only a couple years back, that venerable (but socio-technologically idiotic) publication has announced it will again start charging on-line readers next year. Morons. nyt.shoot(nyt.foot);
• UK researchers blame an upswing in the number cases of rickets, caused by vitamin D deficiency, in that country on video games. It sounds like the vitamin is not regularly added to milk as it is here in the U.S., but the researcher in question advocates changing that. karen.swallow(multi-vitamin);

And now for some funnies!

• Conan O'Brien, responding to reports that NBC would be allowed to keep some of the signature characters he developed on The Late Show years ago: "Isn't it great to live in a country where a cigar-smoking dog puppet and a bear that masturbates are considered intellectual property?" karen.boosts(conan);

see more Lolcats and funny pictures
It's a Death Race 2000 remake done the right way... with kittens! karen.points(100000);


see more Lolcats and funny pictures
karen.jealous(1);


see more Lolcats and funny pictures
Most cheezburger pics are pretty self-explanatory, as long as you remember that cats spontaneously do incredibly wacky things on a regular basis. This one, though, I'd really like to know the backstory. karen.perplexed(1);