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The Power Geeks #97

by DarthMolen on Apr.20, 2011, under The Latest Shows

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We are LIVE on Ustream . This week we talk content ownership, lots of new releases, plenty of apple news, and then a very special Chinese Conspiracy theory hour

Intro Natali
Intro Ben

Items of Interest

  • Ultimate Mashup: Angry Rebels & Imperial Pigs (udg)
    • A long time ago, on an app far, far away… The Imperial Pigs have stolen the Rebellion’s eggs, so the Rebellion struck back by stealing the plans for the Death Pig. Check out bite.ca for more of this great mashup. T shirts are even available.
  • Rebecca Black Star Wars Parody (udg)
    • You’ve all seen the train wreck that is Friday. Most have seen the gazillion parodies running rampant. But, no matter how sick you are of it all, you have to watch this one last one. The words have all been changed and it is sheer awesomeness.
  • World’s Biggest Pacman Game (udg)
    • Pac-man fan? Meet your new best friends Soap Creative. They’ve created The World’s Biggest Pac-Man game.  When I say World’s biggest- we’re talking it could take YEARS for one person to complete it. You see, it never stops growing. Users can create their own rooms for free and add them to the board.
    • Originally created to showcase the capabilities of Microsoft’s IE 9, you can choose to start in any room you want and hop over to other rooms even if you haven’t completed the room you are in. And the rooms so far range from simple to damnear impossible. Welcome to user-generated content.
    • Tallies are kept on a personal, regional and global level based on pellets and ghosts eaten and rooms cleared.
  • For many April 19th marked the release of the much anticipated game, Portal 2, but for those of us who were fans of the canceled Sarah Conner Chronicles series we know it’s also the date that Skynet was brought online, meaning that April 21st will be Judgement Day. (btm)
    • Many gamer forums have already been asking if game developers chose the release date for this reason.
    • If you’re planning a Judgement Day party on Wednesday to celebrate the Skynet destruction of mankind, just remember, “The cake is a lie.”
      • (our local mall has a cell phone store called “Skynet” maybe I should make signs and protest our destruction?) (btm)
    • If you’re listening to the recorded version of this podcast after the 21st, find John Conner, he’s your only hope.
  • Top 10 Zombie Music Videos
    • Nothing says loving like zombies, guts, blood, and good music
    • Grouper “Alien Observer” (lesbian zombies ‘nuff said), Kanye West “Monster” (hot zombies), Peaches and Iggy Pop “Kick it”, Aesop Rock “Coffee”

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Deals of the Week / New Releases

  • How to Get in On Gears of War 3 Beta (udg)
    • Last week the Epic Game’s latest chapter Gears of War saga, Gears of War 3 beta went live. The early access beta started this weekend and will run through April 24 when the full public beta opens and runs to May 15.
    • The web is rampant with official and unofficial ways to get access to the beta. We’re going to give you the real (and safest) way to get in on it. Most people playing the beta right now are players who got their beta codes with their purchase of Bulletstorm: Epic Edition, which will still get you a code if you can find a copy on the shelves.
    • You can also follow developer and Epic Games Design Director Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) and Epic Games Vice President and Co-Founder Mark Rein (@MarkRein) on Twitter: they both have been giving out codes to their followers all weekend, and show no signs of stopping. If you don’t get in on the beta before the 24th though, don’t worry: if you pre-order Gears of War 3, you’ll get a beta code that you can redeem on the 25th to join the fun.
    • So far, reviews on the beta has been impressive and it’s being considered a great update to an already well polished and established series.
  • Celebrate Earth Day with Geeky Style. Several companies offering Solar Powered backpacks that charge your hand-held devices (btm)
    • 4 Watts of Solar Power from 1 hour in the sun = 3 hours of talk time,
    • 4-5 hours in the sun will fully charge a typical phone
    • Battery that offers up to 19 hours talk time or 48 hours music playback
    • Prices range from mid-$200 to well over $300
  • Win a Copy of The Avengers: The Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Vol. 1 & 2 (udg)
    • Our friends over at Big Shiny Robot are giving away The Avengers: The Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Vol 1 & 2 on DVD.  The contest runs through Friday April 29th with winners being announced on Monday, May 2nd.
    • To enter, just shoot them an email over at editor at bigshinyrobot.com. Make sure you put “AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!” in the subject line.
    • Want some extra chances? Head over to their facebook page and invite all of your friends to like ‘em. Or you can ask your followers on twitter to follow us @BigShinyRobot. Just be sure to mention when you  email them that you’ve done it.
  • Beastie Boys New Album: Hot Sauce Committee Part 2
    • May 3rd release date, so pumped
    • Digital pre-sales will be delivered the “day-of”
  • New Movie Releases
    • IP MAN 2!!!!! – Watch this back-to-back with Ip Man #awesomekungfu
    • Goemon – Robin Hood with Ninjas and Kung Fu
    • Mortal Kombat BR
    • Captain Planet and the Planeteers (Season 1)
    • Tokyo Gore Police – Yoshihiro Nishimura and “unbridled horror insanity + fetishism” (You can check it out on Netflix streaming now. udg)
  • Irredeemable for $0.99 an Issue! (udg)
    • Now through tomorrow night at 11pm E, ComiXology has their critically acclaimed series Irredeemable for just $0.99 an issue.
    • Like to actually hold the paper? Their physical copy of Irredeemable: Vol 1 (issues 1-4) is on sale for $4.
    • Never heard of Irredeemable? It’s by Mark Waid & Peter Krause and basically about a Superman-like hero that spends a lifetime protecting earth. Until the day he snaps, decides humanity needs a good wake-up slap and begins taking out his former teammates who are the biggest.

Movie Minute (new feature)

  • We Were All Wrong- New Dark Knight Rises Roles Revealed (udg)
    • We’ve known for a while now that Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotilliard were signed on to The Dark Knight Rises. Knowing that, we made our own lil assumptions about who they’d be playing. We figured Marion would be playing Talia al Ghul (daughter of Ra’s al GHul and Bruce Wayne love interest) and JGL would be Alberto Falcone AKA “The Holiday Killer.” Guess what happens when we assume? Yeah, we’re not so cleaver it seems.
    • After MONTHS and months of us assuming away, Warner Bros & Christopher Nolan have officially announced Joseph and Marion have joined that cast. They’ve also told us who they will be playing. Marion will be playing Miranda Tate, “a Wayne Enterprises board member eager to help a still-grieving Bruce Wayne resume his father’s philanthropic endeavors for Gotham” and Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play John Blake, “a Gotham City beat cop assigned to special duty under the command of Commissioner Gordon”.
  • Pride, Prejudiced & Zombies Gets a Director (udg)
    • If for some odd reason you haven’t heard of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, it’s a novel set in the same world as the classic Jane Austen novel, but the main characters Ms. Bennet and good ole Mr. Darcy are fighting off a Zombie infestation.
    • And it looks like it may finally be coming to a theater sometime soonish. Seems third time may be a charm, as Craig Gillespie (known for the new Fright Night) has been officially set in stone to direct the film.
    • “We are so excited to have Craig Gillespie on board this film. His sensibility spans from genre bending horror to elegant character driven comedy, which is perfect for this movie.” glows  Alli Shearmur, Lionsgate’s president of production
    • Hopefully he’s still excited after Criag let it slip in an EW interview that the script he’ll be using came from David O. Russell, that guy who just got a ton of acclaim for a little picture called The Fighter.
      • No, we have a really great script that we’re just going to do a polish on and then get going, really…. David Russell wrote the script off the book, and it has such a great mix of humor and horror.
    • It isn’t clear when production will begin on Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, although with a director finally locked in, it seems they are ramping up to start filming soon.
  • Full body shot of new Green Lantern CGI costume (btm)
    • This just confirms my fears about the CGI costume.
    • Put on some freaking boots!
      • (does anyone really need to see Ryan Reynolds toes?)
  • Game of Thrones renewed already
    • Series adaptation of popular books by George R.R. Martin “A song of Ice and Fire”
    • First episode got strong critical acclaim
    • 4.2 million viewers on a PPV channel is WAAAY Strong
    • Already committed to a second season

Geek Speak

  • The End of Content Ownership
    • the cloud is becoming more prominent as of late
    • Netflix, Zune, Amazon, everyone wants to push the “rent” model for content
    • New services, such as 24 symbols, will offer “streaming” books
    • Is the lack of ownership of for monetary outlay alarming or just par for the course?
    • (SM) Zune and Netflix ownership
    • (btm) What do we really “own” any more? A lot of software you buy seems to write their EULAs in a way that says you’re actually leasing the software vice owning it. Even if you buy the disk and have everything local on your machine it’s not really yours.
      • Blizzard recently banned players for cheating in Single Player Campaign mode in StarCraft II and disabled their CD keys.
        • (I’m totally behind banning cheaters online in Battle.net, but what gives you the right to do anything pertaining to what I do offline?)
      • Two years ago Amazon deleted copies of 1984 from Kindles
        • Big Brother much?
        • Kindle TOS says you’re entitled to keep a permanent digital copy of any digital content you purchase (section 3, paragraph 2)
          • (I guess it’s permanent until they change their minds)
      • What happens when you don’t or can’t pay your monthly cloud access fee?
        • Who controls access? Google and most other cloud providers will turn over your information upon receiving a warrant from the government. Don’t fall for the “If you’re not doing anything wrong you don’t have to worry” myth.

Tech, Gaming, and Geek News

  • Rep Jesse Jackson Jr Blames iPad for US Job Loses(udg)
    • Illinois Congressman Jessie Jackson Jr went on an insane anti-technology rant on the floor of Congress on Friday. You see, he thinks “technology gadgets like the iPad” are the reason this country is losing jobs.
    • His rant:
      • “A few short weeks ago I came to the House floor after having purchased an iPad and said that I happened to believe, Mr. Speaker, that at some point in time this new device, which is now probably responsible for eliminating thousands of American jobs. Now Borders is closing stores because, why do you need to go to Borders anymore? Why do you need to go to Barnes & Noble? Buy an iPad, download your book, download your newspaper, download your magazine.”
        • Okay. Let’s stop right there for a moment. Dear Jessie- Yes, that iPad can download your books, newspapers, magazines, etc. But, do you REALLY think the $500 iPad is to blame? What about the oh $100 Kindle? Or B&N’s own Nook? Or the publishers that even format for mobile devices?  Just a thought. Let’s hear what else you got, oh wise one…
  • “Chicago State University, in my congressional district, in freshman class, they are not being given textbooks any longer. They are all being given iPads as they enter school. President Wayne Watson hopes to have a textbook-less campus in four years, where at this state university they will no longer have textbooks.”
    • Oh Jessie. When is the last time you went to college? If I could carry one device that stored all of my textbooks in it, in a format I could highlight, copy and paste notes out of, etc., yeah, that would be the way I would go.  I’ll spare you the more economically and environmentally sound dance because you’re clearly not in the mindset to even remotely grasp that right now. And you’ll probably just add out of work lumberjacks to your next rant.
      • “Well, what becomes of publishing companies and publishing company jobs?”
        • Umm, Jessie, people still need to write, edit, format and distribute the books.
      • “And what becomes of bookstores and librarians and all of the jobs associated with paper?”
        • Okay, I’ll give you a 1/2 a point there. I do fear the loss of libraries in this country. But, it’s not the iPad’s fault. The problem does not solely lie on the manufacturers of any of the devices.
      • “Well, in the not too distant future, such jobs simply will not exist. Steve Jobs is doing pretty well. He’s created the iPad. Certainly, it has made life more efficient for Americans, but the iPad is produced in China. It is not produced here in the United States. So, the Chinese get to take advantage of our First Amendment value — that is to provide freedom of speech through the iPad to the American people. But there is no protection for jobs here in America to ensure that the American people are being put to work.”
        • Jinkies. Look Jessie, 10 minutes with me and I’ll break it down to you how the Chinese are going to take over the entire world via the use of technology. But that craziness is too out there for even me.  Before you get your lil knickers in a bunch and decide to have a case of diarrhea of the mouth/constipation of the brain regarding technology and the Chinese, gimme a call. We’re neighbors. I’ll meet you for coffee and give ya a lil education. Don’t worry, I’ll leave my evil MacBook at home. Well, maybe.
  • Adobe Relents, Adopts Apple Video Protocol (SM)
    • Remember how adobe moaned about using Apples video standard?
    • Flash currently uses RTSP (a proprietary format for file transmission)
    • Apple uses HTTP live streaming along with H.264 as its video format
    • It was at least submitted to standards body
    • M$ immediately added it to it’s venerable IIS platform so that when requesting video from iPad, they get that format
    • Adobe now has added it to their Flash media server in a “commitment to develop technologies that simplify broadcast workflows to make it simpler to reach a fragmented lineup of devices”.
    • I.E. They’re tired of trying to convince Apple to include Flash on their platform :)
  • Apple suing Samsung for Patent Infringements (btm)
    • Filed suit last Friday
      • (reminds me of the Apple vs. Windows “look and feel” lawsuit WRT Windows 3 and the Macintosh OS.)
    • Claims Samsung’s Galaxy tablet and S phone are too similar to iPad and iPhone
      • “Rather than innovate and develop its own technology and a unique Samsung style for its smartphone products and computer tablets, Samsung chose to copy Apple’s technology, user interface and innovative style in these infringing products.”
    • If this law suit is successful, what does it mean for other smart phone and tablet makers?
  • China’s Silent Cyber Takeover (udg)
    • The Chinese have this game galled Go. One of it’s proverbs is “Play on the Point of Symmetry.” Which means, when right and left have the same shape, there’s play in the center. And it looks like that’s a pretty good metaphor for how China and Russia (*cough Red Dawn *cough*) are leveraging US multinational corporations to accomplish strategic goals that are looking like they include covert technology transfer of intellectual property, access to source code for use in malware creation and backdoor access to critical infrastructure.
    • Let’s take a look at Chinese entity Huawei Symantec. Now Huawei has been reportedly blocked by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) in its attempt to acquire 3Leaf and AT&T was said to be officially discouraged from purchasing any equipment from them by the National Security Agency. Both of these events are based on security concerns. Huawei successfully formed a joint venture with Symantec in 2007 called Huawei Symantec Technologies Co. Ltd. (HS). Huawei is the majority partner with 51 percent ownership, with the entity being headquartered in Chengdu, China.
    • If you aren’t familiar with Symantec thereby not so sure what Huawei is, they’re the leading provider of network security and storage appliance solutions to enterprise customers worldwide. Yup, worldwide.
    • Add to this a 2008 corporate briefing of theirs that describes the history, capabilities, and business goals of HS, one of which is to ‘build China’s first laboratory of attack and defense for networks and applications.’
    • This equation pretty much means that Symantec, a major US information security company, is ‘assisting’ China’s cyber security research in computer network attack and defense — research that has high potential for abuse by state and non-state actors in China.
    • The plot thickens. In the last few months, HS has formed two new joint ventures with US companies — SYNNEX and Force10 Networks. Why? With SYNNEX, the goal is apparently to ‘distribute Huawei Symantec’s storage and security products to its resellers throughout North America.’
    • For Force10 Networks, Huawei Symantec said the firm ‘is pleased to establish this strategic partnership with Force10 Networks, and expects the relationship to further drive strong results for our existing North American customer base as well as tap into new business opportunities.’
    • The kicker- both SYNNEX and Force10 Networks currently sell to the US government.
    • Force10 Networks’ website says that they sell their products to ‘defense, intelligence and civilian agencies to advance the bandwidth needs and reliability demands of government IT infrastructure while ensuring the economics and performance of mission critical networks.’
    • Since Huawei’s growth strategy includes financial support from Chinese banks that enable it to offer very low cost bids on key contracts, and since many governments (including India and the United States) have legal provisions that require them to go with the lowest bidder, these partnerships provide an apparently winning strategy for SYNNEX and Force10 Networks to secure government sales thanks to Huawei Symantec’s low manufacturing costs – all without HS’s name likely ever having to appear on the contract.
    • So, even though Huawei is publicly blocked by US lawmakers from selling directly to the US government, they have played on the ‘point of symmetry’ and quietly secured access to US Defense Department and intelligence community customers through collaborative partnerships that no one has so far contested. With their boast of a 30% increase in profit over this last year, Huawai’s business has been really good.
    • It’s not just China that seems to be placing itself in an advantageous strategic position.
    • I highly encourage you to check out the link in the shownotes and read more on the Russians, Intel, a laboratory and how they eliminated the need for espionage.
  • Armenia makes Chess mandadory in school (SM)
    • Little Tiny Armenia is making themselves into a Chess power house
    • How? They’re requiring the game as part of their school curriculum
    • Theory: “Fosters schoolchildren’s intellectual development and teaches to think flexibly and wisely”
    • Most chess players are treatest like super stars in the country
    • Already a powerhouse: They won gold in 2006 and 2008 in International competition
    • Levon Aronian is currently ranked number 3 in the world in the WCF
  • President says White House Tech is “30 Years out of date” (btm)
    • We’ve all seen the super high-tech equipment the President uses in movies and on TV but apparently that’s all TV magic and special effects.
    • “You know the Oval Office always thought I was going to have like real cool phones and stuff,” Obama said last night, “You know, we can’t get our phones to work!  I’m like ‘come on guys, I’m the president of the United States.’  Where’s the fancy buttons and stuff, and the big screen comes up? It doesn’t happen.”
    • “I mean our IT and purchasing is horrible,” he added, “And this is true across the board. This is true at the Pentagon,  it’s true in the agencies, it’s true in the Department of Homeland security.”
    • (No fancy Jack Bauer phones I guess.)
  • Match.Com Now to Check Users Against Sex Offender Database (udg)
    • Following a lawsuit filed against them last week, dating giant Match.com has decided that in the next 3 months, they will begin checking users against sex offender databases.
    • The suit was filed by a California woman that states she was attacked by a man she met on the site. According to her, the first date went fine and the man seemed charming. Second date, not so much. She alleges he forced her to have sex with him. The man has been convicted of sexual battery.
    • Mark Webb, the attorney for the woman, identified in the lawsuit only as “Jane Doe” stated that a check like the one Match.com will be implementing could have prevented his client’s attack.
    • Mandy Ginsberg, president of Match.com told The Associated Press in an email that the company had considered such screenings for years, but “their historical unreliability has always led us to conclude against it.”
    • Ginsberg said after talking to providers and advisers the last few days, company officials decided to make a change. He further warned
    • “We want to stress that while these checks may help in certain instances, they remain highly flawed, and it is critical that this effort does not provide a false sense of security to our members,” she said, adding that members should always plan for a first-meeting to be in public and should tell a friend where they’ll be.
    • I applaud Match.com for taking such an effort. In all honesty, I think that the woman’s case would fail to hold up in court. The fact the site chose to make the huge change rather than fight it is to be respected.
  • Portal 2 Early Release Program, Genius or Crass? (SM)
    • Anybody remember the Humble Bundle 1 and 2 (pay as much or little)
    • Kickstarter for games: Creavures (game rewards for donating)
    • Pay $40 for an Indy Bundle (13 games), win a possibility to get early release of P2?
    • Buy and it adds to the processing for a faster reboot of GLaDOS, the original evil computer in the old game
    • Whats the point? Is that a worthy goal to spend double for a game that will come out anyways?
    • (btw, the promotion was a failure,
  • Square Credit Card Reader Now Available Via Apple (udg)
    • Jack Dorsey is a busy guy. Not only has the Twitter co-founder returned to Twitter as its CEO, he still remains CEO of Square, his mobile payment company.
    • Square, in simplest terms, allows anyone with an Android or iPhone to process credit card transactions. No fees, no monthly contracts. Square keeps it simple with a 2.75% charge per transaction. It works through a free downloadable app and a small device, shaped like- you guessed it a square, that plugs into a smartphone’s audio jack and reads the credit cards. To put their fee in perspective, Paypal charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction up to $3,000 in month and then goes down from there.
    • As you can imagine, VeriFone, a company that offers businesses traditional credit card terminals, was none too thrilled with this. It accused Square of offering a free credit card reader that could easily be used by hackers to steal credit card info. Square responded by pointing out that the vulnerability was no different than someone simply writing down your credit card information on a piece of paper. Yet, even with that bit of bad press courtesy of VeriFone, Dorsey’s company got a huge boost recently thanks to a new partnership with Apple.
    • Apple is now offering Square’s credit card reader through its online and brick-and-mortar stores. Customers will pay $9.95 for the credit card reader which includes $10 of Square credit. While the credit card reader is available for free through Square’s website, the immediate availability of it through Apple retail stores and the notable placement of the reader on Apple’s online store is sure to spur adoption. Apple’s endorsement of Square also minimizes the security concerns VeriFone attempted to raise last month in its attempt to derail adoption of the service since it greatly threatens VeriFone’s current business model.
    • I can wait. So, I went to the site and ordered mine for free. And, it did require giving them quite a bit of hefty personal information to obtain. I’ve got the app downloaded and ready to go. The site said 2-5 weeks so as soon as I get it, I’ll make sure to review it.
  • Next Mars Rover to use Rocket Crane to land (btm)
    • Mars Rover “Curiosity” lands via being lowered from flying platform
    • Set to launch late this year for arrival on Mars in August 2012
    • Equiped with laser for examining rock samples found on Mars.
    • (btm…once it lands it looks like it has a lot of interesting new tools, but getting it to land scares the crap out of me. There are so many possible points of failure that it seems to me that NASA has forgotten the KISS principle, Keep It Simple Stupid)

Intarweb Goldmine

  • Man Bursts Into Flames at Porn Store (udg)
    • For seven years, Roger Huang, a pastor who runs a rescue mission in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, has been trying to shut down the sex shops there. This week he may have seen a sign that his efforts are working
    • On Wednesday, a man burst into flames while inside one of those porn shops, police said.
    • Could this bizarre incident be attributed to a higher power?
    • “I believe so. I definitely believe so,” Huang told AOL News, adding that he hopes the unidentified man is recovering from the burns.
    • The police aren’t ruling anything out.
    • “We don’t know what caused it,” Lt. Troy Dangerfield of the San Francisco Police Department told AOL News. “It’s still under investigation.”
    • Witnesses reportedly saw the burning man running out of the Golden Gate Adult Superstore in the city’s South of Market neighborhood at about 6:20 p.m. Wednesday. The man ran past stunned onlookers and collapsed at the corner of Mission and Sixth streets, police said. A private ambulance crew happened  be driving by and extinguished the flames.
    • The man, whose name has not been released, was taken to the burn center at St. Francis Memorial Hospital, where he is being treated for first-, second- and third-degree burns that reportedly cover 90 percent of his body.
    • According to KTVU, an employee said the man had been watching a film in the back of the store when he suddenly ran out screaming and on fire.
    • San Francisco Fire Department spokeswoman Mindy  Talmadge said a fire investigator is still looking into the case. Oddly, she said authorities have found “no damage to the inside of the building at all.”
  • Social Security website releases new series of ‘spacey’ PSA messages (btm)
    • Series stars Patty Duke and George Takei
    • Intended to raise awareness and help aging Boomers feel more at ease when using socialsecurity.gov to file for claims & benefits
      • (I love that the website actually says, “These Social Security public service announcements (PSAs) are pre-recorded video messages that can be viewed online” sometimes it’s easy to forget that not everyone is as tech savvy as we are.) (btm)
  • Not the Brightest Car Thief (SM)
    • Guy comes in for a free gas voucher from the police
    • Presents his paperwork for the car
    • Police run it and find out the car is stolen
    • This isn’t the only one, criminals are constantly nabbed for winning sweepstakes
  • The National Institute of Standards and Technology needs your help (btm)
    • In its 110 years, NIST has made many innovations in the way we measure things, from basic quantities like the volt and nanometer to specialized questions like the purity of sugar.
    • Website shows images of many devices in their care
    • Many look almost SteamPunk in nature
    • For many, their original uses have been lost to the ages. Do you know what they were? (btm… my favorite is “wooden box with multiple terminals and dials”
  • Put Your Hands in the Air and Back Away From the Potatoes (udg)
    • In Jacksonville, Fla., don’t try breaking into someone’s home with potatoes on the stove.
    • Eighty-one-year-old Bobby Smith said his caretaker came out of his home and informed him an intruder had broken into the home.
    • Smith said he entered his home and found a man with a gun in one hand and items he intended to steal in the other. The intruder than shoved Smith to the ground and took his wallet.
    • Not a good idea. Smith then got up and hit the man on the head with frying pan full of potatoes, The (Jacksonville) Florida Times-Union reported.
    • “I grabbed the frying pan and hit him upside the head,” the feisty octogenarian said. “I knocked his teeth out … and he went to the floor.” Then, for a bit of emphasis, “There was a pitchfork about 6 feet away … [and] I stuck him.”
    • Get down with your bad self Bobby Smith. And don’t ever, ever try to steal that man’s taters.
  • YouTube Copyright School (btm)
    • Provides “Happy Tree Friends” video to educate users on copyright rules
    • Copyright violators required to watch video much like the old driving school videos for traffic violators.
    • Hopes that requiring copyright violators to watch video will help them to understand what they did was wrong and prevent future violations.
  • Dammit! Swearing found to help increase pain tolerance (btm)
    • Keele University study shows swearing can produce painkilling effect
    • Volunteers placed hands in bucket of ice water while swearing repeatedly
    • Repeated the test but this time used non-swearing phrase to repeat
    • Volunteers were able to keep hands in ice water longer when swearing.
    • Study found that volunteers who normally didn’t swear were four times as likely to feel painkilling effect.
    • May be a reason why swearing developed and continues to today.

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