Yearly Archives: 2007

Midwest Mob Announces New Scam

This entry was posted in Government on by

The Iowa and Kansas lotteries announced a joint effort to fleece folks of $3.12 million: an instant-scratch lottery game called Midwest Millions. 1.2 million scratch tickets will be sold for $10 each:


Click image to enlarge.

What are your chances? 64.7% of the tickets will get nothing. The other 35.3 % will share the 74%, $8.8 million, payout. The mob rakes in a cool $3.12 million.

Hey, if this isn’t theft or fraud perhaps we should set up a private business to operate a few of these upstanding scratch ticket games?

Virtual Street Walking

This entry was posted in Google on by

No, I’m not talking about something you might do in Second Life.
Rather, check out Google Map’s new Street View capability for parts of San Francisco, Denver, New York, Las Vegas and Miami.
For instance, go to 76 Broadway, New York, click on the new Street View button in the upper right of the map and then click on the small human icon on the map: up pops a street view of that locaton. Drag the icon to a different location for another view or expand the Street View image for a more detailed look.
If Street View is not available for an area the Street View button will not appear on the map.
Definitely a nifty upgrade though some of the images are a bit fuzzy.
The map wars are heating up. This is a neat response to Microsoft’s 3D maps and does not require you to load extra software to use.

Via Primate Labs Blog.

Price Gouging Quote of the Day

This entry was posted in Government Politics on by

On the critters who passed the price gouging legislation:

We are not dealing with “men of common intelligence.” We are dealing with politicians. That’s precisely the problem.

Kip explains why the bill should be considered unconstitutional and has plenty of links to discussions of the broken price gouging bill that just passed in the house of republican party and democratic party representatives.

Yes, they represent their parties and only pretend to represent their local electorates.

Try On This Display

This entry was posted in Technology on by

Well, you can’t try it on just yet but Sony has just announced:

…a razor-thin display that bends like paper while showing full-color video.

capt.tok10505250445.japan_sony_thin_display_tok105.jpg

“In the future, it could get wrapped around a lamppost or a person’s wrist, even worn as clothing,” said Sony spokesman Chisato Kitsukawa. “Perhaps it can be put up like wallpaper.”

I like the wallpaper idea! “Repainting” becomes as easy as changing the wallpaper on your computer monitor.

If they can form this into a durable enough material you might be able to dramatically reduce the size of your dressers and closets. Imagine how difficult this could make deciding what to wear to the party tonight. You could have millions or billions of complex image choices. On the other hand, you will probably be able to load most if not all of them into the terabyte compact flash that you slide into the outfits network connector.

Friday Ark #140

This entry was posted in Bird Blogging Cat Blogging Dog Blogging Friday Ark Invertebrate Blogging Pet Blogging Pets Weekend Cat Blogging Weekend Dog Blogging on by

We’ll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and….?

Visit all the boarders, Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon!

You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page.

Cats

Dogs

Birds

Other Vertebrates

Invertebrates

In Memoriam

  • x

Didn’t Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey’s Musings. Also, there are more doggies at Weekend Dog Blogging hosted this weekend by Sweetnicks.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 165th edition , 5/20, is up at The Cat Blogosphere. The 166th edition will be hosted on 5/27 by ..??… There are more weekly cats at Weekend Cat Blogging #103 hosted on 5/26-27 at House of (Mostly) Black Cats . Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 49th edition is up and hosted by Via Negativa. The 50th edition will be hosted on 5/31 by A Blog Around the Clock.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The 19th edition is up and hosted by Burning Silo . The 20th edition will be hosted by milkriverblog.

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat’s Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users:

Over the past month or so Haloscan started (the end of July) handling of trackbacks has improved though it is still pretty broken for carnival type posts. Now, instead of rejecting every attempt to ping it accepts single pings for a while and then will start rejecting them. I will keep trying to track back to Haloscan boarders but can make no guarantees for any particular week.

Note for Typepad Users:

Typepad continues to behave similar to Haloscan for trackbacks. I been able to get trackbacks to most, if not all, Typepad based boarders. I have to do it one at a time and wait a while in between pings but Typepad does not go into semi-permanent rejection mode like Haloscan.