Old Woman Upset Over Sex

An old lady is suing take two interactive because Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas contains 'hidden' sex scenes. She bought the "M" rated game for a 14 year old.

Now, we understand if you don't want little kiddies playing a game. But the "M" rating is much like the "R" rating in movies-- you must be 17 years or older. Now Grand Theft Auto has a "AO" rating, meaning, Adults Only. We think this is asinine for two reasons.

First, sex in movies does not automatically make a film NC-17. Indeed, "R" films come with at least one good sex scene-- the "R" rating, afterall, indicating that the film is worth watching for its few minutes of naked bodies.

Second, as naturalistic as GTA: San Andreas is, we're still talking about sex between characters that for the most part look like cartoons. Sure, they are pretty realistic cartoons, but to be sure, they are not real people.

Now GTA may not be available with the sex scenes, which is going to make us buy a copy this week so we can get one before they censor it. [After all, we dig it when cartoon characters get it on].

Anyway, we have to wonder what an 85 year old woman was doing buying a game for her 14 year old son when it was clearly marked as Mature 'for people over 17'.

Who's Your Daddy? Getting Fucked By Your Webhost

A few months back a friend of ours was fired for blogging. That shook up the local blogsphere and a half dozen of the people we know closed up shop. In either case, we wrote a brief little bit we called Blogging With a Rubber, basically meaning, blog with protection.

We cited as one example, the creator of Foetry.com who in turn found our post and commented on it. Foetry's creator had gone through the trouble of using GoDaddy.com to register his domain hoping they would keep in confidence his identity. Sadly, GoDaddy only needed a letter written by a lawyer -- not a subpeana, not law suit, just a letter-- to reveal to the world who he was. GoDaddy fucked him hard. Who's your daddy now?

In either case, someone from GoDaddy, or claiming to be from GoDaddy, was sent out to our site and Foetry's message board to quell any negative talk. A few things on this:

GoDaddyGuy Writes:
While we are not at liberty to address the specifics of any individual situation, we can say that when our company is contacted about a domain held by one of our customers and registered with privacy, we go through the same process in every case.

Since Foetry.com's creator has said that GoDaddy Failed to contact him before breaching his confidentiality, we figure that GoDaddy will pretty much give up your information to whoever asks. So don't bother paying the extra money.

Further:
Once the complaint is received and processed, we levy an administrative fee against the registrant of the domain

As we understand it, GoDaddy charges extra money from the beginning to keep your information confidential. In essence, a person could file enough complaints with GoDaddy to bankrupt you into releasing your information. If GoDaddy is offering anonimity, they shouldn't be charging per complaint.

Anyway, the bottom line is, don't use GoDaddy, even if their superbowl commercial had a really attractive spokesman.

Instead, we'd recommend registering your domain with a reputable host [we use Dreamhost, and think you should too], just like we did. If you want anonimity, get a trustworthy person, a lawyer, or your own corporation to register the name. Don't trust third parties such as GoDaddy who have no reason to keep your information private.

Wino TV Chef To Get Magazine, Rachael Ray Still Not Nude

We've been big fans of Food TV for years, so we've watched Racheal Ray go from minor celebrity chef to taking over the Food Network with her various shows. The latest adventure our wine slugging celebu-chef is embarking is a new magazine. We're thrilled. Or appalled. Or Both.

The reason we mention this is some of readers might be interested in the career of Ms. Ray, since we've recieved several hundred hits in the last 2 days with people looking for Racheal Ray. Nude. Yes, that's right. They'll be dissappointed to learn, we don't have those pictures for you.

The confusion started a few months back when we blogged about a referrer that sent someone to our site. Apparently, we spelled Ms. Ray's name wrong, and somehow, somewhere we had the word nude on our site too.

In either case, we thought this was enough fun to blog about again. Why though it took three months for the hits to start rolling in we aren't sure. But its a virtual flood now.

Two Minutes Here, Two Minutes There

We don't think very highly of most business practices. Its not that we are anti-american or anti-capitalist, its just we tend to think most business people don't really understand how things are, in the real world. Take for instance, a London office manager who sent an email telling employees that their two minutes of silence in memory of those lost in the recent bombings should come out of their lunch hour.

Two minutes out of someone's lunch hour really isn't big a deal, of course. But then again, is two minutes out of an 8 hour work day really that big a deal either? No.

The company has declared the email an accident of course, but its more showing of how corporate office managers really don't understand anything. First of all, the bombings in London probably bumbed a lot of people out. Morale was probably not at an all time high, and then employees were told they couldn't have two minutes of silence. Moments of silence really aren't our cup of tea, but for those people who want to be involved, we wouldn't really hold it against them either. If it makes them feel better, than great. Happy employees are after all, productive employees.

In fact, we'd say that giving an employee five minutes on every hour probably improves their productivity on the other 55 minutes. Besides that, if a worker stays two minutes later in the office, most employees aren't going to compensated for that.

We think a good way to change that is to calculate hourly wages the same way cellular companies calculate minutes. If an employee works 8 hours and 2 minutes, they get paid for 9 hours. [Much in the way that in a cellular plan, 1 second over uses an entire minute of air time]. We think this is a solution.

Dunking Donuts Ladies

Our local dunking donuts insists on placing donuts in the same bag as hot coffee. For some donuts, this isn't really a problem-- think vanilla kreme. But for any donut with a soft layer of frosting-- boston cream, marble frosted, strawberry frosted, ect., the hot coffee causes the frosting to melt, and then stick the inside of the bag. The result is a donut completely void of any frosting. At first, I thought perhaps this was a mistake made by a new employee. But after several occurences, I realized dunkin employees are simply retarded.

Retail Employees: Officially Retarded

There has been a lot of talk of advanced copies of Harry Potter books accidentally being sold. Are american retail clerks so fucking stupid they can't read "DO NOT SELL BEFORE ABOVE DATE"? And even if the packages were mismarked, are they so out of the news that they don't know they can't sell the book?

All Sexed Up And No Place To Streak

We read an article today about American Apparel. We've been to the store a few times; they promote themselves using slogans like "Made in Downtown LA" and using photography that is downright hot. We also appreciate that the companies founder has posed nude in adverts.

Well now the founder is facing all sorts of sexual harrasment cases [3] from former employees. The Times article states a few things that the leadership at the company leaves himself open to these sorts of things, since he walks around in his underwear.

We tend to think that its probably inappropriate in a normal office for someone to do that. We also don't think its right for someone to be harrassed at their place of work. But at the same time, would anyone really think that working at a place that has soft core porn advertisements would be an environment they would want to work in if they were not open about their sexuality? Its sort of like walking into a the offices at Penthouse magazine and then saying you are offended by all the naked pictures.

We think American Apparel clothing is overpriced and targeted for hipsters. But we also think that maybe other overpriced clothing stores should pick up some of AA's practices like making clothing in the United States. We also think most of our country is too caught up with the Puritan sex ethic, and that everyone should be allowed to walk around their office in their underwear.

God Bless You, Judge Judy, And Other Crazy Things From Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut has always been a little off his rocker. Now he has offered his opinion on the supreme court vacancy. He wants Judge Judy. We want to think that KV is being ironic, but sadly we think he is serious.

Couch

Tommorrow morning in the early A.M., we'll be having a grown up couch delivered. By grown up couch, we mean, not IKEA. Indeed, it comes fully assembled and carried up by two hulking delivery men. If all goes well, we suspect large amounts of our disposable income will be going to furniture.

Thanks for your prompt reply

13 months ago the MTA proposed banning photography in subway stations. In response to their comment period, we sent them this little note:

The recent ban on photography in NYC subway system completely undermines the many small business merchants selling film and camera batteries. Millions of tourists pour into New York Each year, many looking to take pictures of the NYC subway system. These amatuer photographers patronize the many small businesses in the city with purchases of film.

In addition, there are many thousands of art students at various academic insitutions in the city. Without the ability to photograph the subway, many of their portfolios will be left empty.

Perhaps my reasoning is absurd, but then again, so is your ruling. Limiting photography of the NYC subway system will not thwart the efforts of terrorists. Getting out of your cushy, air conditioned MTA office and patrolling subway stations one at a time is more likely to stop a terrorist then a ban on photography.

Good luck, and don't forget to thank your union representative for your job security; your steller administrative abilities surely cannot account for it.


Today we recieved an automated thank you note from the MTA, 12 months and 18 days after having sent them our thoughts. Meanwhile, the photography ban has been lifted. Is it any wonder the MTA has difficulty keeping the subways running on time when their automated email response takes more than a year to send a reply?

So Much For The Wisdom of The Old

A few years back, I recall reading an article where the author posited that great works of genius are produced by the youthful inventor, artist, or scientist, all in the hope of attracting a mate. The author analyzed production by our societies great thinkers and compared their ages. Take Einstein for instance, who produced some of his greatest theories between 19 and 27. Indeed, there a great deal of genius has been produced by the young. We liked to joke that this was less because geniuses were trying to attract a mate and more because they were married after the age of 30, and it was their wives constant nagging to take out the trash that kept them producing great works later in life.

Meanwhile, scientists concluded that we are headed toward a dark age of technological advances. The analysis essentially says that the year 1873 was the greatest of innovation based on critical inventions and patent filings. The period lasted until about 1911. Now it seems, society will be lucky to know how to change a light bulb, let alone invent anything new.

Then I cam across an unrelated article stating that in 1860, half the US population was under the age of 19. [source]

Let’s presuppose for a moment that the first hypothesis is true, and that most works of genius are created when their maker is in their twenties or very early thirties. That would mean that in 1873, a huge percentage of the American population was hitting their most productive period of their lives.

Similarly, between 1945 and 1960, the post war baby boom produced a huge mass of young people. What followed? Between 1965 and 1980, massive innovation in the sciences including the silicon chip, the creation of the internet, the basic foundations of modern genetics, travel to the moon, and thousands of other developments in the physics, chemistry, and electronics.

By 1980, the baby boomer generation was hitting their late thirties. What did we get? Post Modern art and very little else. The 1980's was essentially a dark age. Then, coinciding with the baby boomer's children coming of age was a new technological revolution, the rise of dotcom tech, miniaturization, portable computing, cloning, and a multitude of other innovations.

Take as example, television. Regularly scheduled broadcasts of color television began in 1959 with Bonanza, helped by RCA's affordable 1954 color television set. But it was major technological innovations in the mid to late 1960's that dramatically reduced the cost of color television-- coinciding with the coming of age of the first baby boomers.

By 1980 though, color television was everything we think of today. Little changed in the technology after the mid 1970's -- roughly the same time as the baby boomer's passed the threshold of youth into middle age. There was little to no innovation until the LCD technology, Plasma screens, High Definition, and thin cathode ray tubes. What is common to this pattern? Large numbers of young people in the 1960’s and 1970’s working as engineers and scientists producing great innovation, followed by a generation gap in the 1980’s that was later followed by a bump in the youth population in the 1990’s.

If all this is true, very soon we really will be living in the dark ages; Gen X has started to hit middle age and Western families are shrinking in size. Ever smaller family sizes will further contribute to the decline of innovation. Of course, this all could circumstantial.