December 3, 2006

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More Links Than A Centipede At A Golf Tournament Listening To A Raekwon Album

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  Some farmer tattoos the pigs on his farm in interesting and satirical designs. If you don't have any pigs but still want the experience, get this product and you can tattoo your children instead!

• Tired of giving a real email address to sites and apps, knowing that they're likely to start spamming you? I am. But sometimes one arrives at some website needing to sign up to attain the site's wisdom, or create an account to make some purchase, and no matter how shady the privacy policy, one has no choice. One needs whatever they're slingin'. Well, some us have a trash email address that we use only for such occasions. But if you're looking for an even less permanent solution, try this new service called 10 Minute Mail. It instantly gives one an email address that is accessible for ten minutes (can be extended). When it has expired, the address is gone, imploding into a black hole of unwanted email that will let nothing escape, not light, not penis enlargement pills, not unbelievable penny stock info.
• In the ongoing saga of the nanny state's foray into the kitchen, Jacob Grier writes a pair of posts about FDA rules shutting down artisanal meat production, innovative cooking techniques like sous vide, and (I salivate at the thought) raw milk cheeses. A pair of chefs write letters in support of their rights to use controversial techniques and foods, with Peter Hoffman writing about meat curing, and Ariane Daguin in support of the legality of foie gras. Now Maine won't allow a brewery to put Santa Claus on its beer labels, fearing that the lovable old guy will attract children (the brewery is suing).

  And now SFGate.com has an article on NY food inspectors cracking down on illegal meats. And here we aren't just talking about ham cured at greater than forty-one degrees. We're talking about stores and markets (especially ethnic markets) selling things like iguana, armadillos, and even gorilla meat. With the exception of endangered species such as gorilla, the problem isn't the species but the fact that the meats are purchased from unlicensed sources, and hence, have not been properly inspected. But niche markets of food production aren't served by the sort of farms and plants that are likely to conform strictly to food inspection rules. In many cases, the foods are shipped from foreign countries, making their production suspect. Is this just an inevitable consequence of the long tail, or should we trust consumers to make their own decisions as long as they are properly informed? Or will that just lead us idiots to go and do things like get addicted to salt?

• The TSA's absurd regulations rear their ugly head in Louisville.
• If PCs are stodgy (Hodgy?) old men, and Macs are mid-twenties hipsters, Sony Vaios are apparently poorly dressed slutty girls. But it turns out that half of Mac owners are 55 and older--double the share of PC users. Side note: I love the use of the term "silver surfers" in the article to refer to old people who use the internet.



• I absolutely love this game, "flOw." Created as Jenova Chen's USC Masters thesis, it has apparently been bought by Sony for development into a full PS3 game. I must warn you, however, to start your game at the beginning of class, rather than the end--the game will love you long time, and it lacks a meaningful pause function. Anyway, it's very intuitive and immersive, and is based on the principle that a game's difficulty should seamlessly adapt to its player's ability. That way, casual gamers can pick it up and start playing, with waiting to climb the learning curve.
• Finally, in case you missed it, the Supreme Court heard arguments last week in KSR v. Teleflex, about the test for determining whether or not an invention is "obvious" (and hence, ineligible for a patent). I'm a huge proponent of patent reform, and I think obviousness is the most important place to attack the current regime. "Obvious" has an obvious meaning--the one we all use every day. Based on reports of oral arguments and the transcript, things look good for reform. Scalia called the current test "gobbledygook," and Roberts said, “[T]he Federal Circuit’s approach focuses... on prior art-—as opposed to, I would say, common sense.” Go, go gadget unanimous decision.

Posted at December 3, 2006 10:55 PM | Comments (4)

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