] The very technology that revolutionized retail checkout -
] the bar code - is now being subverted by anti-capitalist
] protesters who fancy themselves cyberpranksters.
]
] The activists drew the ire of Wal-Mart Inc., the world's
] largest retailer, with a Web site that encouraged people
] to "name their own prices" by offering hundreds of
] substitute bar codes.
]
] Wal-Mart considered the ploy an incitement to theft and
] sent a cease-and-desist letter dated April 2 to one of
] the companies that was hosting the Web site, Re-code.com.
]
] Re-code.com's operators responded by disabling the link
] on their Web site that allowed users to print sheets with
] a selection of bar code labels that could be slapped on
] store items.

Prankster Web Site Draws Wal-Mart Ire

] Technological savvy could turn 600 million tons of turkey
] guts and other waste into 4 billion barrels of light
] Texas crude each year
]
] Gory refuse, from a Butterball Turkey plant in Carthage,
] Missouri, will no longer go to waste. Each day 200 tons
] of turkey offal will be carted to the first
] industrial-scale thermal depolymerization plant, recently
] completed in an adjacent lot, and be transformed into
] various useful products, including 600 barrels of light
] oil.
]
] In an industrial park in Philadelphia sits a new machine
] that can change almost anything into oil.
]
] Really.
]
] "This is a solution to three of the biggest problems
] facing mankind," says Brian Appel, chairman and CEO of
] Changing World Technologies, the company that built this
] pilot plant and has just completed its first
] industrial-size installation in Missouri. "This process
] can deal with the world's waste. It can supplement our
] dwindling supplies of oil. And it can slow down global
] warming."

Anything into Oil

] People are curious about being embedded in the Marines.
] This is my effort to set the record straight. Some
] readers suspect I was subjected to propaganda while
] living with these men and women. There was no propaganda
] campaign. If there had been, there would have been no
] embeds. Journalists wrote their own stories, and made
] their own interview requests and interviews. The
] Marines%u2019 %u201CPAOs%u201D (public affairs officers)
] would set up the meetings, but not oversee them.
]
] What happened to the majority of journalists living the
] Marine life is that we experienced it from the inside. I
] can honestly say that seven weeks as an embed has changed
] me forever. And I have often found many similarities
] between Marines and Arabs.

ArabNews: An Account of Marines' Incredible Gestures

] Portable electronic devices such as mobile phones,
] handheld computers and personal music players have become
] an integral part of consumers' lives bringing with them
] the inconvenience of multiple chargers and tangles of
] wires.
]
] Splashpower's revolutionary wireless power technology
] delivers a truly intuitive and convenient way of keeping
] devices charged up and ready to go without wires or
] plugs. Consumers simply drop their devices on a Splashpad
] and charge up! No wires, no plugs, no hassle - any
] number, anywhere.

Seems like a great idea and a cool product. I just want to know how much it costs and where I can get one.

Welcome to Splashpower - powering the future

] UMM QASR, Iraq -- Ahmed Ali believes Saddam Hussein can
] never die. All his life, the 23-year-old laborer has
] heard about the dictator's powerful stone.
]
] Saddam, the story goes, had the stone made shortly
] after he came to power 24 years ago. Its powers were
] first tested inside a chicken. One of his soldiers pulled
] out a gun and shot at point-blank range. The chicken's
] feathers fell off, but it lived.
]
] So the dictator implanted the stone in his upper arm.
]
] As the curtain falls on Saddam's reign, many ordinary
] Iraqis are reluctant to believe that their much-feared
] dictator has lost power, much less that he is actually
] dead. Stories abound of Saddam's mystical powers that
] have helped him elude assassination attempts and missile
] strikes.
]
] "The stone makes him bulletproof," Ali, a slim man
] with a Saddam-style moustache, said in a serious voice.

Talk about urban legends . . .

Myths About Saddam Fuel the Fears of Iraqis

"North Vancouver is finally respecting the linguistic abilities of a largely discriminated against section of the world population. I think we should introduce legislation mandating these bilingual signs to be used in the US as well. Lead on Canadian brothers!"

Bilingual Signs

] Welcome to the official English language site of the
] esteemed Iraqi Information Ministry. Through these
] difficult times my ministry strives to bring fair and
] balanced information about our homeland and the events
] taking place within it. In a world polluted by the
] propaganda of the pig-dog Bush administration in the USA,
] we thank you for visiting us today to seek the true
] picture of events in Iraq. - Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf
] (Minister of Information)

This parody site is much better than the one that came out last week.

Iraqi Information Ministry | Official English Language Site

] This ad is most definitely a nod to the filmmakers Peter
] Fischli and David Weiss. Their 1987 film, "The Way Things
] Go" is a 30-minute-long showing of a contraption they
] built out of household items.

VERY cool. I want to see the whole movie, not just the car commercial.

Honda's New Accord

] MORIOKA, Iwate Pref. (Kyodo) Iwate Gov. Hiroya Masuda
] voiced displeasure Monday that a professional wrestler
] who was elected to the prefectural assembly plans to wear
] his mask during assembly proceedings.
]
]
] The Great Sasuke
]
] The Great Sasuke, a 33-year-old wrestler whose real name
] is Masanori Murakawa, topped the vote count in the
] Morioka district in Sunday's prefectural assembly
] election.
]
] He vowed to continue wearing his mask while fulfilling
] his duties as a member of the assembly.
]
] "This is my face," he declared. "I have no intention of
] taking the mask off."

Follow up to the Japenese wrestler/politician story.

The Japan Times Online - Governor looks to unmask wrestler

] Welcome to The Covers Project. We're building a database
] of cover songs (songs performed by an artist other than
] the original performer) with the intention of creating
] cover "chains." A cover chain is a set of songs in which
] each song is a cover of a song by the band who covered
] the preceding song. For instance:
]
] The Wild Staressong "Babies Falling" was covered by
] Magnetic Fields
]
] The Magnetic Fieldssong "Falling In Love With The
] Wolfboy" was covered by Dead Dog
]
] The Dead Dogsong "The Optimist" was covered by Love,
] Execution Style
]
]
] So far, we have 42,694 songs (20,680 unique) and 16,065
] artists catalogued. The longest "chain" we know about
] contains 157 songs. If you know of any cover songs,
] please help us out by adding them to our database
] (remixes need not apply). The add page also has links to
] every band we know something about, so feel free to
] browse that as well.

The Covers Project