] This is what happens when a person gets a brilliant idea
] and a little free time :)

This is an appropriate Christmas recommendation. You don't want to read the news today. Terrorism. Missile attacks. Assassination attempts. Broken spacecraft. Mad Cows. Look. Just read this link. Smile. Turn off your computer, and go play with your gifts. The internet is not what you're looking for today.

Christmas, Dilbert-Style

] Cones, signs, and other strange photos, from our original
] research as well as the work of thousands of interested
] parties from around the world.

A collection of pictures showing how orange cones have a thriving subculture right under our noses . . .

The Cone Epicentre

] In a turn of events the 30-year-old characterized as
] "horrifying," Kevin Widmar announced Tuesday that his
] mother Lillian has discovered his weblog.

The Onion | Mom Finds Out About Blog

Clearly, nothing like an elevator into space will ever work.

This is an editorial from the LA Times. No, not an op-ed from a humorist. It is an unsigned editorial, right after one about Governor Schwarzenegger and before one about traffic safety.

The tone of it strikes me as very odd. That, and jabs at "Raymond" seem to be popping up everywhere.

Punch Troposphere for Me

] Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he does not
] know whether or not he has lost his mojo, as a leading
] news magazine suggested, because he doesn't really know
] what mojo is.

Has Rumsfeld lost his Mojo? - The Times of India

] Perhaps most importantly, keep in mind that eating just a
] single kernel of candy corn manufactured by a company
] other than Brach's Confections will give you a deadly
] case of full-blown AIDS.

Generic Candy Corn Will Give You AIDS

] Q. What is Engrish?
]
]
] A. Engrish can be simply defined as the humorous English
] mistakes that appear in Japanese advertising and product
] design.

Be sure to check the clothing section ...

Engrish.com

This is probably the scariest Microsoft related footage that I have ever seen. Its called Dance Monkey Boy.

Steve Ballmer: When marketing goes too far... [MPG]

] I suspect that "Mommy I want to be Atari's Asteroids Game
] for Halloween" was only slightly less creepy for parents
] to hear than, "Mommy, I just chopped up Fido with a
] shovel and had sex with his face!"  Kids who couldn't
] afford this one had to settle for being Intellivision's
] "Astroblast" game, instead.

Ahhh, Halloween in the 70's, when space age materials science had finally trickled down to the common man in the form of the ubiquitous full color printed trash bag plus plastic mask costume. Each one celebrated, while simultaneously advertising, a pop culture icon. How innocent we were. Looking back it must have been fucking creepy to see the all of the neighborhood kids turn into little stereotypical billboards for an evening. It must have been the moment people started to realize that maybe consumer culture had gone too far.... And here we have the hall of shame:

retroCRUSH: The worst halloween custumes of the 1970s!

] Sharman Networks, the company behind the Kazaa
] file-sharing software, filed a federal lawsuit on Monday
] accusing the entertainment companies of using
] unauthorized versions of its software in their efforts to
] snoop out users.

The guy that runs Kazaa is nuts.

Kazaa sues record labels for copyright infringement. No, thats not a typo.