The "Poppy Appeal," which supports the Royal British Legion veterans group, is constantly updating its contact measures with the British public. This year, they created a special iPhone application enabling people to nurture and carry a virtual poppy -- purchase prices go to support the Poppy Appeal.

Pretty spiffy fund raising.

A U.K. man suspected of burglary and being sought by police didn't like the mug shot police had distributed to local news outlets with their plea to the public for information. So he took a better photo of himself with his cell phone and sent it to the newspaper.

He is still at large.

Maybe, while Mom is here over Thanksgiving, we can go see Planet 51. No reviews of it, yet, but it looks like a good romp. (I am so shallow.)

A bra that converts to a putting green. This Japanese product reminds me that I am very, very Occidental. Very.

Reiko Aoyama, who is lingerie maker Triumph’s image girl for 2010, holds the new Nice Cup in Bra, designed to appeal to Japan’s busy golfing women. The green corset-style garment can be removed and unrolled to create a 1.5-meter-long putting mat. When the user sinks a putt into one of the cups, a built-in speaker pumps out a congratulatory “Nice shot!” The bra also features pockets for extra golf balls and tees, and a detachable flag pin that serves as a score pencil. The bra set comes with a skirt with the words “Be Quiet” printed on the rear, which doubles up as a flag for use on the course.

I've just gotten off of the phone with a woman named Pat, who works in the office of the president of Medco, the company that I had written about over the weekend. ( Here's the rest of the story... )

Was I satisfied with Medco's response today? Yes, I think so. But they lost my trust in the first transaction in a way that made me unwilling to give them a second shot.

...here's a school principal reinforcing them: no lesbian at *our* prom. Just red-blooded, humpin' American heterosexuals.

Oh, yeah, and Ms. Lesbian Student? Screw your First Amendment rights, too.

...to all who have served our nation in the armed forces, whether at home or abroad.

For those travelling by air during the holidays, things just got a bit more pleasant.

Google Inc., the California-based search engine giant, said it is offering free WiFi service at a number of airports, including Logan International Airport, from now until mid January as a "holiday gift" to travelers.

I've just been sent email by a group styling itself FacultyBooks.com, which wants to buy my text books. We've also had someone going door-to-door, stopping by faculty offices to see who wants to sell text books -- he's been around for years.

This is something I just do not do: sell text books sent to me for free by publishing companies. The notion that I would profit from such a "free sample" bugs me. And yet, I also hate stacking the damned things up in my office, especially when book companies send me text books for courses taught by other people.

*sigh*

Wish there were some way to dispose of these in such a way that they would help someone without me feeling like I'd profited from the books.

Fox's incredible voice of reason (*insert sarcasm drips about here*), Glenn Beck, has had a setback: an arbitrator rejected his claim against a parody site. As Fark noted,

Arbitrator rejects case against Glenn Beck parody site, agreeing with the defense's argument that only a staggering moron would believe it. Beck points to his audience, nodding furiously.

Disney actually sold "Hunchback of Notre Dame" backpacks for kids. *snort* My friend Dan pointed this out on Facebook. I'd missed them when they were in stores.

The AP reports on a little-known problem with viruses: sometimes, they get you arrested for dowloading child pornography. That's what happened to one Massachusetts state official, who lost his job and spent $250,000 defending himself against the charges.

This wicked scary story is one to pull out when my students say they can't afford anti-virus software. Because the story proves you can't afford to be without it.

Via Fark.

In a bout of incredibly cool nerdiness, this woman and her friend have put a Bluetooth module into a Star Trek communicator toy, to create a wicked, awesome cool bit that, if they brought it to market before Christmas, could make them a bundle. Instead, they post how to make one yourself on Make:Online.

While one engages in various sorts of gaming activities, from the FRP type, through poker, and on to armchair football, snack foods are often involved. And Timeless Robot has this list of the 10 most beloved (and bad for you) snack foods consumed while gaming. Which do you find nummy? And is your fave not on the list?


Poll #1483223 How do you snack?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 30

Which of these incredibly-bad-for-you snack foods do you eat? (Check as many as you want.)

That's the problem with coming home early and flat-out exhausted: you don't notice stuff.

When we got home ~5:00, Mike went up to work some more, and I crashed hard for three hours. Just a bit ago, I noticed there was a full, complete, pretty-as-a-picture deck.

Woo hoo!

(And I'll even probably post a picture...when we see it in daylight.)

...it's just another itty-bitty brick in the wall. And Mike got this from a vendor back in the day:



It's rather smaller than it looks...and glued on lucite, proclaiming it a piece of the Berlin Wall. (But it appears that somebody was practicing his macro camera skills.)

Wow.

...to jump into. A young deer at the National Zoo jumped into one of the enclosures today. The lion enclosure, as it turned out. (Alas, when the deer was finally rescued, it was badly injured -- even though it look like it escaped in the video -- and had to be put down.)



Via Bits & Pieces.

You're really foolish for starting this discussion on such a wide-open list...and then not stifling people's verbal diarrhea, pigheadedness, and snarking. A recent decision to send every single possible point out for discussion, each in its own email message, finally had me annoyed enough to kick pieces of equipment. Fortunately for the health of my monitor, there are two important settings on this email list account: "digest" and "no mail."

I've started with digest. It got...quiet. And, if you all annoy me too much, I can go nuclear...er...no mail.

The Washington National Cathedral has a grotesque...in the likeness of Darth Vader. Via a friend on Facebook.