Ancient Robots

Robot Builder has added Ancient Ones ! I may just have to play it a bit, in spite of the fact that the game seems goalless. Whereas Mad Scientist from the same developers is awesome ...

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No More San Francisco Edition of The Onion - SFist: San Francisco

No More San Francisco Edition of The Onion - SFist: San Francisco: "Today's editions of the The Onion in San Francisco and Los Angeles will be the last."

Unfortunately, despite healthy readership in both Los Angeles and San Francisco (readership has actually risen despite our reduction in copies in recent months) the advertising in both cities has been abysmal.

So, at the end of the day, you have to make a decision whether to pump money into parts of the company that are straining us financially (LA and SF print) or reroute that capital into the areas of the company
that are growing in size and value.

Now that The Onion finally has slots in the stupid pedmounts and you can find it somewhere other than bars, it's gone. The event listings were brilliant when the print version started, but, have steadily declined. I'd hoped that the Decider would improve them ...

Bah!

MyOpenBar.com to Shutdown SF, LA Operations - SFist: San Francisco

MyOpenBar.com to Shutdown SF, LA Operations - SFist: San Francisco: "MyOpenBar, the AWESOME site that informs readers on any and all open-bar/cheap-booze events, will cease operations in Los Angeles and San Francisco. We talked to MyOpenBar, who we hoped would inform us that this was some sort of cruel joke. No suck luck. According MyOpenBar, 'Yes, we're closing both LA and SF websites due to our inability to monetize those branches in all this time."

Arg! The weekly newsletter was good, but, the twitter stream was invaluable. Curses! SF will not support event listings? At this rate we're going to loose the Chronicle Pink Section too ...

Wines on Tap

The Pour - Are Wines on Tap a Passing Trend or the Wave of the Future? - NYTimes.com: "Wine? On tap? Wine, stored in kegs and served through a method similar to a draft-beer line, may be the glorious future of by-the-glass pours in bars and restaurants."

Replacing Guinness in a bar near you? I always laugh at people getting wine from a box in beer bars ...

Nokia to Shut Down Mosh

Nokia to Shut Down Mosh: "Nokia, the Finnish cell phone maker and wanna-be web power, will shut down Mosh, its wildly popular service that makes it easy for people to post and share content with others."

Oh! They were out so early that I thought that they would take over the world. Instead it looks like porn already took over the world, and took noika out ...

Red Dwarf

Red Dwarf: "To celebrate the 21st birthday of Red Dwarf, we're bringing back the original cast for four brand new specials later in April."

Yay! I'm sure that there's a few episodes that I've missed, as well ...

Muzak runs out

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide: "Muzak Holdings LLC, the company that made “elevator music” famous, sought bankruptcy protection from creditors as its debt matured and restructuring alternatives fell through due to the economic crisis."

Whoa, Surreal. Now who do you buy your hold music from?

Live Nation, Ticketmaster Reach $2.5 Billion Deal

Live Nation, Ticketmaster Reach $2.5 Billion Deal: "This merger would give a giant, new entity unrivaled power over concertgoers and the prices they pay to see their favorite artists and bands"

Ugg, and that if you can even find a place to get physical tickets.

Wife murdered for changing Facebook status

Wife murdered for changing Facebook status - Telegraph: "Richardson became enraged when Sarah changed her marital status on Facebook to single and decided to go and see her as she was not responding to his messages."

Whoa, Gonna have to watch those late-night status updates ...

Verizon Hub "landline slayer" officially unveiled

Verizon Hub "landline slayer" officially unveiled - Engadget: "The system boasts a 7-inch touchscreen display, and will work with Verizon wireless subscribers handset(s) to eliminate the need for a landline. The idea here is that the hub can sync to your calendar, contacts, maps, traffic and weather reports via broadband."

Whoa! Gonna have to poke at one. Mighty shiny!

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Official Google Blog: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish: "You may have noticed that Google has a new favicon"

Whoa, how could you miss it?! It's the technicolor yawn of favicons ...

Gaza aggressors kiss cell phones goodbye

Press TV - Gaza aggressors kiss cell phones goodbye: "Six hours before the Israeli ground incursion into Gaza on Saturday, thousands of infantry and armored forces were ordered to hand over their cell phones, an official has told AFP on condition of anonymity. The order was 'to keep the impending attack secret', an Israeli official was quoted as saying."

The very act of having a cell phone is a security leak! Guess the monkey mind is moving faster than the military can train it ...

Whopper Sacrifice

Whopper Sacrifice Application
Install WHOPPER® Sacrifice on your Facebook profile and we'll reward you with a free flame-broiled WHOPPER® Sandwich when you sacrifice 10 of your friends*

That's the spirit! Unloyalty rewards!

Love the burning human graphic. Do they make burgers from the unfriended?

LiveJournal on Life Support

Report: LiveJournal on Life Support: "The company has reportedly laid off 20 of 28 employees, “leaving only a handful of finance and operations workers.”"

Even with paid accounts and plenty of advertising? Weird.

Stacey's Demise

Stacey's Demise - SFist: San Francisco: "Venerable Stacey's Books, after celebrating 85 years in business this last fall, announced to staff today that the store will close sometime in late March."

SF can't sustain an excellent bookstore downtown? Bah!

Fruitcake wins!

International Federation of Competitive Eating - IFOCE: "Takeru Kobayashi will attempt to break the fruitcake-eating world record, seeking to consume all fruitcake leftover from the holidays ..."

Kobayashi failed to beat Sonya"The Black Widow" Thomas' 2001 record of 4 pounds and 14 ounces in 10 minutes.

An Italian legend says fruitcake was created by a nun at the urging of the devil in the form of a black cat

The Atlas of True Names

The Atlas of True Names : Strange Maps: "The Atlas substitutes the original meanings of the world’s place names for the better-known, ossified toponyms."

The Atlas of True Names restores an element of enchantment to the world we all think we know so well.

Spotted: Sibling Love, Stink Onion, Conquered City, "I don't understand you!"

Repeal Day!

21st-Amendment Brewery: Prohibition: "The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect on January 16, 1920. It wiped out the beers, the breweries and the culture that had come to define American social life."

Beer Examiner: 75 years ago prohibition was repealed by the 21st amendment of the U.S. Constitution: "December 5, 2008 will mark the 75th anniversary of enactment of the 21st amendment which repealed the 18th amendment and the federal repeal of prohibition.

After Prohibition, brewing companies began to market to women, designing beers that were lighter in flavor and character. While the use of corn, rice and sugar adjuncts was used before, they were now being used to develop a style that would appeal to women."

Heh! Girly-man beers! That's slightly more pleasant than "already been used beer" ...

Happy Repeal Day and Cheers!

Lovecraft's Re-Animator Re-animated

The Escapist : News : Lovecraft's Re-Animator Re-animated: "the game tells the story of the hapless Dr. Herbert West, the inventor of a special serum that can literally bring the dead back to life. There are a few side effects, of course, like the re-animated corpses turning into violent blood-thirsty zombies

The whole game plays in grainy black and white, reminiscent of the 1920's where the story was originally set; and whilst short, has an online score board where you can see how long you kept the rozzers from your door."

Free download, looks to be Windohs only ... Oh, the sanity points you could loose!

Buy Line

Buy Line - SF Weekly: "With the newspaper industry in a tailspin, readers ditching print for the Web in droves, and the country entering its worst recession in recent memory, San Francisco Chronicle execs have a brilliant solution to their financial problems: Charge people more to read their ailing product."

Oh, yay! As it is, I only buy the paper for event listings (The Pink Section) and tickets going on sale. Heck, they even dumbed down the comix to the point where Peanuts reprints start looking good ... Cathy, Blondie, Hagar, and Wizard of Id, oh joy! Weekend comix even lost a page.

Ah, well, the price hike will mean the purchase of a couple less papers a week. Not like we're short on free daily papers!