Fake Christmas Trees: True Holiday Spirit

You got it. It's finally time. So get off your ass and go get a tree. I contend that fake Christmas trees carry more spirit with them than real trees. I quote Jerry Seinfeld as a source:

"The Christmas tree certainly seems to inspire a love/hate relationship. All that time is spent selecting it and decorating it, and then a week after it's just thrown somewhere, you see it by the side of the road, it looks like a mob hit. A car slows down, a door opens and this tree just rolls out. People snap out of that Christmas spirit like it was a drunken stupor, they just wake up one morning and go, "Oh my god, there's a tree inside the house! Just throw it anywhere!" (opening monologue from episode 96, season 6, "The Race")

You don't see fake trees by the side of the road, do you? :-) No sir, you don't, and THAT is why! True spirit (or the fact that you just plunked down $200 for a tree that you can use again). Just don't end up like these dorks in the picture to your right... nice, a tree shorter than the both of you -good call (was it prom night and Christmas too?) - JK

Mario Reloaded: There Is No 3rd Dimension

Thanks to the people at toonimated.com for this. There can be only one... wait, never mind, that's the Highlander. Enjoy:

Music Set To Go Free: Homer Can't Believe It Either

Talk about reaching around your shoulder to scratch your ass. Now after all these years, ridiculous restrictions and attempted "DRM" methods the music industry is finally coming to the realization of simple economics; make it cheap and readily available and people will buy it, period. They have tried this with online music stores but they weigh it down by trying to keep it from "getting out" -why?

I just had a discussion about this topic last night with Jess. I could never, EVER understand what the big deal was when (all too late) the music industry realized "Oh, shit, they can make these digital and portable? CRAP!" Why didn't they just start selling tracks online right then and there with no DRM?

Simple economics also dictates a second rule; get your product as close to "fast, free and now" as you can with whatever you're peddling and you'll make money and own the market. No one, in significant enough numbers to counteract profitability, steals what meets those two simple economic standards of consumption.

So here's to the future of digital music; they way it should have been all along. - JK

DRM-free MP3s starting to attract major players

Sunnyvale (CA) - As more MP3 players enter the market, with increasing confusion over digital security and copyright licenses, a couple major record labels are part of a new initiative to offer files that are stripped of all digital restrictions...

...The entire purpose of the DRM architecture is to prevent illegal copying and playback of purchased content. However, devoted music pirates don't even need to worry about this barrier because there are other illegal, peer-to-peer options that allow users to download MP3 files for free with no DRM restrictions attached to them....

...With Sony BMG and Disney's Hollywood Records both dabbling in the market of selling unrestricted MP3s, it could be a sign of a reversal back to more simplistic music downloading technology. "They're still looking at it as an experiment but the labels have really come a long way in terms of wanting to see how this works for them," said Yahoo spokesperson Carrie Davis. (credit Mark Raby, tomshardware.com; full story here)

Hell Hath No Fury: But They Do Serve Warm Beer...

Credit to Jess for sending this story in. I'm not sure if it was a suggestion or a warning from her; either way she'll be served cold beer for the rest of her life if I have anything to do with it. - JK

P.S. Photo credit RATM (yup, nice)

St. Louis woman shoots husband dead for giving her warm beer, cops say

ST. LOUIS - A St. Louis woman shot her husband to death after he gave her a can of warm beer, police said.

The shooting happened Sunday. Names have not been released. The woman was taken into custody.

The wife allegedly admitted shooting her husband, who was about 70 years old, in the kitchen of their home. The man was shot four or five times in the chest after giving his wife a can of warm Stag beer. (credit AP report, MSNBC; full story here)

Movies In 30 Seconds: Muthafu.....

AngryAlien.com plays host to some hilarious Flash movies which are 30 second run-downs of any given movie with all the characters played by bunnies :-) again, I ask you, why not? Enjoy.

Mark Your Calendar: Goodbye Brave World, Hello Mad World...

Honestly? I don't have a lot of sympathy for the kid. Yup, that's right. Oh I know, you think that's a really cold approach don't you? Well I don't think what those cops did is, in all likelihood, the right thing either... It's all madness in my book. Thousands of dollars in over-inflated value to play a stupid video game, people quiting jobs to buy the thing, drive-by shootings, muggings, robberies and now a dead, idiot kid who though committed a willful act of malice and theft is nevertheless dead over something beneath pathetic... welcome to the new standard of a life ending in vain and the redefining of "a sea spilled from a cup". - JK

Suspect in PS3 robbery gets killed by police

Wilmington (NC) - One of the many cases of Playstation 3 robberies ended fatally as police gunned down a suspect in North Carolina accused of stalking a customer on the PS3 launch day back to his apartment, beating him up, and stealing his console.

The robbery victim, a student at UNC, was one of the first to get a PS3 in the state, having waited over three days to purchase the console at Wal-Mart at midnight on the November 17 launch day.

Police had a warrant for Peyton Strickland, a student at Cape Fear Community College, and went to his house on Friday to arrest him. When Strickland didn't answer the door, the police entered forcibly and then shot him. It's unknown at this point why the police felt the need to use force. According to his roommate, Strickland was unarmed and was just holding a PS3 controller.

"If this boy would've come to the door, opened the door, we probably wouldn't be talking," was the response from the sheriff. The District Attorney is following the official investigation. "No one is above the law and no one is beneath its protection," he said.

The PS3 launch saw a lot of violence, because of its elusive status both in terms of number of units available and the high cost. Known examples of violence included a drive-by shooting, predictable store opening fights, and several other cases of robberies and muggings. (credit Mark Raby, tomshardware.com; full story here)

In GPS We Trust: Maybe John Denver Was Full of Shit?

Ambulance follows GPS 200 miles in the wrong direction

We all know the pitfalls of blindly following your GPS navigation without doing a reality check, but a British ambulance crew must have broken a world record. The ambulance blindly followed their GPS system 200 miles the wrong way while ferrying a patient from the King George Hospital in Ilford to the Mascalls Park Hospital near Brentwood.

The trip is only 12 miles and should only take about thirty minutes, but the ambulance crew turned it into an eight-hour roundtrip to Manchester.

Fortunately the patient is still alive and the ambulance company says, "The patient was in a comfortable condition at all times while in our care and he arrived safely at Mascalls Park Hospital early that afternoon." (credit, Humphrey Cheung at tomshardware.com ; full story here)

A Moment of Silence: Cue the Bagpipes...

Well... I'd like to think that beer has gone to a better place... but I know that's just not true. *sigh*

Stupid Ideas: They Make the World Go Round...

Lil'Jon Uses Google: Google Corrects Lil'Jon?

Proof, yet again, that Google does indeed know all. Click, click, click, click below: