Current_Events: November 2007 Archive Page

While the second-most-common rating that Amazon customers have given this product is five stars, some 40% have given the Kindle one star.  The vast majority have not purchased the product, but are simply warning other would-be customers about bad experiences with previous e-book purchases, including e-books purchased from Amazon.

I still want one...

Lost Pig wins Interactive Fiction Competition 2007.

Pig lost! Boss say that it Grunk fault. Say Grunk forget about closing gate. Maybe boss right. Grunk not remember forgetting, but maybe Grunk just forget. Boss say Grunk go find pig, bring it back. Him say, if Grunk not bring back pig, not bring back Grunk either. Grunk like working at pig farm, so now Grunk need find pig.

Second place: An Act of Murder

"Frederic Sheppard." Chief Inspector Duffy pulls at his moustache mournfully and stares up at the house through the windshield. "Theatrical sort, usually has a finger in some play or other. He bought up Gull Point about ten years ago. Never any complaints from the neighbours, never any scandals." He pulls at his moustache again. "He was found dead in the cove at the foot of the cliff behind the house about half an hour ago. Caller said it looked as though he fell from his study window."

Third Place: Lord Bellwater's Secret

As an aspiring groom in Lord Bellwater's household, recklessness has not been one of the qualities for which you, Bert Smith, would wish to be noted. However, desperate times call for desperate measures, and here you are in the early hours of the morning of Saturday 20th June 1863, undertaking the most reckless venture of your life.

Joe Napsha writes in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Downtown Greensburg could have a hands-on science center for children and adults at the former Mellon Bank building if two natives can make their dream a reality.

An interactive science center would feature a wide range of exhibits featuring sight, sound, motion, light and gears -- "anything with science involved," said Douglas Lingsch, 43, a businessman who lives in Bedford in Bedford County. He and his wife, Mari-Pat, hope to open the Discovery & Interactive Science Center in the fall of 2008 or 2009, he said.

They anticipate creating an attraction similar to the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, Douglas Lingsch said.

Sign me up to volunteer!

According the Beeb:

A supposed asteroid, which it was feared was going to have a near-miss with Earth next week, has been identified as a spacecraft.

Just in case you were heading to the kitchen to make a tinfoil hat, I should clarify... that's an Earth spacecraft -- the European Rosetta.

In the New York Times, Maureen Dowd reflects on the show biz writers' strike.

Hillary Clinton had the bad luck to fumble a debate before the writers' strike knocked late-night comics off the air.

"I shudder to think what's happening to all the kids who keep in touch with world news by listening to reports of late-night comedians," said David Thomson, the film historian.

I watch so little TV that this strike will little impact on the way I spend my leisure time... but I am following the story because one of the issues is how writers will be compensated for online remediations of their work.

WCBS-TV:

The spam scam involves users unknowingly sending their MySpace friends e-mails and posting comments on their profiles that plug a ploy for the supposedly free gift card that they'll never actually see, touch, or spend.

In fact, to lead the younger members on, the ads are written in "kids-speak." One such posting starts off by telling the victim, "Hey dude, check it out! You ain't gunna believe this!"

[...]

"It is an epidemic on MySpace," PC Magazine Executive Editor Jeremy Kaplan tells wcbstv.com. "It is a big problem particularly because of the pervasiveness of MySpace. If you're in junior high, high school, college -- half the world seems to have MySpace pages -- so the younger you are, the more frequently you use it and the more likely you are to encounter this thing. It is a huge problem."

In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jonathan D. Silver waxes poetic:

Where do all the pumpkins go, post Halloween's big costume show?
Are they left to rot and molder, as the weather trends ever colder?
Or is there some more organized scheme, to dispose of leftovers that aren't the crop's cream?
Wherefore do they, might they go? Inquiring minds want to know!

Silver is a clever writer, though his meter could be tighter.
It could use another edit, but I'm smiling 'cause I read it.