Cody Taylor

A T-Shirt that will define a generation

Virgin America is suing a company that allegedly created a phony ad, making it look like Virgin was trying to profit from the US Airways crash. Virgin claims Adrants Publishing posted an ad on its website, Adrants.com, showing a photo of the jet planted in the Hudson River, with the caption, “The Hudson Crash: Just One More Reason to Fly Virgin.”

The San Francisco Zoo announced the birth of a reticulated giraffe calf on Monday morning. Bititi (pronounced Bah-Tē-Tē), the proud mom, gave birth between 5:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. and is showing strong maternal skills. This is Bititi’s second offspring; Bulldozer, a male giraffe, was born August 11, 2007.

arcticstoat writes “Following last year’s reports of a scheme to ‘ban’ pirates from the Internet via ISPs in the UK, it looks as though the UK government has now decided to back down on the plan, saying that it hopes it won’t have to apply ‘the heavy hand of legislation’. The UK’s Intellectual Property Minister, David Lammy, said that ‘I’m not sure it’s actually going to be possible,’ as a result of the complexities of enforcing such legislation. Lammy also revealed that he had a different opinion on file sharers than many people in the music industry. He pointed out that there’s a big difference between organized counterfeiting gangs and ‘younger people not quite buying into the system’. He added that ‘we can’t have a system where we’re talking about arresting teenagers in their bedrooms. People can rent a room in an hotel and leave with a bar of soap — there’s a big difference between leaving with a bar of soap and leaving with the television.'”

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patentpundit writes “Word has started to circulate that President Barack Obama may be close to appointing John W. Thompson, the outgoing chief executive of network security firm Symantec Corp., to be the next Secretary of Commerce. According to the LA Times, over the last several days Thompson has spoken on the telephone and met with key senators, and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), a member of the commerce committee that would hold confirmation hearings for any appointed Secretary of Commerce, is “extremely supportive and hopeful he’ll be the nominee.” The appointment of Thompson to head the Department of Commerce would be an exceptionally interesting choice given that only days ago President Obama asked Scott McNealy, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems, to lead his open source charge and conduct a study and report back regarding the feasibility of the US government forgoing proprietary software and moving toward open source software solutions.”

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bowman9991 submitted a story that ought to make even the most stone hearted amongst you cry. He says “Travis Wright, one of the writers behind Eagle Eye, has been working on a sequel to Ridley Scott’s Sci-Fi classic Blade Runner. Script proposals have explored the nature of the off-world colonies, what happens to the Tyrell Corporation in the wake of its founder’s death, and what would become of Rachel. Travis said he intends to write a script “with or without anyone’s blessings.” Director Ridley Scott appears interested in a sequel too. At Comic-Con in 2007 Ridley said, “If you have any scripts, you know where to send them.” It’s doubtful he’ll have time anytime soon though. He’s already stated his next two science fiction films will be an adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New Word with Leonardo DiCaprio and an adaptation of Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War.”

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javipas writes “Google developers have announced a new feature part of Gmail Labs that everybody was waiting to see realized. Offline Gmail will allow users to have a partial copy of its Gmail account on their PCs, and access their messages while being offline. The magic of Google Gears comes to the rescue, but the process will not be complete. The syncronization will update the online and offline copies, but Google will use an algorithm that will determine the messages downloaded on each sync (the first being the most important) based on several parameters that point out that message’s relevance. This measure will save the process from downloading pieces of information not quite valuable. US and UK english users can enjoy this feature through the Gmail Labs section.”

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coondoggie writes “A federal court today spanked two telemarketers with some .2 million in civil penalties for violating the Federal Trade Commission’s Do Not Call Rule. According to the FTC, the companies called consumers whose phone numbers were on the Do Not Call Registry without having obtained their express written agreement or having an ‘established business relationship’ with them. One group’s telemarketers also allegedly abandoned many calls, by failing to connect the calls to a sales representative within two seconds after consumers answered, as required by law, the FTC stated. The cases were filed by the Department of Justice on behalf of the FTC.”

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