Random

Smartphones exist so that people can feel something.

Our inner lives, after all, are so numbing that we are forced to rely on our outer vestments to speak to us and to others.

While our stripes--single slim, red Prada, or three jagged Adidas, depending on your bent--can be shown by our clothes, it's our smartphones that speak by their very public presence at all times of day and night.

Please, then, peruse this artistic depiction of the image parameters of smartphone users and wonder whether you see yourself and your own feelings. This creation is the work of C-Section Comics, … Read more

Perhaps you, like me, are close to someone who finds trouble counting beyond three. At least in their head.

Perhaps you, like me, occasionally express frustration in what you think is a humorous way, about this alleged inability.

Perhaps, you, unlike me, have tried to zap their brains with a shot of electricity in order to get their math skills up to that of a high school student.

Should you have tried to jolt a math dolt with a volt or two, you might have been doing the right thing. For researchers in Britain have discovered, at least according to the Telegraph, … Read more

The U.S Air Force seems to do a lot to make the lives of its pilots and air crew more comfortable.

Just the other day, one heard about a new chair that stops fliers from losing their lasagne before its full nutritional value can be enjoyed.

Now, emerges news that the Air Force is retiring a lovely centrifuge that helped pilots stay, well, conscious.

According the the U.S. Air Force's own Web site, the Physiological Training Center at Holloman Air Force Base is shutting down its spinning centrifuge in favor of a new centrifuge being built to … Read more

Oh, yes, you all take your iPads everywhere with you. You love them. They are so simple even a child can use them without a manual.

But not everyone is familiar with touch screens like the iPad's.

You may be moved to democratic howling when I tell you that a voter in Washington, D.C., walked up to a touch-screen voting machine yesterday and didn't use his or her fingers.

No, instead, he or she thumped down a hand stamp bearing the name of Adrian Fenty, the current mayor of D.C., who lost his re-election bid in … Read more

I was just at the wedding of one of New York's finest unsung comedians.

Her father is a recently retired US Airways pilot. He explained to me that he was instructed never to use words like "turbulence" or "thunderstorm," as these tend to frighten people to the degree that they might reach for the air sickness bags.

Perhaps you are one of those who is prone to having your food make an unexpected return to your throat when the plane begins to bump, grind, and sway out of control. Well, perhaps the Barany chair might … Read more

Somehow, with all the strange, otherworldly people standing for office in American elections Tuesday, one ballot measure has not received quite the enormous importance that it deserves.

No, I am not thinking of Proposition 19 in California, the one supported by significant members of the tech world, the one that hopes to legalize the sale of marijuana.

This ballot measure, addressed to voters in Denver, is called Initiative 300 and it is adorned by perhaps the most ridiculous question ever asked in a political campaign: "Are you ready for the truth?" The truth that proponents of this measure … Read more

As we enter the season of buying people things they don't like, it is fortunate that one company has stopped to think what the world might truly be missing.

Haynes, a company that has made its name and fortune out of creating perfectly bound owners' manuals for every conceivable car, has taken its talents to celestial heights.

According to the Daily Mail, the company is releasing an owner's manual for the USS Enterprise.

This would seem to be a little more difficult than creating a manual for a Ford Escort. The Enterprise went through quite a few iterations … Read more

Roll up. Roll up. You won't believe your eyes.

No, I'm not launching a new Apple product (at least not yet). Instead, I would like you to scan a piece of footage for me and tell me what you see.

I would like you to examine a YouTube video that has been sent to me by various readers and eminences. It has already been viewed by more than 1.6 million people. And it shows Irish film director George Clarke declaring that he has seen an old woman--or a man in drag--in the 1928 Charlie Chaplin movie "The Circus."

Why might this be remarkable? I am sure even Chaplin himself might have donned a skirt at least at some point in his life. Ah, but this skirted individual, with a hardened Edward G. Robinson-type face, appears to be talking on a cell phone.

You did hear me right. She (or he) appears to be in possession of a mobile device and chatting into it. … Read more

The modern world has one immutable law: where the founders of Facebook go, so does the rest of society.

Recently, Dustin Moskovitz and Sean Parker, just two of the characters from "The Social Network," donated $170,000 to assist Proposition 19, a California idea aimed at legalizing pot.

And now I read in The New York Times that, sensing a turning of the tides, or merely a cloud of smoke about to emerge from an important chimney, many people are anticipating pot legalization by buying up pot-related domains.

The Times tells of Kevin Faler, who was once a … Read more