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25 October, 2002

Microsoft Apologizes For Butterfly Litter

According to this CNN article, Microsoft admits that their guerrilla advertising campaign that littered New York City with butterfly decals was a mistake.

"We apologize to the City of New York and the people of New York City," Yusuf Mehdi, the corporate vice president for MSN Personal services and business, said in a statement released Friday.

Maybe this signals the beginning of a new, more apologetic Microsoft. I can think of quite a few things that they've done which deserve an apology.

Bryan Chaffin, of the Mac Observer, cites a similar guerrilla campaign done by IBM last year, also in New York.

The biggest thing that makes me shake my head at this absurdity is the irony of how even when Microsoft does such a "daring" thing as public vandalism, it is still copying those that came before it.

Posted on 25 October, 2002

Newspapers, New and Old

Here's an amazing web site for newspaper freaks: Newseum.com (Javascript must be enabled).

You'll find thumbnail images of the current front page of more than 100 newspapers around the world. Click an image, and you'll get a larger JPEG image. If you'd actually like to read it, click again to display a PDF file.

And speaking of newspapers... the American Newspaper Repository is dedicated to saving old newspapers from being destroyed. This organization, by the way, was founded by author Nicholson Baker.  Baker's the guy who wrote Vox , which became very popular during the Clinton/Lewinsky affair aftermath.

Posted on 25 October, 2002

Just the Facts

The First Science Fact File lists more than 1,400 interesting scientific facts. At least they claim that they are facts (sources are not cited for most items). Here are just a few:

  • The word 'nerd' was first coined by Dr. Seuss in 'If I ran the Zoo'.
  • The oceans contain enough salt to cover all the continents to a depth of nearly 500 feet
  • The human brain is 2% of the body's weight, but uses a hungry 20% of its energy.
  • On average, women cry 5.3 times a month. Men only 1.4 times.
  • Twins are born one in 80 births in the UK, and one in 300 births in China.
  • Bill Gates' house took seven years to build, and was inspired by the Space Station in the film 2001. It is run by 100 computers in a five room 'brain centre'. It cost over $50 million to build, and is estimated to be worth $100 million.
  • 22% of all the plant species on the planet are in Brazil. Brazil also has the most species of mammals (524), fresh water fish, insects and parrots of anywhere.
  • Nearly four times as many potential jurors will convict if told that a DNA match has a chance probability of 0.1 per cent than if told one in a thousand match the DNA - yet they are the same facts.
  • Bats always turn left when leaving a cave.

Posted on 25 October, 2002