On the Media picks up on the Harper's Magazine article Debbie Does Salad and chats with Frederick Kaufman, the article's author, on the curious similarity between the way cooking shows and pornographic films present their subject matter. Cooking shows target the 18–35 male, even though these people are unlikely to be cooks themselves. The...
The marriage of convenience is alive and well, not that is really a surprise to anybody. I found interesting this story on how some young members of the US military are getting married for purely economic reasons. By getting married, he would get a housing stipend and permission to move off-base. And as his legal wife, she would get health cove...
If you dare, spend eleven minutes of your life watching the most painfully compelling mockumentary on the lives of two basement fantasy role playing gamers. (via Chris Williams.)
Of course we don't find this out until somebody tries. (Google cache for a limited time only.)
Vancouver technologist Darren Barefoot was invited to Redmond by the MSN Search team but was stopped by Immigration and denied entry. Ultimately, the customs agents concluded that because Microsoft was covering my flight and accommodation, I was being compensated for consulting activities. In order to enter the country, I'd need a work permit. ...
Heather Leigh had a creepy experience with her baggage last week. The story continued yesterday. I'm watching to see how things turn out.
Many commenters to my earlier entry on sales in France had questions about rebates. Slate explained the whole rebate thing back in 2003. The short version: There are two types of rebates, manufacturer rebates and retailer rebates. Manufacturer rebates exist because they want the retail price to go down, but they are afraid that if they just lowe...
I'm not really interested in sports. Teams, standings, scores, who got traded to what team, none of that is interesting to me. What I am interested in, however, is "meta-sports": The business of sports, the technology of sports, the evolution of techniques, changes in the rules, that sort of thing. That's one of the reasons I'm a fan of the radio ...
Poorly-drawn cartoons inspired by actual spam subject lines! It's pretty much what the title says. Don't forget to read the fan mail. Sometimes it's even funny.
Marketplace reports on the start of the winter sale season in France. By law, retailers are permitted sales only twice a year, so the onset of sale season generates quite a bit of shopping madness. There is also a proposal to allow more sale periods, but opponents argue that doing so would harm smaller businesses. Coming from the land of sale fat...
