Foreigners And Fights, PS3 JPN Launch’s Dark Side (from /.) –

Based on my observations of the first twenty PS3s sold at Bic Camera, they were all purchased by Chinese nationals, none of whom bought any software. After making their purchase, television crews asked for interviews but all were declined. These temporary owners of PS3s would then make their way down the street where their bosses waited. After several minutes, a dozen PS3s were rounded up, as their Japanese business manager paid out cash to those who waited in line for them. I witnessed a homeless-looking Chinese man, in his sixties or seventies get paid 20,000 yen for his services and was then sent away.

20,000 yen is a little less than $200, but to a homeless man, that’s a lot of money for just a day’s work. On the other hand, PS3s have been selling on eBay and Craigslist from $1500 to upwards of $2500.

Along the lines of the PS3 launch, Kotaku also has this article: Harrison’s PS3 Launch Day Scrap Book

Brazilian woman survives 6 shots to head – Doctors could not explain how Pereira survived the attack. The .32-caliber bullets didn’t break through her skull and didn’t even need to be immediately extracted, doctors said. Pereira also was shot once in the hand. Just amazing! What a miracle. This woman has a skull of steel.

– A dead man has been blamed for hundreds of speeding offences in Australia in what police believe is a major fraud designed to help motorists avoid traffic fines. Police in Sydney said 240 people were under investigation over the speeding scam, where hundreds of motorists blamed either the same dead man, or a person living in another state, for driving their cars at the time of the speeding offences.

Canstruction makes creations out of cans – It’s a can-do event. Architects and engineers recently gathered at Canstruction, an annual event held in New York and other cities, to build giant sculptures made from full cans of food. The show is meant to raise awareness of hunger issues. You can see the gallery here.

Help Stop the Largest and Cruelest Slaughter of Dolphins in the World! (from /.) – What a sad and cruel event.

Roller coaster massacre! – Nothing is more fun than watching hundreds of park goers get moved down by a runaway roller coaster cart, except of course watching hundreds of people get run over by three runaway roller coaster carts. Awesome video of using Rollercoaster Tycoon to build a park and crush hundreds of visitors.

Naked man arrested for concealed weapon – A man was arrested on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon after police found him outdoors — naked — and he told them he had a tool in his rectum, authorities said.

Christmas comes early at Apple: free shuffles for all! (from MS newsgroup) – Unfortunately, I don’t think we’re getting free Zunes. ;p

Oh how I miss Mitch Hedberg: Mitch Hedberg R.I.P

Hacker Puzzle (from MS newsgroup) – A fun little puzzle where I got stuck on ojofuffo. Then I cheated and searched online, but the remainder of the puzzle was easy.

Did you know that most of Will Smith’s songs are just lyrics on top of oldies?
Patrice Rushen – Forget Me Nots vs Men In Black
Sister Sledge – He’s The Greatest Dancer vs Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It

Fired over finger, driver wants job back – The 43-year-old driver, whose name was not released, was driving middle school children back to school after a zoo visit on June 16 when the president and Republican Rep. Dave Reichert drove slowly by in a motorcade. From the bus, the children waved; with the windows down in their car, Bush and Reichert waved back. That’s when the driver gave the president the finger, according to Reichert and Issaquah superintendent Janet Barry.

This entry was originally posted on October 28, 2006 @ 9:27pm, but I just noticed it was marked as Private. Therefore, I’m changing the timestamp so it’ll appear back on the top.

Budlight Radio Commercials (from FuzzyWuzzy) – If you’re looking for the Bud Light “Real Men of Genius” or “Real American Hero” radio spots, you’re in the right place. I’ve been collecting these spots for a few years now and it’s grown quite a bit in size and user base. These commercials are funny! He also has a bunch of interesting video clips on his site.

How to prank a Telemarketer (from RayAlome) – an awesome recording Tom Mabe did to scare the crap out of the telemarketer.

Crave TV: 20-inch Laptop on the London Underground (from /.) – How practical is owning a 20-inch laptop? We lug Dell’s massive XPS M2010 from one side of London to the other using the tube and bus. Our PC editor braves the stares of strangers, and the constant risk of mugging. Some of his fellow Tube travellers seem quite shocked by the experience. Check out the video by clicking above and read our full review of this obscenely huge Dell laptop here. Funny video of using the new Dell 20″ laptop in London.

Ugly baby – a live performance by Stephen Lynch on the Carson Daily Show. The song is hilarious!

Waiter, there’s a fly on the wall (from Cari) – Waiter, as the anonymous narrator of this extract from http://waiterrant.net calls himself, has changed details to protect the privacy of his customers, and keep them coming to his upmarket New York Italian restaurant, alias The Bistro. Since April 2004, his weblog has been building into a situation comedy of life in and around a restaurant – its owner and staff, motley customers, the local homeless guy who shows up at the window, or the woman neighbor who stepped out naked on the street — but for a towel — on a dare. This is a waiter who’s been working on trying to publish some of his works. The stories he writes are actually quite interesting.

U.S. casino magnate gives Picasso’s dream the elbow – Picasso’s famed “Dream” painting turned into a nightmare for Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn when he accidentally gave the multimillion dollar canvas an elbow. Wynn had just finalized a $139 million sale to another collector of his painting, called “Le Reve” (The Dream), when he poked a finger-sized hole in the artwork while showing it to friends at his Las Vegas office a couple of weeks ago. I first heard this story from Derek. Did you know that Steve Wynn owns not only the new Wynn casino in Las Vegas, but the also the trio from Ocean’s Eleven – MGM Grand, Mirage, and Bellagio.

Not it! Mass. elementary school bans tag – Tag, you’re out! Officials at an elementary school south of Boston have banned kids from playing tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chase game during recess for fear they’ll get hurt and hold the school liable. Recess is “a time when accidents can happen,” said Willett Elementary School Principal Gaylene Heppe, who approved the ban. There are 2 problems here. Parents who are idiots for trying to sue the school for every little thing and school staff for not knowing better and are afraid of parents. There’s doesn’t appear to be such a thing as “common sense” in American culture. At least we’ve lost a lot of it. If I trip on the sidewalk, I don’t sue the city for not making the sidewalk safer. I blame myself for being clumsy and remind myself to be careful next time. The problem with American mentality is we always think we’re right and we’re never at fault.

Evolution – A very well done ad to show what is wrong with today’s image of beauty. I applaud Dove for doing this. There was a news article just a few weeks back stating that the Spanish fashion show or pageant was going to ban any women who are under a certain BMI because expression of beauty should not be telling girls to be super skinny.

No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted
Every girl deserves to feel beautiful just the way she is.
Get involved at campaignforrealbeauty.com

retrievr (from /.) – working on top of flickr, retrievr utilizes a sample drawing you provide and tries to match images similar in representation. The few I tried were pretty close.

pacmanパックマン (from Cari) – Pacelman. Pacman for Excel. And other games that run within Excel. I haven’t personally tried these as allow unknown scripts run in MS Office applications isn’t something I do.

Home sweet home meet the chocolate igloo – Four Italians have constructed what they believe is the world’s first full-sized chocolate igloo but they have yet to solve an age-old problem. It still melts. Yummy! I’ve always had a dream of swimming in a chocolate river after I read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Now I can dream about living in a chocolate house!

1K Project II (from MS newsgroup) – 1000 cars racing at the same time – Trackmania Sunrise 😀 Made by Blackshark. Ever wonder what cars would be like if they were like liquid?