Not My Job
Tuesday, December 12th, 2006
Here’s an example of some quality line-painting work.
Archive for the 'Absurd' Category
Owning Rights To A Language?
Saturday, November 25th, 2006
The Mapuche Indians in Chile are suing Microsoft (in Chilean courts) for translating Microsoft Windows into Mapuzugun, a Mapuche language. The Indians are contending that Microsoft needed their permission to utilize the language.
It seems to me that the real problem is a cultural clash between the technology of the West and the lifestyle of an indigenous people, and the court case is merely the Indians’ best way of responding to it.
Link: http://today.reuters.com/…
(via Slashdot)
The 2006 Ig Nobel Awards
Monday, October 9th, 2006Yes, the Nobel prizes were awarded this week, but the real news is the Ig Nobel awards.
Policy Favoring Single Parents Causes Divorces
Monday, October 2nd, 2006
Chinese officials in the city of Dandong were planning to cut teaching jobs, but they made a special exception for single parents. The result? More divorce filings from a single school in one week than for the whole city in all of 2005.
How Not To Resolve A Dispute
Monday, October 2nd, 2006
14-year-old Shannon Derrik loaned her new iPod to a friend who managed to lose it. Shannon, being a typical modern-day American, filed a lawsuit to recoup the cost. But now the ludicrousness has gone even further, as both parties have agreed to appear on the Judge Judy show.
UPDATE: New developments in this case have precluded a Judge Judy appearance. Further updates to come.
UPDATE #2: This case has been resolved, with Shannon’s friend ordered to give her 30GB iPod to Shannon as a replacement for the stolen iPod Nano.
Don’t Carry Large Amounts Of Cash
Sunday, September 3rd, 2006
According to this federal appeals court ruling, carrying large amounts of cash is sufficient cause for the cash to be confiscated and not returned. What planet are these judges from?
How Not To Design Web Site Security
Tuesday, April 4th, 2006
This one’s a bit technical, but it goes something like this: A company designed a web site such that if you (1) disable javascript, (2) disable cookies, and (3) visit every link on the site… then you will delete all content on the site.
Unfortunately for the site owners, the Google web crawler meets all three of the criteria. And the site content was deleted.
