As if I had to prove that clowns are evil

by T. Keith Edmunds

The Metro recently had an article about Dominic Deville, the man who has set up an Evil Clown company in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Parent hire this clown to torment their child through threatening text messages and the like to build up an unspeakable sense of impending attack. You know, the kind of thing good parents should do for their kids.

‘The child feels more and more that it is being pursued,’ said Deville.
‘The clown’s one and only aim is to smash a cake into the face of his victim, when they least expect it, during the course of seven days.’

According to Swisster, the service costs 666 francs. At the time of this posting, that equates to about $612 Canadian. A hell of a deal?

Furthermore, this article points out:

The banking industry has provided most clientele to date. “666 francs is a lot for a gift, but not for somebody real special. Bankers don’t care about the sum,” said Vonarburg [Deville's business partner], who points out that the service is aimed at 20-50-year-olds and is not really suitable for children.

Thanks for clearing that up. I’m sure my wife would appreciate this gift so much more than my children.

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Is a paywall the same as censorship?

by Grant Hamilton

According to New York magazine, the era of free online news content may be coming to a close. The New York Times is planning to start charging for some content.

I have some thoughts on this, but I’d like to spark a discussion in the comments, so that it’s not just me ranting on the blog. Please, read the piece — the New York Times’ proposal is a little different from what’s been discussed around most newspapers — and chime in below.

To start things off, though, I’d like to say that I’m in love with the idea of the Internet as a gigantic web of interconnected links. The power of the Internet comes, partially, comes from its ability to link anything to anything. Two things break this: password protection, and unlinkable Flash content. URL shorteners like bit.ly are worrisome as well (what happens to all those links if bit.ly goes under?).

When China says “conform to our beliefs or we won’t let that site be accessed” it’s censorship. But isn’t forcing people to pay a subscription or disallowing them somewhat the same? If you think it’s not, would you also agree that it’s okay to charge people money for the privilege of voting? And isn’t the free flow of information just as crucial to democracy as voting?

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BREAKING NEWS: Disney buying Marvel

by T. Keith Edmunds

spidermanI fail to see how this is a good thing: the Walt Disney Company is buying Marvel Entertainment. The price? Four billion dollars.

Full story here.

I will be posting more on this topic, once I’ve had a chance to think it through. You see, Marvel’s greatest strength in recent years has been it’s ability to translate various properties into cinematic success (Spider-Man, Iron Man, The Hulk, etc), while DC has had immense difficulties. The primary reason for DC’s problems has been the interference run by higher levels of corporate structure, as DC is owned by Time Warner.

Will Marvel begin to suffer the same fate? I hope not, especially since the announcement of the Avengers Initiative.

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Boxed better than bottled?

by T. Keith Edmunds

Image courtesy of Hypergurl (Flickr).

Image courtesy of Hypergurl (Flickr).

The idea of bottled water is increasing discouraging, what with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and other similar environmental travesties occuring throughout the world. While the slowly building backlash against plastic bottles of water provides some hope, it seems to be too little.

There is a new source of hope, however:

Part sustainable water company, part art project, part philanthropic project, and completely curious. Boxed Water Is Better, is a boxed water company.

That’s right: boxed water. Doesn’t it make sense? Minimize plastic. Use of a renewable, recyclable resource. And it gets better…

Our carbon footprint is dramatically lower as our boxes are shipped flat to our filler and filled only as demand is created, opposed to most bottled water companies that ship their empty bottles across the globe to be filled, then shipped back for consumption. The flat, unfilled boxes we can fit on 2 pallets, or roughly 5% of a truckload, would require about 5 truckloads for empty plastic or glass bottles. Our cartons can also be broken down to their original flat state, are recyclable in most areas, and will be everywhere shortly. We’re also giving 20% of our profits back to the resources our product is composed of - water and trees.

With companies like Boxed Water Is Better emerging on the scene, it’s tough to feel like hope is completely lost.

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