Shredinator

That sucks - having the vcr eat REEL SATRIANI - that is just wrong.

Gap, iTunes promo to feature print and TV ads

Apple and clothing retailer the Gap will use a series of print and television ads to hype an upcoming promotion that will offer shoppers a free iTunes song download for trying on a pair of Gap jeans.

Following an AppleInsider report on the subject, The Gap on Thursday officially announced that its fall campaign involving Apple's iTunes will be called "favorites."

"The first element of Gap’s fall 2005 marketing campaign features the iTunes Music Store to help introduce three new denim fits for women (Curvy, Straight and Original) and one for men (Straight)," the retailer said in a statement.

During the month of August, Gap will host the “Find Your Favorite Fit” event – an invitation for customers to try on the new jean fits. From August 8 – 31, each customer who tries on any pair of Gap jeans will receive a free download of their favorite song from the iTunes Music Store.

“Much like your favorite music, your favorite jeans are a unique expression and reflection of your individual style,” said Jeff Jones, executive vice president of Gap Marketing. “The relationship between jeans and music is a hallmark of Gap’s identity, so we’re thrilled to team up with iTunes to bring this connection to life for our customers.”

Print ads introducing the new jean fits, the iTunes Music Store promotion and the “Find Your Favorite” event will run in August issues of weekly magazines including US Weekly, People and Entertainment Weekly and television spots will air on network and cable TV programs from August 8 – August 23.

Apple's participation in the promotion is expected to end Aug 31.

South Korean man dies after 50 hours of computer games

SEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean man who played computer games for 50 hours almost non-stop died of heart failure minutes after finishing his mammoth session in an Internet cafe, authorities said Tuesday.

The 28-year-old man, identified only by his family name Lee, had been playing on-line battle simulation games at the cybercafe in the southeastern city of Taegu, police said.

Lee had planted himself in front of a computer monitor to play on-line games on Aug. 3. He only left the spot over the next three days to go to the toilet and take brief naps on a makeshift bed, they said.

"We presume the cause of death was heart failure stemming from exhaustion," a Taegu provincial police official said by telephone.

Lee had recently quit his job to spend more time playing games, the daily JoongAng Ilbo reported after interviewing former work colleagues and staff at the Internet cafe.

After he failed to return home, Lee's mother asked his former colleagues to find him. When they reached the cafe, Lee said he would finish the game and then go home, the paper reported.

He died a few minutes later, it said.

Dishes Prepared With Household Pets

5> Chicken Poodle Soup

4> Turtlellini

3> Lhasa Thermidor

2> Rex-Mex Enchihuahuas

and the Number 1 Dish Prepared With Household Pets...

Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee releases his third solo project, Tommyland: The Ride, today (Tuesday, August 9th). Lee told The Zone that he's happier with Tommyland than with either of its predecessors: "It's the best work I've ever done to date. I can tell. You've always got your friends. They always say, 'Oh, that sounds great.' But when it comes from your musical peers, they're honest. You know, other musicians, they're like 'That's pretty cool, but that's killer right there.'"

Lee's previous solo outings were 1999's Methods Of Mayhem and 2002's Never A Dull Moment.

Lee is releasing Tommyland on his own label, through a unique distribution agreement directly with retail supplier the Handleman Company. 604 Records, the label founded by Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger, is issuing the album in Canada.

Tommyland features guest appearances by Kroeger, Velvet Revolver's Matt Sorum, Good Charlotte's Joel and Benji Madden, Sum 41's Deryck Whibley, Backstreet Boys' Nick Carter, Dave Navarro of Jane's Addiction, Andrew McMahon of Something Corporate and Fuel's Carl Bell.

People Try to Lose Weight at McDonald's

RALEIGH, N.C. - Inspired by the documentary "Super Size Me," Merab Morgan decided to give a fast-food-only diet a try. The construction worker and mother of two ate only at McDonald's for 90 days — and dropped 37 pounds in the process.

It was a vastly different outcome than what happened in the documentary to filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, who put on 30 pounds and saw his health deteriorate after 5,000 calories a day of nothing but McDonald's food.

Morgan, from Raleigh, thought the documentary had unfairly targeted the world's largest restaurant company, implying that the obese were victims of a careless corporate giant. People are responsible for what they eat, she said, not restaurants. The problem with a McDonald's-only diet isn't what's on the menu, but the choices made from it, she said.

"I thought it's two birds with one stone — to lose weight and to prove a point for the little fat people," Morgan said. "Just because they accidentally put an apple pie in my bag instead of my apple dippers doesn't mean I'm going to say, 'Oh, I can eat the apple pie.'"

Spurlock, who turned his surprise-hit movie into a TV show on the FX network, isn't talking about Morgan or the many other McDieters who have criticized his film and found success losing weight by eating healthy foods off the McDonald's menu, said his agent, David Magdael.

One person went so far as to make her own independent film about dieting at McDonald's. "Me and Mickey D" follows Soso Whaley, of Kensington, N.H., as she spends three 30-day periods on the diet. She dropped from 175 to 139 pounds, eating 2,000 calories-a-day at McDonald's.

"I had to think about what I was eating," Whaley said. "I couldn't just walk in there and say 'I'll take a cinnamon bun and a Diet Coke.' ... I know a lot of people are really turned off by the whole thought of monitoring what they are eating, but that's part of the problem."

As might be expected, McDonald's also objected to the impressions left by Spurlock's film. Walt Riker, the company's vice president of corporate communications, said Oak Brook, Ill.-based company is pleased — but not surprised — that some customers have lost weight eating only at the fast-food giant.

Spurlock's film "really spurred a backlash based on common sense," Riker said.

Morgan used nutritional information downloaded from McDonald's Web site to create meal plans of no more than 1,400 calories a day. She only ate french fries twice, usually choosing burgers and salads. Those choices are a stark contrast with those made by Spurlock, who ate every menu item at least once.

At the end of the 90 days, she had dropped from 227 to 190 pounds.

"It feels great," she said. "Because, the truth of the matter is that beauty is power, and if you're fat, or your overweight, then people don't really take you seriously."

Dawn Jackson Blatner, a registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, agreed that a low-calorie, McDonald's-only diet can help people lose weight but said it may not offer enough long-term variety. Whatever an individual does to lose weight, they need to do for the rest of their life, she said.

Morgan said she hasn't decided if she will stick with the McDonald's-only plan to reach her goal of 150 pounds. But she does have one complaint about McDonald's.

Part One of Two

Bored on the Phone? Beware Jerk-O-Meter

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Ever wonder if that spouse, friend or co-worker on the other end of the phone is really paying attention? The "Jerk-O-Meter" may hold the answer.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing software for cell phones that would analyze speech patterns and voice tones to rate people — on a scale of 0 to 100 percent — on how engaged they are in a conversation.

Anmol Madan, who led the project while he pursued a master's degree at MIT, sees the Jerk-O-Meter as a tool for improving relationships, not ending them. Or it might assist telephone sales and marketing efforts.

"Think of a situation where you could actually prevent an argument," he said. "Just having this device can make people more attentive because they know they're being monitored."

The program, which Madan said is nearing completion, uses mathematical algorithms to measure levels of stress and empathy in a person's voice. It also keeps track of how often someone is speaking.

"It's an academically proven thing," Madan said of the math behind those measurements. "There are a bunch of academic papers published about this."

For now, the Jerk-O-Meter is set up to monitor the user's end of the conversation. If his attention is straying, a message pops up on the phone that warns, "Don't be a jerk!" or "Be a little nicer now." A score closer to 100 percent would prompt, "Wow, you're a smooth talker."

However, the Jerk-O-Meter also could be set up to test the voice on the other end of the line. Then it could send the tester such reports as: "This person is acting like a jerk. Do you want to hang up?"

To test the program, Madan and his MIT colleagues recruited 10 men and 10 women — all strangers to each other — and brought them into the lab. The researchers paired off the test subjects, with men only talking to men and women only talking to women, and monitored 200 three-minute conversations about randomly selected topics.

Part Two

Bored on the Phone? Beware Jerk-O-Meter

The study indicated that men and women are interested in conversations for different reasons.

The subject of the chat was more important to men than women, Madan said. "For the women, it was more dependent on who they were talking to and what the mood was like," he added. "It wasn't just about the topic itself."

The researchers also tested the technology at a bar in Cambridge where a group of singles were "speed-dating," rotating through a series of five-minute conversations.

"Mathematically modeling" each person's speaking style let the research team predict whether a speed-dater would agree to a real date. It was a good sign, Madan said, if the speed-daters engaged in "back and forth exchanges," punctuated by "ahas" and "yups."

Frank Guenther, a professor of cognitive and neural systems at Boston University, said there are a host of "non-linguistic" cues, such as pregnant pauses, flat pitch levels and slow speech rates, that indicate boredom or disinterest.

"To me, it sounds like it's great for the entertainment factor," he said of the Jerk-O-Meter. "But I don't think you'll be able to get definitive measurements. There is just too much variability across individuals."

The prototype version of the program runs in Linux on a phone plugged into Voice over Internet service. Once the Jerk-O-Meter is completed, in six months or so, Madan envisions selling it as software that could be downloaded off the Internet — a potentially useful tool for focus groups, telemarketers and salesmen.

"It sounds pretty cool," said Jeff Kagan, a telecommunications analyst in Atlanta. "But if someone was using it against me, I'd say, `How dare they!'" he added with a laugh.

The Jerk-O-Meter is one of many projects at MIT that aim to make cell phones and other communication devices more "socially aware," said Alex Pentland, director of the Media Lab's human dynamics research group.

Madan and Pentland have formed a company, iMetrico, to commercialize some of these technologies for sales and marketing efforts. But it's too early to say whether the Jerk-O-Meter would be one of them.

This is creepy!

Think of a letter between A and W.

Repeat it out loud as you scroll down.

Keep going . . . Don't stop . .

Think of an animal that begins with that letter.

Repeat it out loud as you scroll down.

Think of either a man's/woman's name that begins with the last letter in the animals name

Almost there

Now count out the letters in that name on the fingers of the hand you are not using to scroll down.

Take the hand you counted with and hold it out in front of you at face level

Look at you palm very closely and notice the lines in your hand

Do the lines take the form of the first letter in the persons name?

Of course not.

Now smack yourself in the head, get a life, and quit playing stupid e-mail games!

Another super-group coming?

Recent postings online suggest that the new group reportedly featuring Filter frontman Richard Patrick, Stone Temple Pilots guitarist Dean DeLeo and his brother, Stone Temple Pilots bassist Robert DeLeo, is a reality. According to Blabbermouth.net, drummer Ray Luzier is leaving the David Lee Roth band to join the new outfit. Luzier himself posted the following message at his own website: "I have some BIG NEWS: I've joined an amazing new band that I'm very proud to be a member of...details coming soon, stay tuned!"

Postings at DiamondDavidLeeRoth.com state that Luzier is in fact joining the Patrick/DeLeo group, which has reportedly already signed a deal with Columbia Records.

There's no word on what name the proposed new group will use.

oops

Many Dads Unknowingly Raising Others' Kids

(HealthDayNews) -- Calling it a Pandora's Box with broad health implications, British researchers say genetic testing is informing about 4 percent of fathers that a child they are raising is not their own.

The implications are huge, the study authors noted, because such revelations often lead to divorce and increased mental health problems for both the man and woman involved, including the threat of violence by the man.

In addition, children whose lives are changed by this genetic information can struggle with low self-esteem, anxiety, and increased antisocial behavior, such as aggression.

'Monday Night Football' to Use McGraw Song

NEW YORK - "Monday Night Football" has a season-long partnership with Grammy-winning singer Tim McGraw for special musical halftime highlights throughout the 36th season of the ABC series.

NFL highlights from the weekend's games will be set to McGraw's single "I Like it, I Love It." Each Monday, the lyrics will be rewritten to fit the halftime highlights.

McGraw and his band are recording a new version of the song to be used for "Monday Night Football."

Alice Cooper's "Diamonds" sparkle on albums chart

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Rock veteran Alice Cooper has his highest-charting album on the Billboard 200 in 11 years.

"Dirty Diamonds" (New West) opened at No. 169 in the week ended August 7. That's Cooper's highest-debuting and highest-charting set since "The Last Temptation of Alice Cooper," which debuted and peaked at No. 68 in July 1994.

Chicagoland Temperature Conversion Chart

60 above - Floridians wear coats, gloves, and wooly hats. Chicago people sunbathe.

50 above - New Yorkers try to turn on the heat. Chicago people plant gardens.

40 above - Italian cars won't start. Chicago people drive with the windows down.

32 above - Distilled water freezes. Lake Michigan's water gets thicker.

20 above - Californians shiver uncontrollably. Chicago people have the last cookout before it gets cold.

15 above - New York landlords finally turn up the heat. Chicago people throw on a sweatshirt.

0 degrees - Californians fly away to Mexico. Chicago people lick the flagpole and throw on a light jacket over the sweatshirt.

20 below - People in Miami cease to exist. Chicago people get out their winter coats.

40 below - Hollywood disintergrates. Chicago's Girl Scouts begin selling cookies door to door.

60 below - Polar bears begin to evacuate Antarctica. Chicago's Boy Scouts postpone "Winter Survival" classes until it gets cold enough.

80 below - Mount St. Helen's freezes. Chicago people rent some videos.

100 below - Santa Claus abandons the North Pole. Chicago people get frustrated when they can't thaw the keg.

297 below - Microbial life survives on dairy products. Illinois cows complain of farmers with cold hands.

460 below - ALL atomic motion stops. Chicago people start saying... "Cold enuff for ya??"

500 below - Hell freezes over. The Chicago Cubs win the World Series.

Must have missed . . .

U.S. Fighter Jet Bombs Australia Building

DARWIN, Australia - A U.S. Marine Corps fighter jet dropped a bomb and damaged a building in an accident at a remote military range in northern Australia, the government said Friday.

The bomb, dropped by an F/A-18 Hornet, exploded near a control tower and damaged facilities at the Delamere Air Weapons Range in the Northern Territory on Wednesday, Australia's Defense Department said. No one was injured and no details were released on the extent of the damage.

Defense Minister Robert Hill said the mishap was under investigation by both Australian and American authorities.

"We certainly regard it as a serious incident," Hill told reporters in the northern city of Darwin.

Bombing exercises have ceased at the weapons range, some 80 miles south of the town of Katherine.

"Things like this will always happen; we hope not very frequently and we hope not any more dangerously," Prime Minister John Howard told Melbourne Radio 3AW. "But the idea that you can conduct any kind of military exercise without some kind of potential for mishap is unrealistic."

The U.S. Marine contingent, which is based in Japan, was conducting an annual training exercise called Southern Frontier that involves 500 troops, 15 F/A-18 Hornets and two KC-130 Hercules aircraft.

The U.S. Marine Corps said the ordnance was a 500 pound laser-guided bomb, Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

Did Microsoft Invent The iPod?

According to the U.S. Patent Office, patent applications that cover much of the technology associated with the iPod were submitted by Microsoft.

If you think Apple Computer's Steve Jobs invented the technology behind the Apple iPod, don't bet your 60GB, 15,000-song model on it.

According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, patent applications that cover much of the technology associated with the iPod were submitted by Microsoft, which has been on a patents tear recently filing thousands of patents.

If the patents hold up on appeal, Apple could be accountable for royalties on the spectacularly successful iPod. Jobs and others associated with Apple filed for patents covering the technology in October, 2002, but that application was rejected by the patent office last month. AppleInsider.com reported the rejection this week.

Apple won't take the matter lying down. "Apple invented and publicly released the iPod interface before the Microsoft patent application cited by the (patent) examiner was filed," said an Apple spokesperson in a statement. Apple also noted that the firm has received other patents for technology relating to the iPod and in addition has other patents pending on the iPod.

The documents in the Patent Office do not mention the iPod by name. The documents describe a "portable, pocked-sized multimedia asset player" that can manipulate MP3 music files.

Microsoft's claim appears to center on the work of John C. Platt, a senior researcher in the Knowledge Tools Group at Microsoft Research. According to media reports, on behalf of Microsoft, Platt applied for the patent in May of 2002 some five months before the Apple filing. Platt's application was rejected in December 2004, but he amended it in April of this year and Microsoft's pending patent was subsequently approved.

According to a citation on "Platt's home page, he and other colleagues at Microsoft developed a paper in the 2001-2002 timeframe discussing AutoDJ, "a system for automatically generating music playlists based on one or more seed songs selected by a user."

Apple's iPod dominates the MP3 player market. The NPD Group has reported that Apple has shipped nearly 22 million iPods. Predictions that Apple's strength in the MP3 market would slip haven't borne out, and Apple accounts for about 75 percent of MP3 players sold in the U.S.

So far, Microsoft hasn't been able to dent the Apple iPod dominance, although the software giant has said it is working on music playing devices that it plans to introduce later this year.

tato_guitar

For our UK Satch Fans - be on the watch out for . . .

Police seek diaper-clad man who pesters women

LONDON (Reuters) - UK police said Monday they were searching for a man wearing just a diaper, who approaches women late at night and asks: "Are there any baby changing facilities around here?"

Cleveland police in northeast England said the latest incident occurred around 11 p.m. Sunday when he surprised a women walking her dog in a play area in Eaglescliffe, near Middlesbrough.

Police said no one had been assaulted by the man but described his behavior as bizarre and a cause for concern.

"There have been several reports of him having been seen in Eaglescliffe dressed only in a nappy and we are keen to trace him and speak to him," police said.

Oh yes - HAPPY 1900 POSTS TO ME