Archive for June 21st, 2009
It’s a bit out of character for me to take AT&T’s side anywhere. Yet when the EFF reported on ASCAP’s lawsuit against the telecom behemoth, this is exactly what I wound up doing. This is the same ASCAP that tried to extort the Girl Scouts for singing songs around campfires. Some of you may be less familiar with [ READ MORE ]
A recent reader’s article on boycottnovell.com offers a very insightful look into the unethical side of Microsoft’s business. The author, Roy Schestowitz, makes a number of very good points. In particular: Microsoft abuses “guerilla” or “viral” advertising more than other companies, disguising recommendations as “impartial” when in reality they are anything but that. An unfortunate choice for [ READ MORE ]
This pair of stories from the UK, plus one from Miami, Florida, US, are enough to make any decent person’s blood boil. While these first two are both UK stories, these are equally likely in the US (and other “free” countries). The first is a report from the Telegraph about parents not being allowed to photograph [ READ MORE ]
Just when you think you’ve seen everything. The Frisky reports on what may be the gutsiest ad campaign ever attempted. It certainly is the most bizarre I have ever seen–and I’ve seen some weird ones. Procter and Gamble, the company behind Tampax, has launched a campaign for that product that comes straight out of a science [ READ MORE ]
Okay, I was really torn between going ahead with a very belated entry about this, versus just moving on to the next story. (Aside: I actually have a backlog of stories I wanted to blog, and deleted three draft entries about news articles that looked good when I landed on them in StumbleUpon but which [ READ MORE ]
(Warning: linked pages contain profanity and obscene gestures. If you are easily offended by adult topic matter, you may wish to skip this post.) AlterNet recently published an excerpt from a book entitled In Praise of Indecency, entitled “You Still Can’t Buy a Vibrator in Alabama.” The excerpt is a very candid–almost too candid–look at obscenity [ READ MORE ]