gyrogeerloose writes "In a column in Saturday's San Diego Union Tribune, Peter Rowe makes a connection between the popularity of horror movie genres and the political party in the White House. A Republican administration presides over a period of zombie movies while a Democrat in the Oval Office brings on a cycle of vampire movies. Why? Possibly because the two genres 'are really competing parables about class warfare.' Hmmmm, maybe. On the other hand, it might just be a coincidence." Socialists are best represented by lycanthropes, and the Libertarians are most closely tied to any sort of horror from space.

An anonymous reader writes "A NYC magician named Marco Tempest is threatening ligitation against a Mountain View software developer who wrote a magic trick for the iPhone. Marco Tempest performs many magic tricks that involve old world magic + technology, and it appears this developer's trick is only similar in that it involves a phone and a coin going into the phone and out again. The developer came up with the concept and technology without ever seeing Mr Tempest's trick, and Mr Tempest does not appear to have any copyright or patents or legal claim on his trick. Any lawyers out there who want to weigh in on the legalities here?"

Driving like you're playing "Burnout" is no way to go through life, son.

A few garbage bags, a couple hours, and a flame thrower is all this room needs.

ewenc writes "A psychology study of hundreds of people waiting for front-row access to U2 concerts points to the best ways to cut in line and not get caught. 'Super-fans' are most irked by queue-jumpers. People were equally peeved whether someone cut in front or behind, and cutters who jumped beside a friend were less likely to attract scorn."

That's a lot of dials.

Step 1: Take off whatever that thing is on your face.

Almost a million gravestones have been removed or "secured" by health and safety officers in the UK. Officials are shoring up memorials with plastic binding, or stakes, or removing them entirely, to prevent them from falling over and causing injuries and compensation claims. The Health and Safety Executive has recorded 21 incidents of injuries caused by falling headstones over the past seven years and the government says gravestone accidents have caused eight deaths in the past 20 years. It's official: the UK has run out of problems to solve.

Having mastered all natural colors, Bob and Jim decided to conquer virtual pigments.

This is actually a new class of seating on Greyhound.

Ken Imhoff's life changed the day he watched the movie Cannonball Run. It was after that cinematic masterpiece that he fell in love with the Lamborghini. Ken spent the next 17 years building his own version of the car in the basement of his home in Wisconsin. When he was done he realized he had overlooked one simple thing: a way to get the sports car out of the basement. An excavator had to be hired to slope his lawn and dig into his foundation before the car was towed out. Mr. Imhoff said, "I was like an expectant father watching it come through the wall. I was literally shaking and running the supposed plan over and over in my head. 'Have I overlooked anything? Is some of the wall going to fall on my work of seventeen years?... As the last blanket and car cover were removed I knew at that moment I had accomplished what I had dreamed about so many years ago and to see it sitting there in front of me was surreal. The next day we filled the hole in the basement with new blocks. In no time it was good as new."

Benjamin Duranske writes "Jonathan Lee Riches, an inmate in South Carolina famous for filing long, handwritten, rambling screeds against celebrities, politicians, and even buildings, has filed a third-party motion in Federal Court in Arizona in the MDY v. Blizzard botting case claiming that Blizzard's World of Warcraft 'caused Riches mind to live in a virtual universe, where Riches explored the landscape committing identity theft and fighting cybermonster rival hacker gangs. Riches was addicted to video games and lost touch with reality because of defendants. This caused Riches to commit fraud to buy defendants video games. Riches chose World of Warcraft over working a legit job, Riches mind became a living video game.'"

I hope voting machine DRE 700 (serial number: 34491) is willing to reach across species lines.

It's the hot new toy for the '08 Christmas season.

I'd shut the door faster if I were you.

sunderbear noted that EAs Command & Conquer 3 shipped missing the last digit of the CD Key. He writes "EA's brightest minds have put their synapses into overdrive in order to whip up a comical work-around. 'There is currently a work-around that may allow you to bypass this issue. Since you have the first 19 characters of the code already, you can basically try guessing the last character,' said a note on EA's customer support site. Yes, they're serious. 'To do this, simply enter your existing code, and then for the last character, try the letters A-Z, and then the numbers 0-9. You should eventually get the right combination, and be able to play the game.'" It appears that the helpful hint has been purged.

Envirowise, a British government sponsored environmental consultant company, is urging businesses to appoint tea monitors to make sure people do not waste water. They say the conservation of water used to make tea will reduce greenhouse gases and save companies money. In a statement it tells businesses, "Appoint a tea task force or tea monitor to make sure all your office hot drink-making facilities are as efficient as they could be. Only boil the water you use - this will avoid water and energy being wasted." I'd like to offer my services as office soap steward and Lord of the toilet paper.

If you say something enough times it becomes true.

It doesn't look good either way.

She gets to do what she wants on her special day.