Give Your Abercrombie Shit To The Needy

I ran across this video today on Upworthy (don't click that link unless you LOVE popups and ad shades).  Abercrombie and Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries is an elitist douche and doesn't want the less attractive among us to wear his clothing.

So, Greg Karber made a trip to Goodwill and bought all the A&F stuff and gave it away.  

I see "the other side" of the story, where Karber is using the homeless to represent the not-so-cool kids that "Old Biff Look-Alike" CEO Mike Jeffries doesn't see as fitting his brand.  I totally get that.

But I also like sticking it to the man.  #FitchTheHomeless

Wine Tasting Is Bullshit

I love wine.  But I drink what I like, not what gets good Wine Spectator scores.

In 2001, researcher Frédéric Brochet invited 54 wine experts to give their opinions on what were ostensibly two glasses of different wine: one red, and one white. In actuality, the two wines were identical, with one exception: the "red" wine had been dyed with food coloring...

Not one of the 54 experts surveyed noticed that it was, in fact a white wine.

I am so justified in my Bota Box wine addiction now.  Read the fun here.

That's Four Plusses!

Paul Thorrott, on his Supersite for Windows:

I’ve often described Windows 8 as Windows 7++, because — and contrary to a peculiarly widespread belief — it’s really just a combination of everything that’s great about Windows 7 plus a ton of new desktop improvements, all tied to a new mobile OS I still call Metro. On that note, Blue is Windows 8++: It’s Windows 8 plus a ton of improvements

So, if we're doing the math correctly, Windows Blue is just Windows 7++++.

Beware (Social) Media Distractions

via tillwe on FlickrWhile the social media savvy were busy changing their avatars to red equality signs, (or creative parodies of red equality signs) and the media were showing slideshows of court sketches and playing audio recordings of endless hours of Supreme Court testimony about DOMA and same sex marriage, something else happened.

HR 933 [PDF link], the 2013 spending bill, was signed into law by President Obama.  In addition to setting the budget for 2013 to keep certain government offices open and running, there was a little amendment in there called Section 735.  Go ahead.  Click on the link, scroll down to Section 735, and see if you can make out what it means.  

I'll wait.

Welcome back.  Did you figure it out?  It means that even if the FDA or any other government agency discovers in the future that genetically modified crops are dangerous, the government can do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to stop the sale or require the labeling of genetically modified foods.

Despite a petition with over 200,000 signatures; despite the fact that Monsanto and companies like them have utterly destroyed the farming industry and hundreds of thousands of jobs in the process; despite the fact that there is no evidence that genetically modified foods can be considered safe;  despite the fact that even Hungary was smart enough to kick out Monsanto; and despite the fact that genetically modified seeds have been illegally approved; it has been put into law that we can now no longer remove these questionable foods from our supply, or even have them labeled as modified.

I am absolutely for same-sex marriage and equality for all, but I wonder how many people changed their Twitter profile picture to fake corn...

And you wonder why...

Mike Woodward, President of HTC North America, speaking about the Samsung Galaxy S4:

We're pleased to see no innovation in the design itself

This would explain why HTC has been losing money and market share hand over fist the last few years.  Innovation is not changing the way a device looks.  It's changing the way people use it.  

iPhones have looked basically the same since 2007, but every year Apple changes the way people can use them.  Samsung is doing the same with the Galaxy line, and I think it's a good move.