Author: Serkadis

We were pretty shocked when a judge ordered doll maker MGA to hand over pretty much everything having to do with Bratz dolls to Mattel, the maker of Barbie — one of the key products Bratz competes against. While some of the facts are disputed by various parties, it does seem pretty clear that a Mattel designer was working on the concept of Bratz and then went to MGA to make the dolls instead. Mattel claims that it owns the entire concept because its contract with the designer included all rights to things he worked on while under their employ. Even if you accept all that, it seemed to go too far to not just provide monetary payments and/or an injunction, but to tell MGA to hand over the entire line of dolls including future plans for the dolls. That seems to go well beyond the scope of what’s reasonable — and it seems like the appeals court might agree. It has lifted the original deadline for when MGA had to transfer stuff over to Mattel and seems to be considering whether itself goes too far, saying that handing all of that over to Mattel seemed “draconian.”

Even if we grant that the designer created the dolls while he worked at Mattel, it takes more than just an idea to be successful. Yet this ruling seems to put the entire value of not just the Bratz line of dolls, but every forward thinking innovation in the Bratz line, into that single idea. That’s going way too far. Sure, perhaps there should be some sort of sanctions or punishment, but MGA did a lot more than just see this idea, snap its fingers and have a success on its hands. The execution was what made it work, and it seems silly to ignore all of that and assume that the entire value is in the idea — and everything else needs to be handed over because the guy had the idea while still at Mattel.

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The idea of gender-specific shaving cream or shampoo was probably cooked up by advertising agencies in the 1940s. I’m taking a wild guess, but that sounds about right to me. The lovely feminine packaging sells us on products. And can you blame men for choosing a more masculine-looking package of soap?

All this may matter. Consumer Reports found that women are often charged more than men pay for similar products like shaving cream, pain relievers, body wash, antiperspirants, eye revitalizers or razors. They discovered that products directed at women by packaging or name often cost up to 50% more than similar products for men.

Consumer Reports concluded that you should try ignoring gender labels on personal care products and go with the cheaper version. I think that may work for things like shaving cream and maybe even razors and body wash. However, I’d probably not use a lot of the manly smelling antiperspirants out there. After all, that smell stays with you, unlike the scent of body wash. Plus, do you want to smell like your boyfriend?

Let’s back up a minute though. Why are women being charged more? I believe it’s because women are willing to pay more, and companies know that. You can protest silently by buying products that aren’t aimed at a men or women. For example, Aveeno shaving cream is about as gender neutral as you can get. It’s what I use. For razors, I use Preserve, which are also gender neutral.

Read more about the brands studied by Consumer Reports in their article: Men win the battle of the sexes, appearing in the January issue.

(Image via flickr/Evil Erin)

Post from: Blisstree

Use a Man’s Shaving Cream to Save Money?

Good news for you survival horror fans (jeez, is that ever a trite opening line): EA has officially announced Dead Space 2 for you to speculate over until they release more information. According to the press release, the game will star Issac Clarke from the original game as he continues to kill more horrifically deformed Necromorphs, frolic in zero gravity, and generally do more of what you loved from the stellar first installment. It’s being developed by Visceral Games, the folks behind the first game, and will hopefully feature the same amazing audio as before.

Anyways, all the pictures I could find from the first game were terribly violent, and as you know, my first and only concern is the children; So, enjoy this picture of an upside-down dog from upsidedowndogs.com. Fuzzy wuzzy!

Hit the jump for the full release and some high hopes.

Continue reading EA Announces Dead Space 2

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A reboot of the “true Hong Kong action flick” was announced and unveiled by Activision at the recent Video Game Awards 2009 last weekend. Today, the publisher releases some more information about this hot new action game.

Under the motto “EQ3 Energy Intelligence = Energy Efficiency. Smoothness. Lifetime.”, innovative technology sector company ZEITLAUF® brings together all the elemental performance features of its products.

The town of Lauf an der Pegnitz, 20th of April 2009 – The global demand for energy is growing. Energy prices steadily rise. Increasing consumption of fossil fuels accelerates the process of climate change. This is forcing industry to invest in measures for increasing energy efficiency. ZEITLAUF® took this trend seriously years ago and factored it into its drive solutions. Research and development work is based on three important performance features that are brought together under the motto “EQ3 Energy Intelligence = Energy Efficiency. Smoothness. Lifetime.”. These particular gear motor attributes go a long way to making ZEITLAUF® one of the key players in the field of drive technology:

VEVO is an online music video website owned by Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, EMI and Abu Dhabi Media Company. It is developed and hosted by YouTube, Sony, and Google. Google’s YouTube video service will host Universal content on the satellite website, making this the first time that YouTube hosts content off its main website. Through this partnership, Google and Universal will split ad revenues. It is expected to become the largest music oriented website on the Internet. Vevo is currently offering content from Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI Music, Hollywood Records, Walt Disney Records, CBS Interactive Music Group, Big Machine Records, Concord Music Group, Lyric Street Records, ABKCO, Caroline Distribution, Fontana Distribution, INgrooves, IODA, RED and The Orchard, among many others.

A possible major reason behind the project is the competition that music videos have on YouTube. Warner Music Group apparently removed its content from YouTube in March 2009 for just this reason, but is said to be considering hosting its content on this new service. The concept for the site is described as being a Hulu for music videos and the plan may have arisen from the goal of attracting more high-end advertisers. Currently, it is believed that many advertisers are ambivalent to hosting advertising on YouTube’s site alongside user-generated video. In the future, the site could host more than just music videos, such as editorials, other types of videos, and user-generated content.

VEVO also has a nicely organized and often updated company blog featuring new content.

The photo above is CEO of Sony Music Entertainment & Co-Chairman of VEVO Rolf Schmidt-Holt speaking onstage at the launch of VEVO at Skylight Studio on December 8, 2009 in New York City. Check out dozens of other pictures from the VEVO launch at daylife featuring numerous big stars and major players in the music industry

The Office of Science & Technology Policy remains one of the few White House operations that seems to actually have a good grasp on the internet and what it means for various other aspects of governance. That’s why it’s good to see them asking for input into what the administration should do in terms of requiring public access for federally funded research (thanks to Lee for sending this over). There’s been a big debate over this for years. Given that a significant portion of academic research is federally funded, it is immensely troubling that the results of much of that research is locked away in extremely expensive journals. There has been a good push over the years for requiring federally funded research to be accessible by the public, and OSTP is now looking for views into how to create policies that would achieve that goal. Who knows what will come out of it, but for those of you concerned about tax-payer-funded knowledge being locked up by private journals, now is your chance to comment in a way where (hopefully) the government will pay attention.

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And now, regular reader Foster Keats gives his predictions AND renames the various bowls to his own anti-establishment liking:

It’s bowl season, my friends. Time to put those novels down, send the wives & kids to bed, and hunker down with non-stop football every day & night of the week until early January. You may live in New Jersey & can’t even point to New Mexico on a map, but HELL, Fresno St & Wyoming is about to come on the tube, live from Al, Alber, Alberker… that big town in New Mexico. And who wouldn’t be interested in Ohio U and Marshall when you have 23 points of confidence placed on the Bobcats, plus water cooler bragging rights in your office pool. And to salute all those hard-working companies that have spent so much of their vast profits to place their name on these delicious matchups, I have decided to give them some of my own, personal added exposure… In some cases, I couldn’t decide which one I liked better, so I put in multiple choices for your holiday entertainment… enjoy!!!

New Mexico Bowl
The Got Meth? Bowl or The AMC’s Breaking Bad Bowl: Fresno St 31 Wyoming 18

St Petersburg Bowl
The Why Would They Put The Salvador Dali Museum in Our Ghetto Town Bowl: Rutgers 27 UCF 15

R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl
The We Track Your Shoddy Poisonous Chinese Imports Bowl or The Shouldn’t We Be Moving People OUT of New Orleans Bowl: Southern Miss 30 MTSU 23

MAACO Las Vegas Bowl
The Even Burt Reynolds Stop Advertising Our $200 Shitty Paint Jobs Bowl or The Why The Hell Do We Always Get a Mormon School Who Never Gambles Bowl: Oregon St 37 BYU 24

San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl
The Who Outside of San Diego Could Ever Use Our Bank So Why Advertise It? Bowl or The Cheap Ugly Holiday Flower That You Buy Your Great Aunt Instead of Getting Her a REAL Gift Bowl: Utah 30 Cal 17

Sheraton Hawaii Bowl
The At Least Our Hotels Aren’t Synonymous With Party Girl Whores Bowl: Nevada 66 SMU 55

Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl
The Has Anyone You Know Eaten One of Our Small Italian Toon Pies in the Last 20 Years Bowl: Ohio U 23 Marshall 13

Meineke Car Care Bowl
The You Need a New ‘Johnson Rod’, It’ll Cost You $500 Bowl: UNC 28 Pitt 20

Emerald Bowl
The We’re About Nuts, Not Gems or Colors or Isles or The Wizard of Oz Bowl or
The Isn’t Seattle Nicknamed The Emerald City So Why Did We Name Our Bowl This??? Bowl: USC 33 Boston College 6

Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl
The Muzak City Bowl, Sponsored by a Name Your Kids Always Giggle At: Clemson 40 Kentucky 17

AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl
The We’d Rather Sponsor a Game in Shreveport Than Do a 4-Hour Infomercial at 3am Bowl: UGA 31 Texas A&M 30

EagleBank Bowl
The 15,000 at a Football Game is Still Better Than Any Baseball Crowd All Year Bowl or The Once We Saw Who is Playing Here We Moved It To a Real Football Stadium Bowl: UCLA 27 Temple 13

Champs Sports Bowl
The Discount Athletic Supporter & Non-Licensed Merchandise Headquarters Bowl: Wisconsin 27 Miami 17

Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl
The We Don’t Arrest Lot Lizards in Our Parking Lots Because We Care About The Small Business Owners Bowl: Idaho 37 Bowling Green 34

Pacific Life Holiday Bowl
The We Let Japanese Whalers Kill Our Mascot For $20,000 So We Could Pay Our Rent Bowl: Nebraska 17 Arizona 9

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl
The We Don’t Build Sturdy Helicopters Anymore Because They’re Just Gonna Get Shot Down in Afghanistan Anyway Bowl: Houston 48 Air Force 33

Brut Sun Bowl
The At Least We Don’t Smell Like Williams Lectric Shave Bowl or The We Are Here To Mask The Stench of The Rio Grande River Bowl: Oklahoma 38 Stanford 23

Texas Bowl
The We Forgot To Pay a Marketing Company To Think Us Up A Name So This is All We Got Bowl: Mizzou 24 Navy 19

Insight Bowl
The We Do Something Technology-Wise That Even WE Can’t Explain Bowl: Minnesota 27 Iowa St 24

Chick-fil-A Bowl
The You Can’t Get Our Greasy Chicken Sandwiches on Sundays Bowl: Va Tech 23 Tennessee 10

Outback Bowl
The No One Can Better Grasp The Concept of Aussie Food Like Middle Florida Restaurateurs Bowl or
The We Put Your Salad Dressing Underneath Your Salad To Further Confuse Your Knowledge Of Aussie Culture Bowl: Auburn 30 NW 17

Konica Minolta Gator Bowl
The When Does Our Sponsorship Contract Expire So We Can Flee Jacksonville Like The Rest Bowl: WV 27 F$U 23

Capital One Bowl
The We’ll Give a Credit Card To Anyone So We Can Further Add To This Country’s Debt Problem Bowl: LSU 21 Penn St 20

Rose Bowl presented by Citi
The Now That a Bank Sponsors Us, All Our Flowers Are Marked Up To Valentine’s Day Prices Bowl or
The Does Anyone Watch Our Parade Anymore? Bowl: Oregon 33 Ohio St 18

Allstate Sugar Bowl
The We Have Pedro Cerrano Doing Our Commercials, So Screw You!! Bowl: Florida 41 Cincinnati 13

International Bowl
The What’s This All Abooot, Eh?? Take Off, You Hoser!! Bowl: Northern Illinois 27 South Florida 21

Papajohns.com Bowl
The We Won’t Deliver Pizza To This Neighborhood But We’ll Sponsor a Bowl Game Here Bowl: UConn 24 USC 18

AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic
The Losing 100,000 Landlines a Day Doesn’t Matter B/C We Are Getting People Back With The iPhones Bowl: Okkie St 30 Ole Piss 23

Autozone Liberty Bowl
The Nothing Says More About Liberty in This Country Than The City of Memphis Bowl or
The You Can Work On Your Cars In Our Parking Lot, We’ve Got Plenty of Kitty Litter Bowl: Arkansas 27 East Carolina 17

Valero Alamo Bowl
The Please Don’t Confuse Us With Enron Or That Oil Company That Bush Bankrupted Back When He Was A Cokehead Bowl: Texas Tech 50 Michigan St 23

Tostitos Fiesta Bowl
The Don’t Blame Us If Your Bag of Our Chips Is All Crushed Into Little Pieces, It’s Piggy Wiggly’s Fault Bowl: TCU 26 Boise St 24

FedEx Orange Bowl
The Sorry The Government Make Us Crackdown On Letting You Ship Your Weed To Your Ex College Roommate Bowl: Georgia Tech 31 Iowa 20

GMAC Bowl
The We Forgot How To Make a Decent Automobile But Still Have Enough Cash To Sponsor a Game in Lovely Mobile Bowl or The We’re Still Gonna Fly To Mobile Anyway Because We’re Afraid Of The Red Necks Along I-65 Bowl: Central Michigan 47 Troy 41

BCS National Championship Game
The Didn’t We Already Sponsor a Game in This Stadium So Why Are We Doing It Again?? Oh, That’s Right, the $$$ Bowl or The This Is As Close As You Numb Nuts Will Ever Get To Seeing a Playoff Bowl: Alabama 27 Texas 13

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Sony has really confused me with their Walkman strategy in 2009 – the consistency is available models is simply confusing. In Japan (and most of Asia Pacific), Sony is offering their most advanced line up to date with the latest A and S series models to compliment its E, W and X series offerings. In Europe, Sony offers the B, E, S, W and X series – the S series is the lower end model with a built in speaker. In the USA, Sony offers the E, S (same as Europe), W, and X series. However, it appears that SonyStyle Canada is breaking the mold and offering the more advanced S series that is only available in Asia Pacific – the NWZ-S745.

Is it possible that Sony will introduce this model for US consumers during CES? It’s hard to tell, but it seems possible. If not, perhaps later in the Spring. The NWZ-S745 is the most feature rich S series to date, with a 2.0″ QVGA LCD, noise canceling technology, video out (SD only and a low resolution), clear bass/clear stereo, and satisfying codec support. It is more interesting to me than the current S series Walkman available in the USA, which has somewhat powerful built-in speakers, good storage capability, but has mostly average features.

Thanks, Anything But iPod.

England, U.K. | Mazes

Added to the historic grounds in 1975, the Longleat Hedge Maze is the largest of several mazes on the property. The maze is constructed of more than 16,000 English yews and is the longest (but not the largest ) hedge maze in the world, covering 1.48 acres, and 1.69 miles of pathway. It is a full scale maze, with several dead end and multiple paths punctuated by six raised bridges, all of which surrounds a central tower.

The maze is part of the 8000 acres that have been the home of the Marquesses of Bath since 1541. 900 of those acres were landscaped by the famous landscape designer Capability Brown, who also had a hand in the grounds of Alnwick Castle (now home to the Alnwick Poison Gardens ). The property includes a slew of unusual features, not least of which is the Safari Park of exotic animals that has been open to the public since 1966. Designed as the first drive-through safari park, where the over 500 wild animals could roam freely. According to the Safari Park web site: “Despite the understandable initial concerns of locals with regard to the introduction of lions to Wiltshire, the Safari Park concept has been a great success and Longleat’s ground-breaking innovation has been repeated at wildlife collections all over the world.”

The land is currently owned by the 7th Marquess of Bath, Alexander Thynn, known primarily for his eccentric lifestyle, numerous mistresses, and the erotic murals he has painted all over the residential portion of the house. He is also a great lover of mazes, and has added the hedge maze, as well as three other smaller garden mazes: the Lunar labyrinth, the Sun Maze, King Arthur’s maze, and the Love Labyrinth.

The historic house, gardens, hedge maze and safari park are open to visitors.

A job listing showed up recently on the Internet, and with it came the rumor that Washington-based dev, Monolith Productions, is setting out to create a new Condemned game. They’re apparently looking for a Senior Artist-Animator, specifically

Last year, Heartland Payment Systems, leapt into the lead as being the company with the largest data breach of all time (well, that we know of), when it potentially leaked the personal info on somewhere over 100 million people. As typically happens in these sorts of things, a shareholder lawsuit was quickly filed from bummed out shareholders pissed off that the stock dropped (like off a cliff) following the announcement. But, of course, for there to be liability it takes a lot more than just the stock to drop, so it comes as little surprise that the lawsuit has been tossed, as the court said there was no evidence that Heartland execs knew their data was exposed. Friendly reminder to litigious shareholders: just because the company screws something up, it doesn’t mean you get to sue.

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MTV Staying Alive: Ignite launched an innovative campaign to fight HIV/AIDS in developing countries.  Kenya’s show ‘Shuga‘, designed to teach people the consequences of different types of behaviors recently launched and it speaks in the language of the local youth.

Shuga

Done in “Sheng”, a mix of English, Swahili, and other local languages, it takes  you through the lives of several young people who are living their lives and making choices.  Take a look at this first episode and let us know what you think.

To learn more about the actors and actresses in the show, and their roles, go here.

The video game adaptation of the classic The Divine Comedy, Dante’s Inferno, has been making noise even before it was officially announced. Now that it’s just about well on it’s way out, one cannot help but wonder

More from the 2009 Video Game Awards, Music games developer Harmonix and the multi-platinum Grammy-winning punk rockers, Green Day has teamed up to reveal a brand new standalone Rock Band title, Green Day: Rock Band.
 
 

So there’s no public option, and now there’s no medicare buy-in. Yep, healthcare reform is getting flense in the name of partisan unity and compromise

NYT: Senate Democratic leaders said Monday that they were prepared to drop a proposed expansion of Medicare and make other changes in sweeping health legislation as they tried to rally their caucus in hopes of passing the bill before Christmas.

After a tense 90-minute meeting on Monday evening, Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and chairman of the Finance Committee, was asked if Democrats were likely to jettison the Medicare proposal.

“It’s looking like that’s the case,” Mr. Baucus said, indicating that the provision might be scrapped as a way of “getting support from 60 senators.”

Read the whole thing >>

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See Also:

• It’s Not Just Lieberman: Several Democrats Are Freaked Out About Healthcare Reform Passing
• Desperate White House Tells Harry Reid To Cut Healthcare Deal With Holdout Lieberman
• Lieberman Stuns Democrats, Now Says He’s Voting Against Healthcare Reform