Injoke.org

Philadelphia Is on Fire

Literally. It is 103 here today.

I was in town for the last few days celebrating my mother’s 60th birthday, and today, my last day in the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia breaks a record at 103. Whew.

Apple’s policies of censorship for their app store are very well reported. There is no pornography approved for Apples App Store, and in missives sent directly from Steve Jobs himself, he claims that the benefit of the technology that his company produces is ‘Freedom from Pornography‘.

In addition to this freedom, it appears that when it comes to the App store, Apple is also editing suggestive artistic work as well. Below is an example. Click to enlarge.

Before

After

…but Apple’s policies aren’t limited to the love that dare not draw it’s form, they also hate the female shape.

Here is the original sketch from a work entitled Ulysses Seen.

Illustrator Robert Berry offered several alternatives, such as pixelating the breasts or covering them with fig leaves, the only solution Apple deemed appropriate was the one seen below.

[via Gizmodo The Big Money NY Times]

Fast Food on the Pentagon’s Dime: $773,000

The military spent $773,000 to renovate a building and place a combination KFC/Taco Bell on the base.

Additionally, $683,000 was spent sprucing up a cafe where troops could buy ice cream and Starbucks coffee.

Explained the base’s chief:

Because GTMO is an isolated and remote duty location with no access to an off-base community, all services must be provided on station… The installation benefits from expenditure of funds through retention and readiness improvements, as well as long-term facility sustainment, restoration and modernization.

I wonder if it would have been cheaper to place a combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell there?

At least $500 million has been spent since 9/11 on renovating Guantanamo Bay [Washington Post]

Project Natal for Sprint HTC EVO 4G

Controlling Android phones with their front facing camera through hand gestures? Terrific.

Eyesight Mobile Technologies is the company developing the technology. It’s a rather innovative idea, but a phone platform isn’t ideally suited for wide sweeping gestures.

However, integrating the same idea into Android games could be a real winner.

[GigaOM]

Target To Demote 8,000 Full-time Employees to Part-time

Looks like some of the outplaced Circuit City executives got jobs at Target. They are trying to pull the same shady business: toss the experienced employees, hire goobers.

By scheduling the full-time employees for less than 32 hours a week, Target no longer needs to provide full-time benefits for these 8000 experienced workers.

Apparently the email went on to say that HR will receive another email within 3-4 months directing stores to reduce current specialist hours to below 32 hours a week. Reason being the company wants to get all the current specs in the company OFF the full time benefits plans to reduce cost. (i.e. health insurance, etc)

Once that happens the extra team members that have been trained are supposed to be scheduled along with the current specs to fulfill the needs of the departments. So basically current specialists will become part time and will “share” the department with other trained TMs.

Even though the email said it was just to get them off the full time benefits…. My personal opinion is that this sounds like a plan to get replacement team members in place, then piss off all the current specs (making much higher wages) enough to quit…. thus a bunch of current specs will be replaced all around the company with part time entry level pay.

[via]

Bill Introduced To Tax Corporate Political Contributions At 500%

Rep. Alan Grayson(D-FL) has introduced a bill (HR 4431 IH) that would tax corporate political donations at a staggering but fair 500%. The bill is called the “Business Should Mind Its Own Business Act.” This may be rather popular in light of the recent SCOTUS decision, but it might also be considered an abridgement of free speech.

Or, just possibly, corporations should not be treated as persons.

Employee Fired From PetSmart for Bringing His Dog to Work

A former PetSmart employee reports he was fired for theft of services after he brought his dog to work on an special overnight shift. He worked the shift as a favor to his store manager in preparation for a visit by representatives of Martha Stewart whose company was considering a product line for Petsmart. He left his dog in the pet day care facilities so that he could check in on his dog from time to time. No other employee was working this special shift, so he was caring for his own pet. Is this theft? [via]

At 5 p.m. on Dec. 15, Favetta was asked to work a special overnight shift that night to prepare the store for a viewing by representatives for Martha Stewart’s company, which was considering adding its product lines to PetSmart. Favetta said yes.
“I brought my dog with me because I knew if I didn’t, he would have been home alone all day and all night until I returned home at 6 a.m. the next day,” Favetta said.
He did the shift, and Gizmo, a 3-year-old Belgian Malinois, spent the night in the empty store’s doggie day care facility. Favetta said he’d check in on Gizmo every 15 minutes or so, and then go back to work.’

Two weeks later, Favetta was asked to meet with his store and district managers, who requested a written account of his overnight shift. He complied. They reviewed it and fired him for “theft of service.”

“I was shocked,” Favetta said. “It makes me sick that because I brought my dog to work with me when the store was closed to do the company a favor, I was called a thief and terminated.”

Writing Handicap

XLR8R, Pitchfork Compile Music for Our Future

S yFy’s new series Caprica has yet to air, but XLR8R, Pitchfork, and Create Digital Music, have put together a free, 13-track compilation as their vision of a soundtrack to the show free for download right here,

Caprica premieres on the SyFy channel on 22-JAN at 9 PM

Reboot

For about five years I had a sweet deal at my blog hosting company.

Free. Completely free.

It was a publicity stunt they tried in 2005 to drum up business. They gave away a very generous web package, and the first few customers got to enjoy access without cost. In November it seems they realized that their business model was failing, and announced that they would no longer be able to host any sites.

My site blinked out of existence.

So, I ponied up some cash for a host I acually have to pay for. The status of my prior posts is questionable. I will make an attempt to recover what I can. In any event, this is the reboot.