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San Francisco. Anticipation gave way to temporary panic today when Steve Jobs unveiled the latest consumer electronics innovation from Apple Computer, the iMac 10, at Apple's Mac World Expo in San Francisco. The first public demonstration of the machine pistol left six conference goers with minor injuries.

Jobs was coming to the close of his record breaking seventeen hour key-note address and even stalwart Apple fans were beginning to feel mochachino withdrawals. Many had already removed their characteristic hoodies which they were wearing over t-shirts with snide, hipster sayings. Jobs thanked the attendees then paused for a moment. (more…)

It's time again for the random impartation of knowledge.  This installment has me answering a question that's truly pointless: "What's the little groove above your upper lip called?" 

Answer:  The Philtrum

Now… many blogs would leave it there.  Oh no, my friends, Ask Brian would never do that.  So here are some interesting Philtrum Facts:

• The philtrum is created during embryonic development by the meeting of the nasomedial and maxillary processes
• When these processes fail to fuse, the result is a cleft lip
• Smooth philtrum (along with small eyes and thin upper lip) is one of the diagnostic indicators for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
• The word comes comes from one of the Greek words for "Love" and the ancient Greeks believed it was an erogenous zone
• According to folklore, the philtrum is the spot where the angel "shushes" the baby to stop it from talking about heaven

Wikipedia Link

Got a question?  Click the Ask a question button at the top of the website to submit! 

 Link to Trucker Gets $17,000 Ticket - Local News

So here's a trucker, right?  And he gets bad directions from the people he's hauling for.  He misses a turn and then misses a sign prohibiting trucks over 3000 pounds.  He winds up in a residential area where a cop pulls him over and tickets him for $150 plus $150 for each quarter ton he's over the 3000 pound limit. 

"Carry the 1 … divide by… Alright that's $17,751 and fifty cents.  Cash or charge?" 

Link to iTunes Store - John Hodgman - The Areas of My Expertise (Abridged Nonfiction) - The Areas of My Expertise

Most people know the polymathic John Hodgman as the likable "PC - Guy" on the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" adds for Apple.  But before he was a likeable counterpoint to the snarky "Mac Guy", Hodgman wrote a book called "The Areas Of My Expertise", which is a "satirical almanac."  Now, in its wisdom, Apple is giving away the entirety of the audiobook for free.

The full title of the book is actually:

An Almanac of Complete World Knowledge Compiled with Instructive Annotation and Arranged in Useful Order by Me, John Hodgman, a Professional Writer, in the Areas of My Expertise, which Include: Matters Historical; Matters Literary; Matters Cryptozoological; Hobo Matters; Food, Drink, & Cheese (a Kind of Food); Squirrels & Lobsters & Eels; Haircuts; Utopia; What Will Happen in the Future; and Most Other Subjects; Illustrated with a Reasonable Number of Tables and Figures, and Featuring the Best of "Were You Aware of It?", John Hodgman's Long-Running Newspaper Novelty Column of Strange Facts and Oddities of the Bizarre

Get it yet?  Not to be missed is Hodgemans recitation of 700 Hobo names, complete with Jonathan Coulton playing "Big Rock Candy Mountain". 

“As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.”

Classic.  This takes me back…  And if you don’t get the joke, well… too bad. 

“…I’m living on the air in Cincinnati…”

eToys: GR8 TaT2 Maker from Spin Master Toys

Because kids today don't draw on themselves with quite enough reckless abandon, Spin Master Toys presents the gift that every child in the lower socio-economic strata wants this Christmas:  The GR8 TaT2 Maker.  In the immortal words of Dave Barry, I am not making this up.  Sadly I'm not changing the spelling either, that bit of psuedo-hip leet/txt tlk is straight off the desk of some marketing genius at Spin Master (who, it seems, also makes the 7-11 Slurpee maker and the "Airbrush Tattoos" system targeted at little girls).  So now little Billy can get himself tatted up, and pretend to work at the McDonalds Drive Through.  ((Comments about after work activities including his rusted out Big Wheel etc.. have been withheld.)) (more…)

Jedi Knights demand Britain's fourth largest 'religion' receives recognition | the Daily Mail

In 2001, the UK conducted a census.  One of the questions asked respondents to identify their faith.  The fourth most common response was, as you've no doubt surmised by now, Jedi.  Now they are demanding a little respect.  (Hey, I respect anyone that can shoot lightning from their fingers or choke imperial admirals with their minds…)

According to the linked article, it seems at least two of our midi-chlorian-enhanced brethren (and sistren?) are requesting that the UN International Day of Tolerance be renamed the Interstellar Day of Tolerance.  Sounds reasonable.  Hmmm… I have the strangest feeling that these aren't the droids I'm looking for.  You can go about your business.  Move along, move along.

Microsoft Vista offers new icons, and the new "network" icon is a couple of flat panel monitors on top of some clear pipes.  A SERIES OF TUBES!  Well, it could be worse.  It could have been a big truck.

 ((For those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about, click here, here, and here.))

Lillian Vernon: McDonald's Playset

For those kids you just don't expect too much from, Lillian Vernon offers the McDonalds Drive-Thru playset.  Complete with cash register, play money credit card scanner (with credit cards… there's a whole 'nother blog post there) and fake food, trans-fats not included.  Next year, I hear they have plans for a toy that lets you pretend to be the guy that scrapes gum off the bottom of bus seats.

YouTube.com sued by UTube.com | News.blog | CNET News.com

Ok, Google buys YouTube for 1.65 Billion dollars and suddenly the flood gates open.  Apparently UTube.com (the pipe people) is suing YouTube (the video people) because, and I'm paraphrasing, "lot's of people are stupid and go to UTube.com instead of YouTube.com". 

UPDATE!  This story made the front page of Digg,following which UTube.com went 503-Service Unavailable.  They thought they had problems with random confusion from YouTube?  Hey guys, welcome to the Digg Effect.