Elliott C. Back: In Aere Aedificare

There’s just one problem with the NYC condom program: the colors of their lettering don’t match the actual subway line colors:

The colors should actually look something more like this:

There’s no O or Y line, so I substituted the nearest I could find, the 1/2/3 for O and 7 for Y. Note how much uglier the actual real subway colors are. Makes me want to redesign all of NYC’s subway colors. Or just take them from their new condom. The old colors don’t match!

There’s nothing in the terms of service that I can see that would prohibit you from running an adult-themed blog on Wordpress.com, but it seems a little bit distasteful to feature blogs with adult content on the front page. The one I ran into today wasn’t popular enough to eclipse Robert Scoble, but what if it were powered by Fark or SA, who regularly link to distasteful adult content? Then we’d have an interesting problem.

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Everyone’s talking about the Zune error screen which, according to Newsvine is far too sexy for public consumption:

What is it with Microsoft and having poor taste? This isn’t just a small “oops, guess we messed up” mistake, and in all likeliness, it’s a conscious decision even. They are trying far too hard, apparently hoping to link the Zune with the image of raving orgasms and happy couples kissing in the grass. Is this Microsoft’s response to the general consensus that iPods are so sexy, people have commented (numerous times) they would make love to the thing?

Here’s the error screen so you can try and make a decision yourself (link goes to a rip from the binary):

I wondered what it was called, so I pulled the following strings out of their binary:

var s_bkgArray = new Array(”SL01-welcome.png”, “SL02-spread.png”, “SL03-seeIt.png”, “SL04-watchBig.png”, “SL05-radio.png”, “SL06-personalize.png”);
var htmlInstallError = “S085-apperror.htm”;

The actual file is just named some random bg85.png or something, which is useless. The binary also has no meta-data associated with the image, unfortunately. So, all we know is that there’s a pretty asian girl in a state of partial undress making a screaming face with a couple (possibly women) kissing in the background. Final verdict? Not interesting! Move on!

There are three interesting scandals going on around the net, and I don’t feel like covering any of them, so I’ll just summarize and give you a few links for more information. They’re interesting and popular, but for some reason, I don’t particularily want to touch any of them.

Tamara Hoover

An art teacher for Austin High School is in danger of being dismissed and having her license to teach revoked because her roommate published naked photographs of her on Flickr, the popular photo sharing site. The Austin Independent School District issued the statement, “Please know that AISD has no intention of infringing upon a person’s legitimate rights to free speech and expression. However, public school educators are legally held to a higher moral standard, in order to protect the young lives they influence.” On her blog, Ms. Hoover wrote, “I have just filed to have a hearing (standard protocol). I should be given a date for that hearing sometime next week. (end of next week) This hearing is where “they” hear my arguments and decide my fate. We have begun due process.”

Britney Spears

After an interview with Dateline to get out all her frustrations with life, Kevin, children, and the press, Britney Spears breaks down in tears and complains that the media hounds are ruining her life. The Gossip Rag has the scoop–and links to the interview on YouTube!

Singaporean Girls

A teengager in Singapore was beaten and stripped in a stairwell, but a video recorded on cell phone has been circulating through MMS and the internet. With her humiliation and assault on tape, the girl should have filed a police report, but probably hasn’t. Meanwhile, confused Americans keep linkwhoring to the term “Singapore” which appeared in the top 10 of Technorati again for the first time since the “Tammy from NYP” cell phone video scandal.

You’ve seen T-shirt Hell, but have you seen what the vendors on Isla Mujeres, Mexico, an island just off the coast of Cancun, offer? Their shirts are distasteful, perverted, disgusting, outrageus, and amusing in every possible way. If you want a funny t-shirt you could never wear in any place where English is spoken, check out Mexico.

The first is I’m a lover of all men with subtitles listing all the kinds of men the wearer of the t-shirt would not want to love. Please note that almost all of these shirts are trying to make some sexual point or another.

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