Technobabble

Mouse Kills Deer Hunting is a difficult hobby. The early mornings, the cold weather, the waiting, dragging the killed deer around the forest—it’s tough work, until now. John Lockwood is turning his 330-acre ranch into an online hunting ground. Mr. Lockwood is setting up a .22-caliber rifle that will be controlled by you, sitting at your computer in your camouflage terrycloth bathrobe, a hot cup of coffee and your trigger finger calmly on the mouse waiting for the perfect moment. Left-click, kill. Kirby Brown of the Texas Wildlife Association isn’t so trigger-happy about Internet hunting. Brown’s organization is proposing a new state law requiring licensed hunters to be in the woods, on site, in order to send Bambi’s soul to its maker.

Throw Me a Beer, Robot I’m not sure what impresses me more, the robotic beer catapult John Cornwell built for about $400, or the $3,700 he has earned by having 739,990 people view a 90-second video of the beer-throwing refrigerator at MetaCafe.com. The catapult kept the 22-year-old engineering student from Duke University and his friends plenty hydrated during the Super Bowl last month. And the .005 cents he earns with each viewing of his video is sure to keep the fridge well stocked. Check the video out here: www.metacafe.com/watch/445498/robotic_beer_launching_refrigerator.

YouTube Wars MetaCafe may be one of the only places to view Web video for the 70 million people of Turkey. The Turkish government banned the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube because of videos “insulting the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.” These videos are part of what is purported to be a “virtual war” between Greeks and Turks online. Can’t we just all get along, at least in cyberspace?

Bloggers Smell You Technosexuals (this term is trademarked by the way) will be happy to know that Calvin Klein, maker of CK One, has a new fragrance for the bloggers amongst us: CK in2u. Very SMS. The company that came out with the multimillion-dollar-selling perfume for the mid-’90s grunge crowd is now trying to cash in on you and me, the geek crew. But don’t they know that we would rather spend our money on the new PSP game LocoRoco than perfume? Plus, no one can smell you through instant message anyway. See the trailer for LocoRoco here: <center> <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pFKpyScxv0k"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pFKpyScxv0k" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> </center>

Crackberry Relief A New York City spa, Graceful Services, is now offering special massages for the corporate clique who suffer from a condition known as “BlackBerry Thumb.” They are offering a $60 massage that helps those bankers who knot-up their hands, wrists, shoulders and necks typing into their smart phones. I have nothing more to say about this. Happy you have muscle relief, Crackberry Heads.