First It Was The Bees. Now It’s The Bats.

Mass bat deaths in NY and Vermont baffling experts

ALBANY, N.Y.—Bats are dying off by the thousands as they hibernate in caves and mines around New York and Vermont, sending researchers scrambling to find the cause of a mysterious condition dubbed “white nose syndrome.”
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The ailment — named for the white circle of fungus found around the noses of affected bats — was first noticed last January in four caves west of Albany. It has now spread to eight hibernation sites in the state and another in Vermont.

Alan Hicks, a bat specialist with New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation, called the quick-spreading disorder the “gravest threat” to bats he had ever seen. Up to 11,000 bats were found dead last winter and many more are showing signs of illness this winter. One hard-hit cave went from more than 15,000 bats two years ago to 1,500 now, he said.

See? I hadn’t even read the entire article, then I found this at the end:

The bat die-off has some eerie similarities with “colony collapse disorder,” the baffling affliction that began decimating honeybee colonies years ago. Scientists last fall said they suspected a virus previously unknown in the United States.

This is weird.

Amazon MP3 Is No iTunes Store!

Amazon touts:

Amazon MP3 added DRM-free music downloads from Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group, making it the only retailer to offer DRM-free MP3 music downloads from all four major music labels as well as over 50,000 independent labels. The MP3 store now includes over 3.4 million songs from more than 270,000 artists. Pepsi will debut the Pepsi Stuff Amazon MP3 promotion, a massive collect-and-get program, during the upcoming Super Bowl.

So I went there to finally try it out.

And discover it can’t search by Artist or Band name!

That’s what I call FAIL!

Quote: J.K. Rowling

Rowling grieves for lost wizard

My God, look what’s happened with an idea I had 17 years ago on a train.

Does Logitech Have An iPhone Keyboard?

Logitech diNovo Mini.

It’s small. It uses Bluetooth. It’s for Home Theater/PC systems.

See more pictures and specs at the link.

Can it eventually work with the iPhone? Would you want it to? Comment.

Everex Nears The FAIL Rail

7:42PM EST, this is what the Everex site is now saying:

Find your $399 CloudBook at Walmart.com and ZaReason.com beginning 2/15/08.

And I notice at the bottom right:

For the masses
You don’t have to imagine anymore. Your new CloudBook will be available in February at fine retailers throughout North America…

Huh? Are there to be more than just Wal-Mart?

Earlier this day:
CloudBook Rains On Our Parade

eBay Strike: February 18-25, 2008

Ebay Sellers Riled Up About New Fees, Rules

EBay users are mad as hell and they’re not going to stop complaining about it.

After a fairly challenging year, John Donahoe, who takes over as eBay CEO at the end of March, unveiled plans yesterday to lower the upfront listing fee and increase the back-end fee for sellers. The so-called “success-based” model, which takes effect Feb. 20, is meant to increase listings, but from what we can gather, it will do little more than enrage its merchant base.

People are mad! Look at all the Comments to that article!

They’re calling for a strike the week of February 18-25, 2008, with sellers not listing anything.

I haven’t sold on ebay. But I’ve bought.

Does Apple Have A Super Bowl Surprise?

Something Else Is In The Air … When Will It Land?

Last year it didn’t.

Last year it debuted the iPhone during the Academy Awards.

This year there might not be such an event.

If Apple has a Super Bowl surprise up its sleeve, I don’t expect the ad to show a product.

I expect it to highlight a release date.

The Product?

iPod Air?

iPod Plus?

iPod Sky?

iPod Cloud?

iPod Life?

The handheld buzz has begun again.

My predictions for an Oscar ad in the old blog:
Apple Vs. Apple Settlement Coincidental?
I Said There Would Be An Apple Ad During The Oscars
The iPhone Oscar Ad: Hello!

FURL Has A New Design

I use it every day. I know people love that site with the idiotic name with periods in it. I don’t. I like FURL. I’ve got several thousand things socked away there.

This morning it had its usual no-frills just about all-text interface. Then this afternoon it popped out this:

I’ve redacted my Topics with that gray box. That’s because I’ve started to save everything to Private. I’m no longer sharing my FURLs.

FURL has spiffed up the entire site. Want to save stuff from the Net? I recommend FURL.

Please Do!

“You can’t spend all your life surfing,” he said.

That quote is from one of the unbright retards Rupert Murdoch tends to hire to drive his Fox TV network here in the U.S. of A.

TV Showman, Once Exiled, Returns With Video Site

Now this guy is coming back via the web with one of those how-to video sites. Which is already being done by about a jillion other people.

The Net is not TV-only-different.

How many of these failures are going to infect the web before they accept the idea they don’t belong here? Eisner, Ovitz, now Retard Boy.

Christopher Fowler: Read His Books

Teleread prompted me to post these two YouTube vids featuring the great writer Christopher Fowler talking about his superb Bryant & May mystery series and then reading an excerpt from the latest, White Corridor.

Fair warning: Both videos start out poorly because they did the title overlay incorrectly. Picks up once his name fades away.

Reminder: Fowler’s available in ebook format for virtually all file formats. Load up your Sony Reader (and even amazon Kindle) today.

If you don’t have the time to commit to his Bryant & May series, dig around to find a copy of Roofworld (sadly out of print in the US!). That’s the first book of his I read ages ago and I was hooked. That would still make one hell of a movie (or web series, are you listening Michael Eisner?)

The Bryant and May mysteries: