ie8 fix

The technical joy of Burger King's hands-free Whopper holder

Your cell phone has shown your hands that they can be free.

You can talk into it, while scratching your face, driving your car, or conducting the New York Philharmonic.

Purveyors of fast food have been slow to offer you a similar sense of liberty. Conduct the Philharmonic while trying to eat a Big Mac, and it will be a messy experience for both you and the lead viola.

Burger King wants to redress your balance. It has created a holder in which you can slip your Whopper and leave your hands free to do what they must.… Read more

Google Street View catches end of beautiful relationship?

The heartless are everywhere.

Sometimes they are men, sometimes women. Sometimes they are simply beings beyond definition.

Why, I remember one proud woman telling me that she had dumped her man. He came to reason with her, to plead even.

"He was crying," she gloated afterwards, as if she'd scored some great victory. And to think the only reason she'd dumped him was that she'd discovered he was a drug dealer. Yes, it was only pot.

It's interesting, therefore, to witness the reactions to a Google Street View shot that has been propelled to … Read more

Ex-Microsoft exec to create the Starbucks of marijuana?

When a product becomes a brand, it brings with it emotional values that seep into your pores and make you feel good all over.

This is something Jamen Shively hopes to do for a product that has something of a start -- in that it already seeps into your pores and makes you feel good all over.

Or so I am told.

Shively, once upon a time, was a corporate strategy manager for Microsoft. Now the 45-year-old wants to create the nation's first brand of marijuana.

His idea, as he explained to the Seattle Times, is to buy his … Read more

Woz: Apple's tax practices are stinky

Steve Wozniak thinks like Mitt Romney.

Well, a little. It's not that he quite believes corporations are people too. It's more that he thinks corporations should be taxed like people too.

Corporations like Apple, for example.

At a conference in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, Woz told Sky News on Thursday: "Criticism of Apple's tax policies is extremely warranted, in my mind, but my explanation is rather long and difficult."

It's a pity he wasn't asked to testify before the Senate last week. Its members seemed to have all day to listen to Tim Cook. … Read more

Spider-Man and two Captain Americas in Hollywood brawl

When superheroes fight each other, there is always the assumption that one side must be on drugs or in the control of some devious mastermind who knows the superhero's one touching weakness.

Neither may have been the case on Wednesday, when superheroes took their battle not to the sets of Hollywood, but to its streets.

As CBS Los Angeles reports, the Madame Tussauds kiosk -- just inches away from the famed Dolby Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard -- was the scene of an ugly meeting of the ripped (or not) bodies.… Read more

Physicists rejoice! Will Smith is one of you

Physicists can sometimes feel neglected.

Not always the party types, their lack of screen presence makes them seem weird, peculiar, and other-worldly.

Famous actor and renowned non-Scientologist Will Smith intends to narrow that gap. He knows that physics is the core of human life.

How can I make such a provocative statement?

Well, because I just read an interview he and his son Jaden gave to New York magazine, one intended, I think, to promote their new movie "After Earth."

In it, Smith boldly goes where few actors have gone before in declaring: "At heart, I am … Read more

Papa John's apologizes for new low in butt-dialing

People's inability to keep their cell phones secure is often a source of humor.

Who hasn't received a butt-dial at some point and listened to their friends or their florists chatting away, singing, or even talking to themselves?

One customer of Papa John's in Sanford, Fla., however, received a butt-dial of a more painful nature.

As Click Orlando reports, this customer received a voice mail lasting several minutes which began with a Papa John's driver talking to a colleague and complaining that he hadn't been tipped. The customer says he tipped the "usual" … Read more

Teachers searching for cell phone strip-search students

One of the less likely things a teacher might tell a student told during a math exam is: "Take off your bra. Then raise your arms."

Yet this allegedly was said to a 10th-grade student at Cap-Jeunesse High School in Saint-Jerome, Canada.

The rules of the math exam were that cell phones were supposed to be placed on the teacher's desk to avoid cheating. Or, perhaps, to prevent someone texting Madelaine to ask how last night's ice cream with Roger had gone.

Yet, as Canada's QMI Agency reports, the count seemed to be one cell … Read more

Math wiz who said he had 1 in 285,000 chance of love -- now engaged

Love hurts. To which a logician might reply: "So shouldn't hate feel, really, really good?"

Logic and love have about as intimate a relationship as bread and a calorie-controlled diet.

This, however, didn't stop Peter Backus from attempting to quantify just how great (or small) his chances were of finding that one, true person who can bring meaning to life's absurdity.… Read more

Local hero? Man tweets DUI checkpoint locations

When there's a long weekend, the police sometimes create longer lines of traffic by setting up random checkpoints to test whether you have enjoyed yourself to the point of irresponsibility.

It's a tradition not unlike grilling and insulting a relative.

Increasingly, however, social media has allowed real human beings to contact other real human beings in order to avoid being randomly stopped and having their breath searched.

Sennett Devermont has turned checkpoint alerts into what he believes is a public service.

Devermont, a co-founder of the dating site site DateUp (later sold to IAC) and various other ventures, … Read more