obscenity

A marathon U.S. House of Representatives debate on the Stop Online Piracy Act took an unusual detour: into the popularity of online porn.

A two-day debate in the House Judiciary committee--which has been postponed until at least next Wednesday and perhaps until 2012--was interrupted by the appearance of the popular meme "The Internet is for Porn."

Rep. Jared Polis, a Colorado Democrat who presumably knows his way around the Internet better than any other member of Congress (he founded BlueMountainArts.com), was the committee member who decided to bring up the prevalence of online porn. (See CNET'… Read more

Working in customer service is never easy. People can be difficult, nay, impossible at times. But if there is one small rule, especially in this day of rampant networks with nothing better to do than be social, it's the one that says "don't insult the customer."

This rule seems not to have been followed by one customer service representative who works, at least for now, for U.K. wireless carrier Vodafone.

According to the Guardian, this individual posted a Friday tweet on Vodafone's official Twitter page that read: "VodafoneUK is fed up of dirty … Read more

Beijing University, one of China's top academic institutions, is considering a rule to ban its students form using obscenity or spreading rumors online, Xinhua reports. Rules may also affect faculty.

It's not clear if the enforcement would include any online speech by students or if it would be limited to university forums.

News of the possible regulations comes a few months after a popular student bulletin board--a physical board, not the campus BBS--was taken down by university authorities. Xinhua writes:

Pity the poor Shuffle. Even before all of Apple's music players took a back seat to the iPhone, the Shuffle had to endure the pomposity of its older sibling in 24k gold.

But the little guy is finally getting some revenge. According to BornRich, a German company called Xexoo has created a Shuffle cast in 18k gold for just $10,000, including 24-hour tech support. Before you rush out to take advantage of this bargain, be aware that the player is expecting--what else?--an upgrade. Instead of memory or other boring specs, though, the next version will have diamonds. … Read more

We all know that there's nothing worse than a poseur who doesn't go all the way. So if you go Paris Hilton on us, we always say, make sure you do it right.

And if you're not sure which accoutrements are de rigueur this season, you need only consult an expert site such as Luxurylaunches.com, which will make sure you don't embarrass yourself at the holiday parties. To wit: This diamond-encrusted Motorola Krzr from Austrian designer Peter Aloisson. Pricing for this line isn't known yet, but his last bejeweled creation--the "Diamond Crypto Smartphone&… Read more

Speaking of expensive TVs, how does $130,000 sound? Same here.

Still, you know you wanted to see what it looked like, as did scads of other Digg readers who tagged this Gizmag post over the weekend even though the item came out awhile back on Engadget and elsewhere. And who could blame them? With 160 diamonds and white gold trim, the Yalos Diamond LCD set by Keymat Technologies is worth a second look--and third or fourth. But at 40 inches, it's a bit small for our taste. We're holding out for 52-incher.

(Photo: Keymat Technologies)