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So I took a little break from the blogs to play Penny Arcade Adventures – On the Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One and was totally surprised at how much fun it was! I’ve never played any adventure/RPG type of games but quickly found out what worked and what didn’t.

There are some repetitive parts but the reason that I stuck with it was that the writing was just so freaking hilarious! From the descriptions of the items in the world to the character’s dialogue as they go about the business of chasing down the giant robot that crushed your house.

A+ Penny Arcade guys. A+.
I look forward to the next episode!

This weekend was quite interesting and there’s an equally interesting number of things out there to see!

• A list of Vice-Presidential nominees for Obama to consider with their pros and cons, including John Edwards, Joe Liberman, Hilary Clinton, Alice Cooper, Optimus Prime and Dr.Perry Cox!
• The Hill went to all 97 senators who are not running for President and asked "If you were asked, would you accept an offer to be the VP nominee?" and the responses vary in awesomeness. There’s the classic "I love my job representing the good people of ____", the serious responses about not carrying swing states and so on and then the good ones. 
  My favorites being "Does that include any sports picks or anything like that?" and “Absolutely. Absolutely. I think I would be great. First of all, I know how to behave at weddings and funerals. And I know how to be commander in chief. I’d bring a lot of fun to the job. We would rock the Naval Observatory.” Way to go Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.)!
  Via  Metafilter.
• A slick slingshot for your hand. From the Holon Institute of technology’s "Next Exit" Exhibition, so alas, its not for sale.
  Via Boing Boing Gadgets.
• From the Smoking Gun’s rider archives, the Foo Fighters’ 2008 rider features such gems as "Bath towels – if they are new and unwashed, you will receive a wedgie." and "Please make arrangements for leftover food to be collected by a local soup kitchen, homeless shelter or our roadie that looks like Osama Bin Laden". Let me tell you though, page 3? Gold.
  Via Metafilter.
• A clip of an italian variety show of a man who drives an excavator to undress a woman. A big yellow six ton excavator. Crazy.
  Via Boing Boing Gadgets.
  
• Great shots of the Space Needle in Seattle getting a high pressure wash via A Whole Lotta Nothing. This is my favorite but there are many more.  

Well… Sort of.

I doubt they’d pick chihuahuas for that type of work, but we can dream can’t we?

Mondex here won a canine fashion show in the Philippines with his scuba suit. Via Ananova

It shocks me that the dog would put up with a scuba suit but that’s nothing compared to the fact that there was a doggie fashion show for it to compete in.

Slightly stranger, but totally reasonable once you think about it, is that there is a market for doggie wetsuits, specifically for hunting dogs. Who would have thought it!

There is a man in Malaysia who smashes coconuts open with his index finger! Apparently, he broke his finger back in 1993 and that didn’t stop him but he’s now retiring to do other things.

Kung-fu finger smashes coconut

With the current price of gas and the record profits being posted by companies like Exxon, it would stand to reason that this is a good time to be a gas station owner. Apparently not. Via NPR: Higher prices mean slimmer profits for gas stations.

As it turns out, that’s not the case. Of the $3-4 per gallon of gas that we’re paying these days, over 70% goes towards the crude oil itself and only about 3-15 cents actually go to the gas station owners. The worst part is that the station’s profit margin per gallon is fixed thanks to their delivery contracts but the credit card transaction fees are based on a percentage of the dollar amount of the gas sold. This creates a pretty bad situation for the station owner as their profit per gallon is significantly cut. The example given was of a station that makes 16 cents per gallon and then pays 7 cents in credit card fees for regular unleaded.

In Texas, I’ve seen a number of cash-only or cash-preferred gas stations and never really knew why they offered cash a better price than credit card sales but this makes perfect sense.
Will I change my ways? I don’t know… but I’ll certainly think about it.

Carrotmob is an interesting one… Via the one and only Ze Frank, I learned of a group out in San Francisco called Carrotmob whose stated purpose is to organize consumers to make purchases from companies that agree to make environmentally friendly choices.

If you have a few minutes, you can watch the video of their first proof-of-concept campaign and see how it went down but here’s the short version:

Carrotmob went around to 20 some-odd corner/liquor stores in San Francisco and promised that many shoppers would come if they would commit a certain percentage of their purchases to making environmental improvements to their stores. The stores then bid against each other until the winner came in at 22%. A study was done to make recommendations of what could be improved and how much it would cost, and then at a specific day and time, the people would show up.

And show up they did! For reference, this store receives about $2,000-3,000k in revenue on an weekday and the mob spent over $9,000!

Carrotmob Makes It Rain from carrotmob on Vimeo.

All in all, I think that this is an interesting concept blending good old consumerism with community and environmental activism… I’m kind of curious as to how it scales though. An example is given of toothbrushes, and I think its spot on because its easier for something like this to succeed if its a commodity where environmental effect is the differential factor but I acknowledge that I’ve selected some things mostly based on their environmental impact. Case in point, my Nau outerwear. I specifically decided to buy from Nau because of their commitment to sustainable fabrics, recycling and their unique Partners for Change program where a percentage of each purchase is shared with a charity partner of your choice.

And yet, as I typed that last sentence, I visited NAU and found out that they are going out of business as they haven’t been able to get more funding. They are currently having a 50% off clearance sale and so I’m picking up a couple of items. Its bittersweet.

This is an fun video for Nike by Guy Ritchie, director of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch.

Nike: Take it to the next level

In case you haven’t heard, “When Obama wins…” are the new Chuck Norris Facts.

Case in point:

• The When Obama Wins blog. Folks submit these by email.
• The When Obama Wins live Tweeter view where most of these things are being generated.
• The When Obama Wins rotating microsite. This one takes the best and gives you a new one each time you visit.
• The When Obama Wins buttons

And as it turns out, the source, apparently, was innocuous enough: A typo.

Dan was twittering something about Alabama, but wrote “Alambama”. He joked that when Barack Obama wins the election, certain states will probably be renamed – Alobama, Califobama, Nevama, Massabama, New Yobama. Of course, I thought that was hilarious and started thinking about other things that would change once Obama wins. So, a few of us started twittering silly little things, thinking of it as an inside joke.

Funny how things work.

Sad Kermit sings "Needle In The Hay"
I only know this song from the scene in The Royal Tenenbaums where Ritchie (Luke Wilson) attempts suicide in the bathroom. The disconnect between Kermit and this scene is quite odd… Odder is the fact that this Sad Kermit thing is a series. Case in point: Sad Kermit sings "Hurt"

People that flip into pants