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According to Local6.com, the website of South Florida’s WKMG TV, “a problem solvers investigation has discovered that several Web sites will sell the last 100 phone numbers you have dialed to anyone who knows your phone number.

The report found that sites like Locatecell will sell the private phone numbers for about $100.

Once the fee is paid on the Web sites, anyone can get access to the phone numbers, including bank, doctor and work numbers, Local 6 News reported.

The Web sites are not illegal, according to the report.

Visit: Local6.com
Visit: Locatecell.com

[via textually.org]

Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey have officially (”officially officially”, as in, “for real this time”) split.

“After three years of marriage, and careful thought and consideration, we have decided to part ways,” they said in a joint statement released by their publicists. “This is the mutual decision of two people with an enormous amount of respect and admiration for each other.”

Not that we didn’t know it was coming, or frankly cared any more, but in case there’s someone somewhere out there who hasn’t heard the news yet, there it is — it’s splitsville.

[via AP]

Who’s Afraid of Google? Everyone.
By Kevin Kelleher (Wired)

It seems no one is safe: Google is doing Wi-Fi; Google is searching inside books; Google has a plan for ecommerce.

Of course, Google has always wanted to be more than a search engine. Even in the early days, its ultimate goal was extravagant: to organize the world’s information. High-minded as that sounds, Google’s ever-expanding agenda has put it on a collision course with nearly every company in the information technology industry: Amazon.com, Comcast, eBay, Yahoo!, even Microsoft.

In less than a decade, Google has gone from guerrilla startup to 800-pound gorilla. In some ways, the company is a gentle giant. Whereas Microsoft infamously smothered new and open standards, Google is famous for supporting them. And the firm is softening its image, launching a philanthropic arm, Google.org, with nearly $1 billion earmarked for social causes. But that doesn’t reduce the fear factor, and Google knows it. Omid Kordestani, the company’s global sales guru, said at a recent conference, “We’re trying to find ways so we are not viewed as a gorilla.” Given its outsize ambitions, that’s one search Google might not be able to handle.
Continue reading »

Live on TV, it’s the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade — from last year. In order to save the TV viewing public from seeing an M&Ms balloon come crashing down and injuring two sisters during Macy’s annual Thanksgiving day parade, NBC seemlessly cut footage of the M&M balloon from last year’s parade into this year’s broadcast.

…NBC weaved in tape of the balloon crossing the finish line at last year’s parade - even as the damaged balloon itself was being dragged from the accident scene. At 11:47 a.m., as an 11-year-old girl and her 26-year-old sister were being treated for injuries, the parade’s on-air announcers - Katie Couric, Matt Lauer and Al Roker - kept up their light-hearted repartee from Herald Square, where the parade ends.

[via NY Times]

Party in England … oh yeah, and Wales! Both England and Wales have announecd a new licensing law which allows the serving of alcohol around-the-clock. It’s truly not just for breakfast any more.

More than 1,000 pubs, clubs and supermarkets have been granted 24-hour licences to sell alcohol, according to government figures.

Around 40% of premises applied to vary their licences by either extending their opening by an hour or two or by offering late food and entertainment.

It has led to fears disorder will put more pressure on police and hospitals.

But Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell told BBC Newsnight the new law was necessary “to make it possible for the vast majority of people who drink but who never get into trouble to have more freedom as to when they drink”.

[via The BBC]

More drug companies are starting to hire former (and current) cheerleaders into their sales force; but it’s not just for their looks, or at least that’s what they tell us…

Anyone who has seen the parade of sales representatives through a doctor’s waiting room has probably noticed that they are frequently female and invariably good looking. Less recognized is the fact that a good many are recruited from the cheerleading ranks.

Known for their athleticism, postage-stamp skirts and persuasive enthusiasm, cheerleaders have many qualities the drug industry looks for in its sales force.

[via NY Times]

To everyone in the States, Happy Thanksgiving! To everyone else, go eat some turkey … or not … either way, I can’t promise (m)any new posts from now until Monday; but who knows, maybe something interesting will catch my attention that just has to be posted…

Gelitin, a Vienna-based art installation at Leo Koenig in Chelsea, pushes the boundaries of art on demand in a Santa’s Workshop manner.

What you’ll see while visiting Koenig, at 545 West 23rd Street, is a sealed, space-hogging wooden box, the size of a small house or a pre-1970’s mainframe computer. It has two extensions; one like a cabinet, the other like a top-loading chest. You are invited to place an object, any object, into the chestlike extension. Close the hatch. A yellow light goes on. You hear a sliding sound and a clunk. Your item has temporarily disappeared into the big box, just as dozens of others have, including wallets, photographs, specially made items (artists have brought their own work) and, memorably, a 2-year-old child.

…

Take a seat. Eventually - the wait can be from a few minutes to more than an hour - a light on the other extension goes on. Open the door, and you’ll find your object joined by a brand-new, handmade “duplicate,” or at least something that more or less resembles the original.

[via NY Times]

TVMyPod is a new store (and allegedly the first of its kind) to offer brand new video iPods pre-loaded with your selection of TV shows and movies. Of course, to keep it legal, all the shows that you select to put onto your iPod must also be purchased from them (as DVDs). The pre-loaded iPod and original DVDs are then shipped to you. Not a bad service for the person who does not want to go through the trouble of trying to figure out how to get their own video content onto the iPod, and wants to expand their DVD library.

In other iPod news, TiVoToGo has expanded its service to support iPods and PSPs.

TiVo Inc. is expanding its video recording service so users will be able to transfer recorded television shows onto Apple Computer Inc.’s iPods or Sony Corp.’s PlayStation Portable — the latest move aimed at putting TV in people’s hands for viewing anywhere.

The enhanced TiVoToGo feature being announced Monday will also add more copy-protection measures to discourage possible copyright abuse that would anger Hollywood.

Visit: TVMyPod

When you have to smoke, you have to smoke.

A French woman has admitted attempting to open an aeroplane door mid-flight so that she could smoke a cigarette.

Sandrine Helene Sellies, 34, who has a fear of flying, had drunk alcohol and taken sleeping tablets ahead of the flight from Hong Kong to Brisbane.

She was seen on the Cathay Pacific plane walking towards a door with an unlit cigarette and a lighter.

She then began tampering with the emergency exit until she was stopped by a flight attendant.

[via The BBC]