Bug powder causes male bedbugs to stab each other to death with their penises

Bug powder causes male bedbugs to stab each other to death with their penises: "Male bedbugs will schtup anything, and when they do, their stabby little penises can do great damage to one another. Female bedbugs have some 'down there' armor that absorbs the punishing blows of the bedbug's love-spear, but males lack this protection. A pheromone discovered by a Swedish researcher can cause male bedbugs to kill each other with their penises through uncontrolled shagging:

According to lead researcher Camilla Ryne, bedbugs are notoriously undiscerning about who they mount, and are accustomed to stab their penis straight into another male's abdomen...

Males with blocked glands were mounted as often as other males, but for longer and suffered more wounds.


'This is the first time I've seen an alarm pheromone used as a sexual one,' New Scientist quoted Ryne as saying.

New discovery may help deal with bedbug infestation

(Thanks, Steve)

(Image: 98221_hires.jpg, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from liz.novack's photostream)

Senate Concerned About Buy.com's Aggressive Webloyalty Checkout Hardsell

Senate Concerned About Buy.com's Aggressive Webloyalty Checkout Hardsell: "

Before you can finish your purchase at Buy.com, you have to go through an entire page trying to upsell you to the much-maligned Webloyalty program and click the tiny 'no thanks' button at the bottom. You can find it located under the large YES! button.

Some users will scroll through the page and just see the part asking them to enter in their last 4 digits of their credit card and email address to finish the purchase. The explanatory text above only mentions the 'reward' program.

It seems designed to draw the skim reader into signing up for the useless program. Here is what the page looks like on Buy.com:

A Senate commitee investigating unfair online practices says this one raises 'serious concerns' for them.

Web scam or aggressive marketing at Buy.com? You decide [Consumer Reports]

"

Walmart Overcharges Soldiers Stationed Abroad For Shipping

Walmart Overcharges Soldiers Stationed Abroad For Shipping: "

The idea behind military mail is to allow people in a given country to send mail to their loved ones stationed anywhere in the world, for the same price as mailing a letter or package to any other destination in the United States. However, the military paper Stars and Stripes reports that some retailers are increasing prices for customers with APO/FPO addresses, claiming 'higher transportation costs.' The biggest offender? Walmart. Surprise!

On a $120 purchase, Walmart.com charged $10.35 to ship to an APO address, compared with $2.10 to a stateside address. For most items, Amazon.com charged the same to ship to an APO address as a stateside address. And Target offered shipping on a $120 purchase to an APO address for less than to a stateside address.

...

On Walmart.com, the company says shipping costs will be higher to APO addresses due to higher transportation costs.

“There is no higher transportation costs,” [Wiesbaden Army Airfield Postmaster Earl] Small said. “Companies are abusing the system and making a killing.”

Some retailers inflate costs to ship to APO addresses [Stars and Stripes] (Thanks, Shannon!)

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Reader Angered By QVC $150 Markup Wii

Reader Angered By QVC $150 Markup Wii: "

A reader saw the $150 marked-up Wii on QVC and became so incensed that he immediately left an impassioned voicemail on our voicemail tipline (347-422-6695). I love this thing:

TRANSCRIPT: 'It just blows my mind. I'm sitting here watching QVC of all things. They're trying to sell this terrible Wii package. They're clearly ripping people off for it, yet thousands are buying it. It's basically the package of stuff that comes with the box normally, a bunch of useless attachments, a bargain bin game, and yet it's $150 more than the normal package together. I've seen other places that give you actually really good packages for so much less than this, and I cannot stand idly by and watch something like this happen while people are getting ripped off left and right.

At a certain point, I actually put it together that they had sold 1,500 of them, at $350 with shipping, they're getting a half a million dollars in revenue on this alone. And by the time I've called you guys, they've probably sold almost close to a thousand more. It's rediculous. It's mind-numbing, it's infuriating.

I know that the people that read this would never fall for something like this, the sheer audacity of a place like this, I can't stand it. It's junk they're peddling to people, they're preying on the stupid. I know this sounded like a rant, I wanted to get this off my chest and out to people that understand this, so you guys put this on the site, go ahead, I'd like to hear some of the feedback from other people who've seen this, and hopefully we can warn other people not to be swayed by this. Thank you for your time.' :: END TRANSCRIPT

PREVIOUSLY: QVC Tricks Thousands Into Overpaying For Wii and Accessories

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Apple And Audible Refuse To Sell Author's Audiobooks Without DRM Or Abusive Licensing Agreement

Apple And Audible Refuse To Sell Author's Audiobooks Without DRM Or Abusive Licensing Agreement: "
Cory Doctorow is self-publishing a book and documenting the process for Publishers Weekly. His latest column is about selling audiobook versions of his past works, and how both Apple and Audible have refused to budge on their anti-consumer policies when it comes to digital rights management (DRM) and end user license agreements (EULAs). Even though both companies get paid the same either way, and even though both Doctorow and his publisher, Random House, want to sell the content without these restrictions, Apple and Audible have said no.

For my next book, Makers, we tried again. This time Audible agreed to carry the title without DRM. Hooray! Except now there was a new problem: Apple refused to allow DRM-free audiobooks in the Apple Store—yes, the same Apple that claims to hate DRM. Okay, we thought, we'll just sell direct through Audible, at least it's a relatively painless download process, right? Not quite. It turns out that buying an audiobook from Audible requires a long end-user license agreement (EULA) that bars users from moving their Audible books to any unauthorized device or converting them to other formats. Instead of DRM, they accomplish the lock-in with a contract.


I came up with what I thought was an elegant solution: a benediction to the audio file: “Random House Audio and Cory Doctorow, the copyright holders to this recording, grant you permission to use this book in any way consistent with your nation's copyright laws.” This is a good EULA, I thought, as it stands up for every word of copyright law. Random House was game, too. Audible wasn't.

The next time a retailer blames artists or their publishers for taking away consumer rights, you may want to ask for some proof. With Apple and Audible, at least, it's not the author taking an anti-consumer stance this time.


'With a Little Help: Can You Hear Me Now?' [Publishers Weekly via BoingBoing]
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