Midweek: It's All Coming Back to Me Now

Academia seems to like branding. Mention Oxford, Cambridge, Carnegie-Mellon or MIT, and for some of us, our eyes glaze over in that brief recognition of all that these names seem to convey. Since they can't really advertise like other businesses, they continually attempt to revamp something or other as they grow older, in the hopes of remaining in "tune" with the populace, or failing that - the parents who eventually send their kids to these institutions.

Sometimes, it's as simple as changing a logo. UCLA tried it recently, but with mixed results (hint: most of them were negative). Part of it has something to do with the fact that after spending USD 98 000 on it, all they could come up with was an italicised version of the university initials. I suppose there's more to the story of course, but I have an eerie feeling the blame doesn't really rest on the design agency (especially since they decided to forgo UCLA's inhouse one for an external contractor).

Sometimes it feels like academia is spelled with a B-U-R-E-A-U-C-R-A-C-Y (note to self: must not do that again, it's hell to type). Anyway.

In other news, (as if it isn't painfully obvious) we must remember that lava lamps should NOT in any case be placed on hot stoves, like what this bloke in the US did (Link). Apparently the unfortunate sod placed said lamp on the stove where it exploded and sent a shard of glass straight into his heart. Something us CSI fans can no doubt appreciate, but one puzzling question remains thus:

Why?

Finally, did Apple ensure you can't put naughty photos on your brandspankingnew iPod Photo (Link)? Tokyo based blogger Kevin seems to think so, since he realised that the iPod would play album art from other albums whilst going through his playlist. Essentially, this means that even if you think you've hidden those naughty piccies of you and that sexy new PA while on vacation in Redang pretty well, chances are while your iPod's blasting Dave Matthews or Nick Cave to the amazement of your other colleagues, you're in for a nasty surprise.

Workarounds should be in progress, but this DOES hamper those of us who'd like to make the iPod photo our very own personal stash of pr0n.

In any case - it's raining, and I have absolutely no mood for work. What oh what shall I do?