Fart beats book

Pretty sweet: a trussed-up Red Herring with the trimmings to Alec Holden, from Epsom in Surrey, England. (Why is it most places in England sounds like Hobbit lairs? Could it be that J.R.R. Tolkien was British?)

It seems Holden, born April 24, 1907, beat the system by betting with a bookmaker ten years ago that he would reach his hundredth birthday.

Says a rep for the bookie: "These age wagers are starting to cost us a fortune, and from now on we are going to push out the age to 110." (Yes, they've lost this bet before.)

Meanwhile, in Tech, a little company called Fon (backed by a bigger company called Time Warner) is spreading a new model to America.


It seems Fon's product, a little gizmo called La Fonera, allows users not only to log on, but to share their own bandwidth -- as much or as little of it as they like -- with passersby, neighbors, and so on, creating almost-free wireless hotspots anywhere.

The plan is an interesting response by Time Warner (and Skype/EBay, among other investors) to the phenomenon of cities (San Francisco has long discussed this) offering up free wi-fi to anyone within city limits.

Meanwhile, Fon actually took the liberty of distributing 6,000-odd devices to anyone who lived right by a Starbucks.

Far out, Daddy-O.

Also, more on the Pat Tillman investigation in CNN's headline story, here. Tillman's brother was a fellow Ranger, also deployed, but not on site when Pat went down.

And finally, a nice political cartoon today, in the Examiner, which is good to read sometimes, because people think you're smart if you have ink on your hands.

There's a big truck outside the White House, labelled "January 20, 2009." A voice from the White House says, "I hate artificial timetables."

Double half-caf latte with cinnamon soy sprinkles: $4.50.
Legal use of someone else's wireless (24 hours): $2.
Getting PA-AID for turning 100: Priceless.

-Zed

QWTOFDY
"I try not to break the rules but merely to test their elasticity."
-Bill Veeck