strredwolf | (no subject)

Some intresting tidbits pointed to by Slashdot, in CNN Money/Business 2.0's "2005's 101 Dumbest Moments in Business." A few choice tidbits (my comments in italics):

In May the FDA says it's received 40 reports of sudden blindness in men taking the impotence drugs Cialis, Levitra, and Viagra. Within six months, combined sales of the drugs plunge more than 10 percent from the previous year's levels. Well, if that doesn't stop those spammers nothing will.
Sony BMG installs software on its CDs "to prevent unlimited copying and unauthorized redistribution," but the cure is worse than the disease: The software makes customers' PCs vulnerable to hackers and viruses. Software maker Internet Security Systems labels Sony's program malicious because it "actively attempts to hide its presence from users." Ultimately, Sony offers uninstall software and has to recall millions of albums, including The Invisible Invasion, by the Coral; Healthy in Paranoid Times, by Our Lady Peace; and On Ne Change Pas (One Does Not Change), by Celine Dion. Glad I run Linux.
In June a Dutch programmer releases software that lets players of Take-Two Interactive's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas access sexually explicit content left in the game's source code by its developers. Already marked "Mature" for "blood and gore, intense violence, strong language, strong sexual content, and use of drugs," the game gets rerated "Adults Only," causing Target and Wal-Mart to pull it from stores. Take-Two's quarterly revenues fall $40 million short of projections. Maybe they shouldn't of banned programmers from stripping.
Developers announce plans for the London Academy of Sex and Relationships, an $8.3 million sexual theme park. The project, a spokesperson says, is "committed to avoiding the sleazy image that the sex industry usually conjures.... Titillation is not the goal." WOO HOO!
The Direct Marketing Association rolls out a Deceased Do-Not-Contact list to stop calls to dead relatives. The fee for preventing telemarketers from reaching to the grave: $1 per person. Great. Spamming the dead. Guess they want to eaten first by the undead zombies.
In April the NYPD reports that, after a decade of steady declines, subway crime jumped 18 percent in the first quarter of 2005. The culprit? None other than Steve Jobs. According to the department's statistics, more than a third of the rise in felonies came as the result of iPods being swiped or stolen with the threat of violence. Glad I still have my Zaurus.
Florida-based Goosebumps Products, a maker of gel-filled shoe inserts, sues supplier Bell Chem Corp., claiming that, by delivering the wrong chemical, it had caused bubbles to form in the insoles that emit "a flatulence-like noise" with each step. Goosebumps is forced to dispose of at least 35,000 pairs and soon goes out of business. "Farting shoes? What's not to like?" Tagline from Business 2.0
British startup Sprayonmud begins selling genuine "Shropshire mud" in spray bottles, presumably for giving your SUV that rugged off-road look. Many British drivers find a better use for it, however -- obscuring license plates to avoid being snagged by the many U.K. traffic cameras. Do they ship overseas?
In November, parents and children attending a showing of Chicken Little at AMC's Empire 25 in Manhattan instead get treated to Andrea, a Spanish film that opens with a young man hanging himself from a tree. Managers give audience members a refund or a coupon for a free movie. I think we did that with Roberto Benninni's Pinocio. It was a terrible film.
In July, Nascar holds an event at Colorado's Pikes Peak International Raceway. Its official name: ITT Industries, Systems Division, & Goulds Pump Salute to the Troops 250 presented by Dodge. What happened to the good ol' Pikes Peak 250?