Department of Literary Curiosities

Discovered in the Horror section of Borders Books, Milpitas: Hamlet II: Ophelia's Revenge. Tag line: "Something is rotting in the state of Denmark..." Cheesy cover art of semi-ruined castle and zombie woman in a white dress (presumably Ophelia.) The back cover copy begins by declaring "The works of the Bard have just as much corpses and gore as the best horror films!" (or something close to that.) The plot appears to involve an American college student who inherits a castle in Denmark. Mayhem ensues.

I almost bought it, just so I could prove that it really existed.

Department of 'This ad is supposed to make me want to buy your product'?

Ad for some Palm OS e-mail/information manager: "The closest thing to Outlook you can get on a Palm." Ooooh, you mean it's bloated, buggy, and has more security holes than a scale model of Alcatraz carved from Swiss cheese? Sign me up.

(In fairness, I've been using Outlook at work for 3 months now, and it does have some useful features. But, still...)

Ad on the side of an AC transit bus:

A's fans: Thanks for riding public transit.
Non-A's fans: Who told you you could go out in public?

This must be one of these new-fangled marketing concepts: run ads that tell large numbers of potential customers not to use your product, and insult them to boot.

Department of FM wave propagation

Can any of you physicists out there tell me why my Belkin TuneCast FM transmitter for my iPod broadcasts a stronger signal when I'm touching the iPod or the tuner?

Don't I need to be inspected by the FCC if I'm an FM signal booster?