… Recycled Ads for Recycling Electronics, Introducing the Flying Car (Yet Again) and MORE.

Fired for Surfing
A new survey found that more than a quarter of employers have fired workers for misusing e-mail and one third have fired workers for misusing the Internet on the job. The 2007 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey, conducted by the American Management Association (AMA) and the ePolicy Institute, polled 304 companies of all sizes in the United States.

The vast majority of bosses who fired workers for Internet misuse (84 percent) said the employee was accessing porn or other inappropriate content. While looking at inappropriate content is an obvious no-no on company time, simply surfing the Web led to a surprising number of firings. As much as 34 percent of managers in the study said they let go of workers for excessive personal use of the Internet, according to the survey.

Some Odd Jobs
Think your job is a bit on the bark-at-the-moon side of mental? CareerBuilder.com (via CNN) recently published a list of 20 “really odd jobs,” which include the following:

• Crack fillers, who use silicone sealant to repair the wear and tear inflicted on monumental structures (like Mount Rushmore);
• Flatulence smell-reduction underwear makers, who create underwear that protect against bad human gas for people who suffer from gastrointestinal problems;
• Dieners, who prepare cadavers for pathologists before autopsies are performed in hospitals;
• Beer testers, who taste — and then spit out — beer all day to approve new and existing flavors;
• Dog sniffers, who once a week analyze and grade the odor of dogs’ breath to test the effect of their diet on their teeth; and
• Tampon testers, who check up to 125 tampons per day for absorbency and cord strength in accordance with FDA standards.

Wow, I’m hoping that last one sounds a lot more salacious than the actual reality of the job responsibility.

Recycled Ads for Recycling Electronics
That Sony commercial trying to sell you on the merits of a clunky old cassette recorder isn’t a mistake. It’s recycled. Sony Electronics is ramping up its recycling effort with a bunch of events aimed at getting consumers to drop off old Sony electronics for free. To drive home the point, Sony is re-running vintage commercials that feature woefully outdated equipment.

Sony is working with Waste Management’s WM Recycle America on its goal to set up e-waste recycling points within 20 miles of the majority of U.S. consumers. This is the first national recycling initiative in the U.S. to involve both a major electronics manufacturer and a national waste management company, according to a statement from Sony last fall. So far they have around 100 drop-off points, and should have at least one in each state by the end of the year, Ad Age recently noted a Sony spokesman as having said.

The amount of e-waste is on the rise and the issue is becoming increasingly crucial as the FCC-mandated switch to all digital TV signals in February 2009 nears. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2 million tons of e-waste ended up in landfills in 2005 alone, while only about 380,000 tons were recycled.

Coming Soon: The Flying Car (Part 3,142)
The $450,000 Milner Motors AirCar is expected to debut at the New York International Auto Show later this month.

The Milner Motors AirCar is a four-seat advanced-composite car designed for the driver/pilot to fly to his or her destination and then fold up the wings and drive it down the highway, Aero-News is reporting. There is a foldable main wing in the rear of the vehicle and a lifting projection in the front. This latest flying car will weigh around 3,000 lbs., and it has a 28 ft. wingspan and on the ground the wings fold to 7 ft. wide. It will reportedly cruise at 200 mph. The vehicle is powered by two rotary engines, and a separate 40 hp engine powers the car.

The prototype to be displayed at the car show doesn’t fly, as it is meant to show that flight is possible.

As fellow blogger Fred put it: “I love the way these people just don’t give up.” Indeed, Fred. Indeed. And who would want them to? The flying car is long overdue.

Equal Time for Downtrodden Tech Support
New York Times tech columnist, David Pogue, had a chance to visit a tech-support call center for one of the big computer companies some time ago. While there, he learned that users calling tech support can be just as frustrating (if not more) as the actual support staff.

Here are two actual calls Pogue heard about from the agents themselves:

Caller: So, I’m having a problem with my mouse? It’s, like, squeaking?
Agent: I’m sorry, did you say squeaking?
Caller: That’s right. The faster I move it across the screen, the louder it squeaks.
Agent: I’m sorry — are you pressing your mouse up against the screen?
Caller: Well, sure! There’s a message that says, “Click here to continue!”

—-

Caller: Hey, can you help me? My computer has locked up, and no matter how many times I type eleven it won’t unfreeze.
Agent: What do you mean, “type eleven?”
Caller: The message on my screen says, “Error Type 11!”

12-Year-Old ‘Magneto Man’
Despite appearing completely normal otherwise, there’s a kid in upstate New York whose presence alone will break every nearby computer. Why? Well, they called in a guy with a bunch of testing equipment to check it out, and some reporters from a local news outlet investigated it … and there’s still no answer.

When we’ve got 12-year-old kids crashing computers by sitting in front of them, calling themselves “Magneto Man” and baffling the experts, I suspect it’s about time we start believing in leprechauns, unicorns, ghosts and hobgoblins.

Just sayin’.

Cheers.