Many of you no longer have to wonder whether your company is tracking your e-mail and instant messages.

It is.

Thanks to new federal rules that go into effect today, U.S. companies will need to keep track of all the e-mail, instant messages and other electronic documents generated by their employees, legal experts say.

The rules, approved by the Supreme Court in April, require companies and other entities involved in federal litigation to produce "electronically stored information" as part of the discovery process, when evidence is shared by both sides before a trial.

First, we were angry. Now we're just confused.
Look, anyone can sue. We used to think everyone had a right to sue, no matter the ridiculousness of the claim. We used to. At this point, we really don't know anymore. People suing over their coffee being hot and what-have-you.

The following doesn't help our understanding of people, never mind the legal system: Woman sues because her guacamole dip "just didn't taste avocadoey"

A Los Angeles woman has filed a lawsuit against Kraft Foods, Inc., claiming the company's avocado dip doesn't qualify as guacamole. "It just didn't taste avocadoey," said Brenda Lifsey, who used Kraft Dips Guacamole in a three-layer dip last year. She is seeking unspecified damages and a Superior Court order barring Kraft from calling its dip guacamole. Her suit seeks class-action status.

Kraft says: "We think customers understand that it isn't made from avocado." Yeah, a quick glance at the ingredients label would indicate that.

Speaking of rights…

Sandwiches and IP
McDonald's wants to own the rights to how a sandwich is made, reports the UK's Metro.

The fast-food chain has applied for a patent relating to the "method and apparatus" used to prepare the snack. McDonald's filed the staggering 55-page patent application in Europe and the U.S. claiming "intellectual property rights" on how to slap together a sandwich.

The legal brief rambles on about the "simultaneous toasting of a bread component" and inserting condiments into the works with a "sandwich delivery tool."

It explains: Often the sandwich filling is the source of the name of the sandwich; for example, ham sandwich.

The company says owning the "intellectual property rights" would help its hot deli sandwiches look and taste the same at all of its restaurants.

Yet another Application of RFID: Pub Crawling
The University of Westminster students' union thinks it has found a way for drinkers to escape a busy bar and still get in a round — thanks to RFID tables that deliver orders remotely.

The university has given its Intermission Bar an overhaul, reports Silicon.com. Students wanting a pint will be treated to six new tables, where pop-up screens let the thirsty academics place an order directly from their seats. Using the screens, students can scroll through the list of beverages and choose their poison. Orders are transmitted to the bar using ethernet over powerline, with the drinks brought directly to their tables.

Those using the system can even pay for their rounds using RFID chipped cards, with both a pre-pay and billing option.

The tables are completely waterproof so the electrics can be kept (somewhat) safe.

via Fark

An American Green Skyscraper in Paris
Developers have selected a design by an American architect for a new building nearly as tall as the Eiffel Tower and powered partly by the wind, reports MSNBC.

Dubbed the Lighthouse, the 984-foot-high skyscraper will be designed by Thom Mayne and erected at La Defense, a complex of office towers in a business district west of Paris where many of France's major corporations are headquartered.

Mayne's design shows a building "curving asymmetrically upward, topped by a crown of spiky antennae." It's being billed as a "green" building, as the wind turbines on the roof will power the building's heating and cooling system for a part of the year. A retractable outer layer will reduce the heat from sunlight through the windows in summer.

Set for completion in 2012 and reported to cost upwards of $1 billion, the building will be shorter than the 1,062-foot Eiffel Tower but significantly taller than Paris' highest office building, the 688-foot Montparnasse Tower.

Study Urges More Studies on Studies
Like having a meeting to discuss the next meeting, a panel of scientists earlier this week called for more scrutiny of "high-impact" studies published by science journals. The panel's recommendations "stem" (Ugh...) from reaction to the bogus stem cell findings trumpeted last year in the journal Science.

This week's report on redundancy brought to you by USA Today.

More Passengers than a Moped
Tricked-out golf carts are becoming increasingly popular alternatives to cars in Arizona, with more than 50 dealers popping up across the state, reports United Press International.

The souped-up golf carts, which typically sell for $10,000+, are available with features including Global Positioning Systems (GPS), DVD players, air-conditioning and car seats for children, the Arizona Republic reported Thursday.

Industry experts have said about 70 percent of golf carts sold in the U.S. are used for golfing; the rest are used as alternative transportation.

In other "alternative transportation" news…

It's what Tiggers Inventors Do Best!
Inventor Brian Spencer has sunk more than $100,000 of his life savings into designing, manufacturing and promoting what appears to be the world's most expensive pogo stick, a high-tech tube of space-age plastic that gets its bounciness not from a metal spring but from compressed air.

The 35-year-old former pharmaceutical consultant promotes his invention — called a Vurtego Pro Custom — by bouncing 8 feet straight up around parking lots, as well as off walls and over not-too-tall fences, on the stick.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Spencer says the inspiration for the $380 pogo stick came from his father, a retired aeronautical engineer, who grabbed a pencil late one night and doodled the design on a paper napkin. The two of them cobbled a prototype together at the family metal shop, filled it up with a bicycle pump, and then Spencer starting bouncing and has barely stopped. He began selling them online this year and hit the road with his stick, roaming the country and planting seeds like the guy with the apples.

The pogo stick is intended for people who have a lot of money and are running out of things to spend it on, Spencer acknowledged, further telling the newspaper, "I still don't know whether this will catch on."

Quote of the Week:

Let's face it, we're not changing the world. We're building a product that helps people buy more crap — and watch porn.

- Bill Watkins, CEO of $15 billion hard-drive king Seagate Technology, courtesy of Fortune

This Editor Shudders
Scientists have learned the prehistoric fish Dunkleosteus terrelli, which lived 400 million years ago, had the most powerful jaws of any fish ever. The prehistoric fish was 33 feet long and weighed up to four tons. It had bladed jaws, a flesh-tearing feature that the sharks it preyed upon had not yet developed. Its bite rivaled that of T. rex and modern alligators.

Scientists already knew Dunkleosteus was the dominant predator of its time, reports LiveScience.

Now Philip Anderson, at the University of Chicago's Department of Geophysical Sciences, and Mark Westneat, Curator of Fishes at Chicago's Field Museum, after having used a fossil of the creature to make a computer model of its muscles and its bite, conclude that the creature could chomp with 1,100 pounds of force, which translates to 8,000 pounds per square inch at the tip of a fang.

And it was quick, opening its jaws in just one fiftieth of a second.

Fish typically have a powerful bite or a fast bite, but not both. The researchers' conclusion would make the Dunkleosteus "the first king of the beasts," says LiveScience.

You Ever Build Anything?
Earlier this week, at the conclusion of General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner's speech at the L.A. Auto Show, two protesters from Global Exchange climbed on the stage and demanded the GM chairman sign a contract that stated:

I (RICK WAGONER) CEO of General Motors hereby pledge to make GM the most efficient automotive company in the industry by 2010.

(Wagoner did not sign.)

The man with the huge contract moved off the stage and then had what can best be described as a "debate-averse nondiscussion" with Don Fuller from MAWG: while the protester claimed GM should not have "killed the electric car" because there was a demand that was not served, Fuller, a contributor to Kelley Blue Book, argued that GM built the cars at a great expense but there was no demand for them.

Via Auto Blog


Cheers.