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MacRumors has a story on Pull My Finger, an iPhone App that plays a variety of fart sounds. The demo video shows that the app is clearly well done for what it is — it even vibrates the phone while it toots — but Apple rejected it:

We’ve reviewed your application Pull My Finger. We have determined that this application is of limited utility to the broad iPhone and iPod touch user community, and will not be published to the App Store.

With all the absolute crap that has made it into the store, which includes apps based on nothing more than sample code from Apple’s SDK, it seems ridiculous for Pull My Finger to be rejected on these grounds. The current number one app in the store is Koi Pond, which is utterly useless but extremely well-done.

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One developer we consulted about the issue noted, “consumers are being scammed by [PC] OEMs on a large scale. OEMs will encourage customers to upgrade a 2GB machine to 4GB, even though the usable RAM might be limited to 2.3GB. This is especially a problem on high-end gaming machines that have huge graphics cards as well as lots of RAM.”

“Microsoft even changed the way the OS reports the amount of RAM available; rumor is, due to pressure from OEMs,” the developer told us. “In Vista and prior, it reported usable RAM, while in SP1 they changed it to report installed RAM ignoring the fact that much of the RAM was unusable due to overlap with video memory.” And so many PC users are installing 4GB of RAM in their PCs and thinking that it is being used by the system, when in fact it is no more beneficial than if the RAM were simply poked halfway into the CD slot.

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A robot moves towards the remains of a pair of bodies at the site of a suicide bomb attack in central Baquba in Diyala province August 12, 2008. Two people were killed and seven wounded when the bomber detonated an explosive vest near the convoy carrying Diyala Governor Raad Rasheed in the provincial capital Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad.

More pictures at the link

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The Reverend Richard Hart, 59, from Horsell, Woking, is the vicar of Beguildy, near Knighton in Powys.

He admitted 12 charges of making indecent images of children, four of taking indecent images and five of possessing images on his computer.

He was remanded in custody at Cardiff Crown Court and is awaiting sentencing. He is suspended from church duties.

Acceptance speech.

(remember, talking about her family is off-limits. Except when she does it herself)

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John McCain’s campaign threatened legal action against the National Enquirer today for running a story about McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, allegedly having an affair with her husband’s business partner.

Remember, it was the Enquirer who broke the news about John Edwards’ affair.

Three months before she was thrust into the national political spotlight, Gov. Sarah Palin was asked to handle a much smaller task: addressing the graduating class of commission students at her one-time church, Wasilla Assembly of God. She is nuts.

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Video Credit: Donald J. Lindler, Sigma Space Corporation, GSFC,
Univ. Maryland, EPOCh/DIXI Science Teams

On July 4th, 2005, the Deep Impact spacecraft directed a probe to impact the nucleus of Comet Tempel 1.

Still cruising through the solar system, earlier this year the robotic spacecraft looked back to record a series of images of its home world 31 million miles (50 million kilometers) away.

In a sequence from top left to bottom right, these four frames from the video show a rotating Earth.

They combine visible and near-infrared image data with enough resolution and contrast to see clouds, oceans, and continents.

They also follow a remarkable transit of Earth by its large, natural satellite, the Moon.

The Moon’s orbital motion carries it across the field of view from left to right.

Imaging the Earth

from this distant perspective allows astronomers to connect overall variations in brightness at different wavelengths with planetary features.

The observations will aid in the search for earth-like planets in other solar systems.

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Everybody’s PIN (Personal Identification Number) Revealed!

(Check it out: yours is on here, too!)

(Not intended for criminal use!)

Two conservative commentators on MSNBC, after they’re off the air, say what they really think about the veep choice. Remember, guys, the mike is on!