Google to create an Internet alternative?

For a while now it has been known that Google is buying “dark fibre”, fibre optics cables which have never been connected because of the tech industry’s downturn of year 2000. There have been many speculations regarding the reason Google is doing this. The picture is starting to clear up as Google is apparently trying to create an alternative Internet.

This reminded me that Microsoft once tried to create an alternative internet. This network was called MSN, and was different from the MSN that we know today. If you wanted to connect to MSN you had to use your dialup modem to call a different network that was not the Internet. Needless to say, this attempt failed.

Now that Google is losing its shine in the eyes of the public (privacy concerns, products which failed to impress like Google Video) it will be interesting to see if they can really attract a critical mass of users to an alternate internet.

The Pee Tree, The Urinal Game and MAPSU

Men are such beasts… they think it’s soooo hard to pee sitting down that they actually create new ways to manage to pee standing up. This time a so-called “gadget”… I give you The Pee Tree, a public urinal shaped like a tree.

Immediately I wondered what MAPSU will have to say about this preposterous new invention. I mean – what if someone misses the tree trunk?

The second thought that occurred to me was that such a urinal kind of takes out the fun out of The Urinal Game, so they better not actually produce fake trees like that.

Anyway, what if you’re peeing on this tree and a dog comes along and wants to do the same, only he’s not so much aware to the direction and stream of its own urine as much as you are?

(via Gizmodo)