A trip to the hairdresser today exposed me to some curious brand extensions and promotions.

First up, the military:

What kind of mousse is best for high and tight? Is that a regulation headshave, maggot?

Comes with its own gunny sack? And dog tags!

Secondly, The Muppets. Via Muppettes mini nail lacquers. Why the Frenchification?

Wocka Wocka is now a color! These marketers aren’t even trying! What do you say, Statler and Waldorf? Boooooo!

• [from steve_portigal] Taking Web Humor Seriously, Sort Of [NYTimes.com] – [Another great Rob Walker piece deftly unpacks Internet culture] The more traditional pundits and gurus who talk about the Internet often seem to want to draw strict boundaries between old mass-media culture and the more egalitarian forms taking shape online ­ and between Internet life and life in the physical world. Sometimes the pointless-seeming jokes that spring from the Web seem to be calling a bluff and showing a truth: This is what egalitarian cultural production really looks like, this is what having unbounded spaces really entails, this is what anybody-can-be-famous means, this is what’s burbling in the hive mind’s id. But the real point is that to pretend otherwise isn’t denying the Internet ­ it’s denying reality. Trickster expression, intentional or otherwise, doesn’t propose a solution but jolts you to confront some question that you might prefer to have avoided. Like what, exactly, am I laughing at?
• [from steve_portigal] Microsoft’s proprietary BlueTrack™ Technology works on more surfaces than both optical and laser mice – [Technology solves problems we didn't know we had, like, mousing on carpet! Thanks, Microsoft!] Now track more accurately on: Granite, Carpet, Wood.

Hotel desks are typically covered with a sheet of glass, rendering a optical mouse useless, without finding some at-hand surface to double as a mousepad.

A touchpad covered with cardboard to eliminate accidental touching by the heel of the hand while typing.