Punch buggy punch, no punch back OR pushy pushy, jeez

Hmm.. blind item:
I'm editing this for greater anonymity.

The grand-daughter of a very famous, retired, ****, had a fit yesterday when given an assignment requiring her to draw a cartoon or caricature. According to her this was a gross miscarriage of justice.. even though the artsy students constantly need to write; something which may not come as easily to them as it does to her.

Today: when taking up two articles on rites of passage, she objected to the quality of an article on the Jewish Bar Mitzvah ritual but was incapable of explaining what was wrong with it, saying instead that she didn't think the author was Jewish.

She persisted in her objections in spite of having it pointed out to her that she had single-handedly called into question the credibility of all Religious Studies departments and academics researching religions to which they do not belong.

Sigh.

When pushed on the question of how she knew the author wasn't Jewish she hemmed and hawed finishing with 'I have a lot of friends who are Jewish'.

Sigh.

Teacher: 'I'm Jewish'

Her, jaw on desk: 'What? Huh? Really?'

Teacher: 'What, can't you tell?'

Stare down.

Her: 'Sorry' - blush, eyes downcast.

Hammer - down.

Score one for the teacher.

Call me crazy.. a few thoughts on the iPhone

Alright, short blog.

I'm looking into smartphones and in my research I have discovered that people will pay good money for almost anything.

I know, I know - slow to the draw. Please, let me clarify.

I had realized over my 30 some-odd years of existence that if people have money they will spend it on anything and everything one can imagine; it's just that some part of me thought that perhaps the Apple crowd was.. different.

How silly, especially after the iPad.

I stumbled across this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORcu-c-qnjg) YouTube video of Steve Jobs essentially selling snake oil to a crowd of people who ATE IT UP.

Watch the video, you'll see what I mean.

This is the high tech equivalent of a kid's toy salesman saying "Right folks, so we brought out new paddles last year. This year we're attaching an elastic string which you'll find useful for all kinds of reasons we can't yet begin to imagine - but isn't that SO exciting?". Cue applause.

People are paying for PROTOTYPES. People are paying lots and lots of money for prototypes. What's more, these Apple jokers KNOW that they're selling prototypes. These guys have computer engineering, computer science, physics, and math backgrounds.. and you're telling me that none of them thought it was a little weird that the 'Accelerometer' didn't move when the iPhone moved around gravity? Please. They were all itching and scratching over its limited functionality.

But now the 'Gyroscope' is one of the selling features for the iPhone4.. snake oil, I say - especially considering that the Nexus has that feature too.

What am I missing here? Why are Steve Jobs's words not working their seductive magic on me? Perhaps I need to move around gravity a little bit more.