A new invention meant to make telephone calls more inconvenient

Greetings.

Jewish date:  11 ’Av 5770 (Parasthath Wa’ethḥannan).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Pied Piper Day, Pi Approximation Day.

NOTE:  Now that the Nine Days break is over, today you are getting most of what accumulated during that time.

Worthy causes of the day:  “JCRC-NY Write to Rickys”, “ColorOfChange.org:  Put up or shut up:  It's time for prominent Tea Party leaders to step forward and deal with racism within the Tea Party”, “Protect the Future of Fish and Fishing in America - The Petition Site”, “MoveOn.org Political Action: We need Elizabeth Warren at the CFPB!”, and “Forget what Timothy Geithner thinks. We want Elizabeth Warren to police Wall Street.”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Concern for Those Who Screen the Web for Barbarity”:  Something new to worry about.
• “Sex in Bits and Bytes: What's the Problem?”:  No, it’s not harmless.
• “Comparative photos of Mount Everest 'confirm ice loss'”:  No, global warming is not a hoax or conspiracy.
• “Couple stunned as whale jumps into yacht”
• “Saturn's Moon Triggers Giant Snowballs in Planet's Ring”
• “How does Lutetia compare to the other asteroids and comets visited by spacecraft?”:  This article has a really nice composite picture of all the asteroids photographed by human spacecraft.
• “Are Everyday Consumer Products Making People Sick? A Q&A with Paul D. Blanc”
• “Passwords that are Simple--and Safe”
• “Heftiest Star Discovery Shatters Cosmic Record”

Image of something like what they would have to have inside this thing via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing, courtesy of Nancy, is the Port-O-Rotary Phone.  This is an old-fashioned rotary telephone modified to work as a cell phone.  This should be useful for all of your who thought conventional cell phones were too easy to dial and were not bulky enough.  Enjoy (or be puzzled) and share the weirdness.

Aaron