Cafes treat geeks like lords

Okay so I read this article in Reuters the other day about these cafes they have in Tokyo. They're in a district called Akihabara, which I've heard about from Miyuki. Apparently it's a nerd paradise, filled with shops where you can buy life-sized plastic cartoon models. Often "anatomically correct" models. Gross.

But these cafes are freakish in their own special way. Some are cafes, many are hair salons. The clientele, mostly men, walk in and are greeted by "Welcome home, Master". These women who work there are hired for their cute looks, and they must dress in French maid uniforms or middle school girl uniforms. Services offered include haircuts, massage, and stirring sugar into your coffee while kneeling next to your table.

Sick, right? Welcome to Japan and the special needs of many Japanese men. Of course many of the women who work there are into it too. I mean, they live the lives of anime characters (and are very well rewarded for it).

Just thought I'd share this tidbit and give you a little peek into what things are like, if not in Nagahama, then at least in Tokes.

Superbowl Encrypted Footballs

Yes, hello, hello folks. All one of you. Hi sis. Possibly Claire.
Apparently during the latest Super Bowl, they went all crazy and high tech on every aspect of the event, including the footballs. What did they do to the footballs you ask? Well they inserted unique DNA sequences into each football that could be identified by laser. Each sequence glows only with a very narrow frequency of light, and the chance of duplicating this sequence by accident is 1-in-33 trillion. Why, oh why do they encrypt their footballs you ask? So that people who work at the super bowl don't take them and sell them after the game for $1000, which is what they go for. The whole engadget article covers oodles of other tech stuff as well.