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Amazon’s Latest Hustle

Hus•tle. \ˈhə-səl\ 1. n., the unique partner dance done in ballrooms and nightclubs to disco music.; 2. v., to sell something to or obtain something from by energetic and especially underhanded activity.

Scrip. /skrip/ n., a certificate to be exchanged for goods, as at a company store.

Amazon.com, like Microsoft before them with Microsoft Points, have rediscovered Company Scrip. We usually just call these schemes “gift cards” or “gift certificates,” but this one is different. Per the Terms of Use, the value is subject to change, there are no refunds, and it isn’t transferrable. So it is actually worse than scrip.

The lock-in continues. Amazon.com have announced a program called “Amazon Coins,” whereby you give them money and they give you credit to use to purchase apps and games. They haven’t included books and other goods in the program, but I’m sure that is only a matter of time.

This seems like a hustle to me. Then again, if you are using an Android device, you are used to being hustled.

I’ve provided two definitions for the word “hustle” at the top of this entry. Deciding which definition is appropriate for Amazon Coins is left as an exercise for the reader.

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More on those AP phone records

Over on my Official Blog, I take a look at the legal implications of the DOJ obtaining the phone records of the AP. (TL;DR: we don’t know enough yet; probably legal, icky.)

Looking to the bigger picture, it is difficult to get too bent out of shape about this happening to the AP. They, and most other news organizations, the erstwhile guardians of the freedom of the press, at best stood idly by, and at their worst actively encouraged, this sort of government intrusion during the darkest years of the Bush Presidency, gives this mess a soupçon of Schadenfreude.

That being said, no matter what the outcome of any investigations or whether there was a warrant properly issued or not, the chilling effect on the press and on leakers will be enormous. And that may just be the point.

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Like Wearing Nothing At All

PNAS: “A thin polymer membrane, nano-suit, enhancing survival across the continuum between air and high vacuum.” Abstract:

Most multicellular organisms can only survive under atmospheric pressure. The reduced pressure of a high vacuum usually leads to rapid dehydration and death. Here we show that a simple surface modification can render multicellular organisms strongly tolerant to high vacuum. Animals that collapsed under high vacuum continued to move following exposure of their natural extracellular surface layer (or that of an artificial coat-like polysorbitan monolaurate) to an electron beam or plasma ionization (i.e., conditions known to enhance polymer formation). Transmission electron microscopic observations revealed the existence of a thin polymerized extra layer on the surface of the animal. The layer acts as a flexible “nano-suit” barrier to the passage of gases and liquids and thus protects the organism. Furthermore, the biocompatible molecule, the component of the nano-suit, was fabricated into a “biomimetic” free-standing membrane. This concept will allow biology-related fields especially to use these membranes for several applications.

PNAS May 7, 2013 vol. 110 no. 19 7631-7635.

This is going in my next short story. I’m calling it “Nudes in Space.”