John Updike’s sex scenes — including a romp with a “Widows of Eastwick” witch in a beachside motel room — won a Lifetime Achievement Award at Britain’s ever- anxiously awaited Bad Sex in Fiction Awards.

Rachel Johnson, the sister of London Mayor Boris Johnson, captured the 16th annual Bad Sex Award itself for a scene in “Shire Hell” that begins with moans and nibbles and works up to screaming and other animal noises.

Previously won by Tom Wolfe, Sebastian Faulks and Norman Mailer, the contest seeks to dishonor the author of the year’s worst sex scene. London’s monthly Literary Review inaugurated the prize in 1993 “to draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel, and to discourage it.”

More, via Bloomberg

Introducing a brand new publication designed specifically for women professionals in the litigation practice specialty. “The legal community has been dominated by men since the establishment of the United States and Sue will be a valuable asset in helping women in litigation to equalize that dominance and further develop their position in the legal community,” says Christie LaBarca in a review of the new magazine named Sue.

frugalista – person who leads a frugal lifestyle, but stays fashionable and healthy by swapping clothes, buying second-hand, growing own produce, etc.

moofer – a mobile out of office worker – ie. someone who works away from a fixed workplace, via Blackberry/laptop/wi-fi etc. (also verbal noun, moofing)

topless meeting – a meeting in which the participants are barred from using their laptops, Blackberries, cellphones, etc.

toxic debt – mainly sub-prime debts that are now proving so disastrous to banks. They were parceled up and sent around the global financial system like toxic waste, hence the allusion.

I prefer to think of myself as one of a new breed of digital nomads.

The new name for this next-generation (4G) nationwide mobile broadband network, aka WiMax, is much clearer and to the point than Xohm: Clear. The company behind it will retain the Clearwire name.

Apparently, Xohm is NOT where the heart is.

Via Reuters.

Igor’s work with Nokia can be perused here, here and here.

Tips for picking a brain:

1. Do not pick if the skin is too green–it’s not ripe yet.

2. The brain should be viscous and phlegmatic, yet hold up to a good thumping. Not too firm, not too soft.

3. The end that was twisted from the brain stem should be pliable when you poke your thumb through the outer membrane. If you can’t break the membrane with your fingernail, the brain was picked prematurely.

4. Smell is the most reliable indicator of freshness.

5. Have fun with it, but keep it platonic.

[ More posts about company names ]

From the Crescendo website:

Working with collaborators in leading academic medical institutions, Crescendo Bioscience is building a comprehensive understanding of the biology underlying rheumatoid arthritis, including the characterization of protein and gene expression biomarkers, to provide molecular staging of the disease and guidance for the treatment of individual patients.

Crescendo’s mission is to establish a long-term relationship with physicians by providing comprehensive diagnostic, prognostic, staging, therapy selection and monitoring capabilities to better improve outcomes over the lifetime of each patient. This includes advanced reporting and patient trending information. These tests and reporting capabilities will be performed at our own specialized, CLIA-licensed laboratory.

Crescendo Bioscience.

To be fair and balanced, shop owner Scott Pactor said he’s looking to give Democratic Party supporters an option, too.

"We're also in the process of looking for an Obama wine or a Biden wine, just to be balanced, obviously, just to be balanced. We want to make sure customers have options, but so far we haven't been successful," he said.

How 'bout That One for a wine label?

The Nike Air Max LTD 2 comes in Premium smooth brown leather, the same leather like Lederhosen leather. Featuring a very fresh light blue sole unit. All over brown using the material finishes to give the shoe depth. Using Baroque Brown and gold stitches for the “Pretzel” Logo. And the Light Blue as a vibrant pop color. The branding is a simple “Pretzel” on the Sockliner (allover Bavarian flag). Limited to 3000 Pairs worldwide and only available in Germany, Austria and Switzerland! Better be quick now to get your pair.

Comments are open!

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a longtime proponent of deregulation, acknowledged on Friday that failures in a voluntary supervision program for Wall Street’s largest investment banks had contributed to the global financial crisis, and he abruptly shut the program down…

…Christopher Cox, the commission chairman, said he agreed that the oversight program was “fundamentally flawed from the beginning.”

“The last six months have made it abundantly clear that voluntary regulation does not work,” he said in a statement. The program “was fundamentally flawed from the beginning, because investment banks could opt in or out of supervision voluntarily. The fact that investment bank holding companies could withdraw from this voluntary supervision at their discretion diminished the perceived mandate” of the program, and “weakened its effectiveness,” he added.

What the hell, let’s give him the “Moronic Statement of the Decade” award while we are at it, for, one more time:

“The last six months have made it abundantly clear that voluntary regulation does not work”.

The last six months??? How about the last fifty thousand years? Jackass.

Here’s an idea, you know that program whereby the I.R.S. may audit you? Let’s make that voluntary — you know, opt-in / opt-out, whatever works for you.

Or that annoying thingy where the cops pull you over for drunk driving? Same deal, you want out of that program? No sweat, we’ll give you a special decal for your windshield. You know, the “honor” system. Worth a try. Who knows, it could work.

“Who are these guys?” (thanks Paul, for everything)

Guided by brand strategy and research insights, Landor developed a creative name and identity solution that leverages the equity of both brands. The new brand identity, informed by the historical strengths of both companies, powerfully redefines the future of the business services marketplace.

The identity contains a colorful brand icon that represents the collection of FedEx services available at the new retail locations – orange for the time-definite global express shipping services, green for the day-definite ground shipping services, and blue for the retail business service centers. At the heart of the icon, where the three colors converge, is purple, which symbolizes the can-do spirit shared by all FedEx companies.

Whoop makes it easy for every company, agency or individual to create, publish and share rich mobile content to almost every mobile device. Not just text, but pictures, videos and, well, everything imaginable for mobile entertainment, marketing, communications, commerce and social networking. With Whoop, you can share your stuff with more than 3.5 billion phones in every country on the planet.

Whoop. Everything mobile.

Did we mention we named Whoop? O.K., we are done here.