Oh those jokesters over at the AP the fun never ends! Last night, we wrote a post noting that Woot was (humorously) calling out the AP for not following their own ridiculous rules for when quoting from their content. By Woot's calculation, using the AP tool, the AP owes them $17.50 (but Woot was nice enough to offer for them to buy some headphones off of Woot instead). The AP didn't like that story neither our's or Woot's.

This morning, Paul Colford, the Director of Media Relations for the AP sent emails to both me and Woot CEO Matt Rutledge. Here's what we got:

MG Siegler:

Surely you'll also want your readers to know that The Associated Press INTERVIEWED Mr. Rutledge, as this version of the newsy little thing you cite makes clear: http://bit.ly/cl8JlX

Meanwhile, AP staffers across the Gulf region and in Washington continue to provide comprehensive coverage of the oil spill.

You'll find highlights of that coverage here: http://www.ap.org/oil_spill/

Cheers,

Paul Colford

Did he really just pull out the oil spill card? Yes, he did.

A few minutes later, Rutledge got the same basic email, minus the oil spill coverage reference. The emphasis of both is that the AP actually interviewed Rutledge about the story. Sure enough, they did. Here's the quote the AP used from that interview:

I'm really excited, he said.

Yep, that's it. So that's 24 words lifted from Rutledge's post (which wasn't linked to, by the way) and 3 words from the AP's reporting.

So, if I'm interpreting this correctly, the AP's stance is that it's fine to lift excerpts from others' work as long as you interview them even if that interview only results in a three word quote and the quotes you're lifting are much longer. Just to make sure, I emailed the AP about it:

so I'm confused, you're allowed to quote all you want for free from a blog post if you do a phone interview with the person and quote three words from that interview? so if I do a phone interview with the AP, can I then copy and paste an entire AP story free of charge? serious question.

I didn't get a response. But I did send it to Rutledge (remember, the interviewee here). Here's what he wrote back, I was just mulling over how to respond to similar confusing email here, but I think I like your response better. A couple hours later I wrote a quick follow-up to the AP:

Hi Paul Just following up. No statement here about this? Happy to hop on the phone.

About 20 seconds later Colford writes back:

Root of this non-story ($17.50 for quotes) is 2 yrs old, as AP noted again in 2009: http://bit.ly/9ehJGZ

Thanks.

Ouch. Someone is a little cranky. A few things here.

1) Interesting that Colford didn't note that position at all in his original email. Instead, his position was that they were free to lift passages from Rutledge's post because they interviewed him.

2) That AP release from 2009 completely disregards the fact that in 2008, the AP did in fact try to bully Drudge Report into taking down excerpts from their stories that ranged in length from 39 to 79 words. After some big backlash, they quickly tried to back away from that, and their 2009 statement basically rewrites their position stating that they're not going after bloggers for using excerpts from their stories (even though they clearly went after Drudge Report).

3) Wouldn't a non-'story' be a story? The quotes around story already indicate Colford's belief that the Woot issue isn't a story. So a non-non-story is a story.

Anyway, whatever. I'm a little confused by this whole thing. So is Rutledge. I think the AP is too. But I'm going to go with what I can only assume is their policy now. Since I technically interviewed Colford for this post, I'm going to copy an AP story below. I'll go with an oil spill one since he was so quick to point those out. And sure, I only got a few words out of Colford, but since that doesn't seem to matter, I'm just going to paste an entire AP story below. I like this new policy.

Jun. 24, 2010 5:47 AM ET

AP check: Shoddy disposal work mars oil cleanup

JAY REEVES, Associated Press Writer

ORANGE BEACH, Ala. (AP) A leaky truck filled with oil-stained sand and absorbent boom soaked in crude pulls away from the beach, leaving tar balls in a public parking lot and a messy trail of sand and water on the main beach road. A few miles away, brown liquid drips out of a disposal bin filled with polluted sand.

BP PLC's work to clean up the mess from the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history already has generated more than 1,300 tons of solid waste, and companies it hired to dispose of the material say debris is being handled professionally and carefully.

A spot check of several container sites by The Associated Press, however, found that's not always the case.

Along the northern Gulf coast, where miles of beaches have been coated with oil intermittently for two weeks, the check showed the handling and disposal of oily materials was haphazard at best.
A mound of oily sand sits in an uncovered waste container in a parking lot at the crown jewel of Alabama's park system, Gulf State Park. Water from the previous night's storm drips out of the bin into a brown pool on the asphalt.

In Pensacola, Fla., along the road through Gulf Islands National Seashore, trash bags from the debris removal hang over the side of big storage bins.

A waste collection area dotted with numerous bins full of spill debris stands in what seems like an odd spot: Smack in the middle of the tourist section in Gulf Shores, Ala., directly across the street from a seafood restaurant hungry for customers because of a lack of tourists.

Cleaning up a spill is an undeniably messy job, particularly when crude oil or tar balls are washing ashore in varying amounts in four states. The debris isn't classified as hazardous waste, so it can be placed in landfills that accept ordinary household garbage, including table scraps.

Yet Jerry Kidd, doing maintenance work at a condominium, couldn't believe it when he saw a Waste Management Inc. truck pull away from a collection site in Orange Beach piled with loose sand, oil-smeared protective gear and oily boom pulled out of the water. It was trailing pollution of its own.
The company says it is using 535 containers lined with what amount to huge black trash bags to collect debris from Mississippi, Alabama and part of the Florida Panhandle under a contract with BP. But not all of the bins really are lined, and liners have failed in others.
They're going down the road leading to the landfill; they take the same route every day. They're leaking onto the roads, into the storm sewers, said Kidd. There's no telling where it's going.

The Alabama Department of Public Health, which regulates the transportation of such wastes in the state, said it wasn't aware of the problem until contacted by AP.

This needs to be taken care of, and get these things sealed tight, said Pres Allinder, director of environmental services for the department. There's no point in collecting this stuff if they're just going to spread it around.

Waste Management is taking solid wastes from the three states to landfills in Vernon, Ala.; Pass Christian, Miss.; and Campbellton, Fla. Spokesman Ken Haldin said the company would be more careful, having drivers check bins for problems and possibly using a new type of liner, because of the AP findings.

It is something we are going to be addressing, he said. They're probably isolated situations, but we are still early in the process with all this work.

Despite problems, Haldin said Waste Management is trying to make sure oil spill contamination isn't spread inland.

There are a whole set of steps we are taking to make sure this operation is safe, he said.

Liquid waste, such as oily water left from the cleaning of oil-blocking booms or the mix of oil and water picked up by skimmer boats in the Gulf, is handled separately. The oily residue is processed for sale where possible and the water is reused or injected underground.

The amount of waste being generated sounds staggering, but it's not unusual in the disposal business.

This whole spill is going to be a drop in the bucket for its impact on landfills, said Vic Cullpepper, technical director at River Birch Landfill, near New Orleans. A lot of people are trying to blow this up and say it's going to be a problem for landfills, but it's not.

BP says 761 tons of crude-contaminated waste already has been buried at the two landfills in Alabama and Florida. Some 13,100 cubic yards of oily waste have been buried in Louisiana, where the amount is being tallied by volume instead of weight.

Marlin Ladner, a supervisor with Harrison County, Miss., is angry about spill waste being buried in his coastal county, which still is trying to recover from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The county could use the dumping fees from the disposal operations, he said, but there are too many uncertainties.

I just don't think it's worth it, he said. I just have a problem with BP, in effect, polluting our beaches, bays and estuaries and then turning around and hauling that stuff and dropping it just four or five miles from the coast here.

BP says no oily material will be sent to the Mississippi landfill.
___
Associated Press writer Melissa Nelson contributed to this report from Pensacola, Fla.
Associated Press
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

"If you see something, say something." Or, maybe not:

The Travis County Criminal Justice Center was closed for most of the day on Friday, May 14, after a man reported that a "suspicious package" had been left in the building. The court complex was evacuated, and the APD Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit was called in for a look-see. The package in question, a backpack, contained paperwork but no explosive device. The building reopened at 1:40pm. The man who reported the suspicious package, Douglas Scott Hoopes, was arrested and charged with making a false report and booked into the jail. The charge is a felony punishable by up to two years in jail.

I don't think we can have it both ways. We expect people to report anything suspicious -- even dumb things -- and now we want to press charges if they report something that isn't an actual threat. Truth is, if you ask amateurs to act as front-line security personnel, you shouldn't be surprised when you get amateur security.

I think this excerpt from a poem by Rick Moranis says it best:

If you see something,
Say something.
If you say something,
Mean something.
If you mean something,
You may have to prove something.
If you can't prove something,
You may regret saying something.

There's more.

EDITED TO ADD (5/26): Seems like he left the package himself, and then called it in. So there's ample reason to arrest him. Never mind.

Today at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York, Justin Bieber's manager, Scooter Braun, talked about the megastar's usage of Twitter. It was brilliant. What other way is a teenage boy going to talk to girls?, Braun quipped.

Bieber currently has around 2.7 million followers on Twitter, making him one of the most-followed people on the service. But more impressively, Bieber has seemed to dominate Twitter's Trending Topics area lately. Or rather, he did. Then something happened. Twitter, if you're here. You changed your algorithm, Braun half-joked.

Braun noted that for most of the tweets it is actually Bieber tweeting. In fact, Braun is the only other one with the password to the account and those tweets are clearly not from Bieber. And of course Bieber is going to tweet for himself: He's talking to the 2 million girls has at his disposal, Braun said.

More seriously, Braun said that the usage of Twitter is actually pretty important. It shows that he's the same person who was talking to them before he got huge, is still talking to them now, Braun noted.

He noted that there may be a random girl in Iowa who never thought she'd ever talk to Justin Bieber, then he responds to her on Twitter. That's something she'll remember for the rest of her life.

Bieber spends a least two hours a day on Twitter, Braun noted. He likes doing it. That's what kids do.

AP - American bomb disposal experts in Iraq say few people understood what they did.

Itteh Bitteh Kitteh Boyfriend Disposal Committeh When the cops ask, he's your ex & you haven't seen him since Tuesday!

iz ok. wez profeshunals

Picture by: dunno source Caption by: dunno source via Advanced Lol Builder

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Sure, it's a big break when local architects and designers get their work published in Dwell, but who knew that an appearance in the modern design magazine might ultimately be seen as just a stepping stone on the path to even greater fame? That's right: With the recent appearance of the Unhappy Hipsters blog, Dwell's design stars will at last be able to reach a much wider circle.

Most photos on Unhappy Hipsters are taken from the magazine. But yes, the captions are changed just a little bit so that the work shown can reach a larger and perhaps more appreciative audience.

Already, two teams of Houston designers have been featured on the blog. A reader writes in to report that the photo above, showing the owners of Numen Development's shipping-container house on Cordell St. in Brookesmith, was featured in a recent Unhappy Hipsters post. Except instead of the original caption from Dwell, which described the front porch, the species of grass on the lawn, and the bent-steel shade above, we have this:

Not on the grass, Sweetie. Never. On. The. Grass. See how much fun Daddy is having?

Who else is appearing on Unhappy Hipsters?

* * *

How about architects Mark Schatz and Anne Eamon of M+A Architecture Studio? They're shown here in front of the 700-sq.-ft. house they built for themselves on Grace Lane, just a stone's throw from MacGregor Terrace and maybe a thermal oxidizer explosion away from the neighboring Griggs Rd. plant of CES Environmental Services.

Here's Dwell's original caption for the photo:

Schatz and Eamon carefully tend to the greens planted on the ground that they took to with shovels when digging the original footings for their home.

But again, Unhappy Hipsters' deadpan audience-pleasing version makes their work much more accessible:

Rather than bicker, they'd head outside for a multidisciplinary investigation of the social, political, and cultural ramifications of architecture-as-conceptual-art.

• Not on the grass, sweetie [Unhappy Hipsters]
• Rather than bicker [Unhappy Hipsters]
• The Shipping Muse [Dwell]
• Small Amidst Sprawl [Dwell]
• Unhappy Hipsters parody website is a hit [LA Times]
• Previously on Swamplot: The Brookesmith Shipping-Container House, More Excitement at that Chemical Waste Disposal Plant in the Back Yard,

Photos: Jack Thompson (top) and Misty Keasler for Dwell

I'm always in search of a good flick. And MoCA Tom, one of my go-to sources for movie recommendations, put this list together for me. They're not necessarily the best films of the year, but the ones Tom most enjoyed. Presented in no particular order and without regard for year of premiere. While keeping in mind his penchant for zombies, sci-fi, and just about anything else over-the-top. (He hasn't yet seen Avatar.) For more drama and art house fare, you'll have to look elsewhere. Anything we missed?

Outlander
SciFi sleeper hit of 2009. Not sure why this didn't get more press.
DVD Blu-ray Netflix IMDB Rotten Tomatoes

Taken
Liam Neeson's a total bad ass. His character is Qui-Gon Jinn from Star Wars meets Jules from Pulp Fiction.
DVD Blu-ray Netflix IMDB Rotten Tomatoes

Up
I love Pixar movies. The best part is always the intro movie before the main movie. If you don't cry in the first 15 minutes of this movie, then you have no soul.
DVD Blu-ray Netflix IMDB Rotten Tomatoes

Star Trek
I'm sick of the whole re-boot/remake that is going on in Hollywood. However, this is the one that they got right. The casting for this movie was phenomenal. Carl Urban was awesome as Dr. McCoy.
DVD Blu-ray Netflix IMDB Rotten Tomatoes

The Hangover
Laugh out loud funny. Who hasn't had a night like that in Vegas?
DVD Blu-ray Netflix IMDB Rotten Tomatoes

Dead Snow
I am a huge Zombie fan. Zombies are America's Godzilla. But you know what I like better than Zombies? Nazi Zombies! This Norwegian Zombie Horror Comedy (Zomedy if you will) reminds me of the early Peter Jackson movie Dead Alive.
DVD Blu-ray Netflix IMDB Rotten Tomatoes

Zombieland
Another Zomedy with a great surprise cameo.
DVD Blu-ray Netflix IMDB Rotten Tomatoes

Paranormal Activity
Creepy movie. Do not watch this in the theater. This movie is best watched in the comfort of your own home. Also, get the original ending to this movie. The ending I saw in the theater sucked.
DVD Blu-ray Netflix IMDB Rotten Tomatoes

Black Dynamite
This is a great homage to the blaxploitation movies of the 70's. This is the I'm Gonna Git You Sucka of this decade.
DVD Blu-ray Netflix IMDB Rotten Tomatoes

Ninja Assassin
Who does not like Ninjas? Great Martial Arts film with lots of blood and ass kicking.
DVD Blu-ray Netflix IMDB Rotten Tomatoes

Pandorum
The crew of a colony space ship wake up from hibernation with no memory and creepy things hunting them for food. I was surprised with the ending.
DVD Blu-ray Netflix IMDB Rotten Tomatoes

Taking Woodstock
Amazing that the event that defined the Hippie era was just a ploy to get money. The irony.
DVD Blu-ray Netflix IMDB Rotten Tomatoes

Extract
I am a big fan of Mike Judge (Beavis and Butthead, Office Space). Just watch Beavis and Butthead tell you about the movie.
DVD Blu-ray Netflix IMDB Rotten Tomatoes

District 9
The viral marketing for this movie had me hooked. Plus the alien weapons are sweet!
DVD Blu-ray Netflix IMDB Rotten Tomatoes

Inglourious Basterds
Classic Quentin Tarantino. This is an alternate history of World War II with all the Tarantino twists you expect. Plus a great soundtrack.
DVD Blu-ray Netflix IMDB Rotten Tomatoes

The Hurt Locker
This is about an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team in the Iraq War. Every time these guys walk up to defuse a bomb I cringe. A good movie about the addiction of war.
DVD Blu-ray Netflix IMDB Rotten Tomatoes

Fanboys
The story of Dave Zatz's Apple obsession. Just kidding. This is about a group of Star Wars fanboys that plan to break into Skywalker Ranch and steal a copy of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace before it is released in theaters. Hilarity ensues.
DVD Blu-ray Netflix IMDB Rotten Tomatoes

Crank 2: High Voltage
This movie is so over the top it's ridiculous. Which is why I loved it.
DVD Blu-ray Netflix IMDB Rotten Tomatoes

X-Men Origins: Wolverine
As an X-Men fan, I had to go see this. I thought they did a decent job. Where there things they messed up? Yes. Was I still entertained? Yes. Plus me wife really wanted to see this. I think she has the hots for Hugh Jackman.
DVD Blu-ray Netflix IMDB Rotten Tomatoes

Related posts:

1. Flash Drive Fun
2. Star Wars, the Television Series
3. Wikipedia joins Rotten Tomatoes on Vudu

Taylor initially fired shots from the building in Wytheville, but no one was injured. The drama came to an end when police ordered him to let the hostages go and come out with his hands up. Soon after, Taylor and three others left the post office. Police had negotiated with Taylor by phone, but he made no demands other than a request for a pizza. He is reported to have told police he had a military background. A team of SWAT police sheltered behind vehicles as Taylor wheeled himself out and "surrendered" to a bomb-disposal robot.

One of the best bargains in your local grocery store is plain old white vinegar. You can get a 32 ounce jug of it (half a gallon) for about $1.50 and it has a multitude of uses beyond the edible ones (like pickles and salad dressings). Here are fifteen uses for white vinegar, most of which I use myself.

Toilet cleaner Got a toilet bowl that's difficult to clean? Before you go to bed, dump a cup of vinegar in the bowl, then close the lid. I usually spread the vinegar around the bowl a bit with a brush to coat the sides. In the morning, the whole bowl will be really easy to brush. I can't remember the last time I bought actual toilet bowl cleaner.

Refrigerator cleaner I take a gallon of warm water in a bowl, add about two cups of vinegar, bust out a rag, and use that solution to clean the inside of the refrigerator. It does a great job of cleaning things up without much effort at all. If something's really bad, I'll put a tablespoon or so of pure vinegar right on it, let it sit for a bit, then give it a scrub.

Sunburn Is your skin a bit sunburnt? Just rub some vinegar on the affected area and it'll feel much better really quickly. If it's bad, you can reapply the vinegar a few times.

Kitchen drain odors If your kitchen drain has an odd smell, pour a cup of white vinegar down the drain, then don't run any water for at least an hour. When you do run water, run quite a bit of it to flush out the drain. This usually takes care of any odors if any still linger, repeat this a time or two.

Fabric softener Instead of using fabric softener, use about half a cup of white vinegar. It has largely the same effect without coating your clothes in chemicals and costs a lot less.

Rusty tools Just soak anything that's rusty in vinegar overnight, then clean it thoroughly with a brush. The rust will wipe away nearly as well as it does with any expensive rust remover I've ever tried.

Vinyl flooring If you have a vinyl floor that needs cleaned, mop using equal amounts of water and vinegar. This works really well for getting up stains, especially if you go over it twice. Don't do this with wood or wood laminate, however, because vinegar can react with the wood.

Window cleaning Forget Windex. Just put some vinegar in a spray bottle and get to work on any glass surfaces. It works really well and doesn't seem to streak much at all.

Eyeglass cleaner If you use eyeglass cleaner, just take an empty container and fill it with vinegar. It cuts through grease on your lenses really well, leaving them looking great!

Microwave cleaning Put a cup of vinegar in the microwave, then run the microwave on high for three minutes. Let it sit undisturbed for half an hour, then remove the cup. The gunk in your microwave will be very easy to wipe down.

Carpet odors Did your dog do something funky on the carpet (or your toddler, for that matter yes, I have used this tip to clean up some early potty training accidents)? Pour half a cup of vinegar on the spot that smells and just let it dry. This will kill off the odor and it'll also make it easier to clean any stains.

Garbage disposal odors If your garbage disposal smells a bit odd, vinegar alone usually won't do the trick because it doesn't get into all of the cracks and crevasses in there. Instead, fill up an ice cube tray with vinegar and put it in the freezer until you have vinegar ice cubes. Toss those cubes into the disposal and run the disposal for five seconds or so (with water). Then let it sit for an hour or two, then run it again. This always works for us.

Air freshener Got that spray bottle of vinegar from the window cleaning? Spritz it in the air a few times to kill general odors. It smells vaguely vinegary for the first minute, then it just smells clean.

Nasty air Got a room that really reeks of smoke or paint fumes? Put a bowl of vinegar in there and just let it sit. If the room's really bad, put out two or three bowls. The odor in the room will drastically improve in a few hours.

Whitening clothes Put a cup of white vinegar in a load of whites along with a quarter of a cup of baking soda. This will whiten your whites as effectively as bleach without the harshness.

These uses just scratch the surface. Whenever there's a cleaning mission in my home, I usually tackle it with vinegar and baking soda as the first line of defense.

Do you have any great uses for vinegar? Share em in the comments!

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With her head held high, applauding and with a beaming grin, Christina Schmid did not look like a typical war widow as she watched her husband's coffin parade through the streets of Wootton Bassett this week.

The brave wife of Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid, who died dismantling a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, even managed a thumbs-up as she watched her husband of two years return home.

Yesterday she revealed that after the homecoming parade of 30-year-old Sgt Schmid, known as Oz, she cried so much that she did not have an ounce of make-up left.

Christina Schmid smiled and applauded as the body of her husband Olaf was brought home through the streets of Wootton Bassett

But she said he had told her that he wanted her 'head held high' in the event of his death.

'We didn't dwell on it but Oz said that if he was killed he'd love me to watch him come back.

'He said: "You'd better bloody be there for me. I expect you to have your head held high." I didn't want to let him down.'

Mrs Schmid, 34, added: 'I wanted to show that he was my hero. I was so proud of him that I was beaming.

'But afterwards, when all the cameras were gone, I cried so much that I didn't have an ounce of make-up left.

'My stoicism was my way of showing him respect. It was always a joke between us that he trained with the Commandos but Iwas harder.

The brave widow even managed a thumbs up as she held her head high to show 'that he was my hero'

'We shared the Commando spirit and nothing was going tobreak that.'

Her final gesture was to place two red roses on herhusband's coffin.

SgtSchmid was a 'high threat operator' as a bomb disposal expert. Hedisarmed 64 roadside bombs in only five months and saved countlesscolleagues.

But the 65th exploded, killing him instantly.

Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid, pictured on duty, was killed in Afghanistan

He was on his final mission before returning home for a two-week holiday and had spoken to his wife two days before his death.

The couple had been friends since childhood, but fell in love four years ago and wed in 2007 in Winchester.

Mrs Schmid, who works for a pharmaceutical company and has a son, Laird, from a previous relationship, said they were aware their time together was precious.

'We crammed so much into our time together but I feel cheated that all our plans have been taken away. Ialso feel angry on his behalf that everything he hoped for going intohis 30s has been taken away.'

Thecouple, who lived in army quarters near Winchester, were due toexchange contracts on a home in two weeks but planned to move to Cornwall where he grew up.

They had also planned to have more children but had put plans on hold while he was in Afghanistan.

'Absolutely my biggest regret, which is overwhelming me now, is that weput it off,' she told the Daily Express.

'We both wanted a big family at leasttwo or three more kids and Oz was keen to start trying but I said wecouldn't risk it while he was serving in Afghanistan. I would neverhave tried to stop him doing his job, though.'

Whenthe knock came at her front door last Saturday night, she was tuckingher son up in bed. She looked out of the window to seeofficials arriving and her heart sank.

Mrs Schmid applauded his coffin. He had asked her to 'hold you head high' if he did not come back from Afghanistan alive

'Laird thought it was his dad coming home. I knew what it was aboutand at first I wouldn't answer the door. It was Laird who ran down.

'Ozwas on his last active day before the tour ended and as the hourspassed on Saturday I'd thought we were home free.'

She added: 'Since he died the army has been brilliant but I worry about the future.I want to try to be as positive as I can.

'My life and Laird's life willgo on but at the moment all I can see is a black void.

'Laird has never known another father and as he grows older I will doeverything to keep Oz's memory alive. There will be pictures everywhereand we will celebrate his life each year. Laird will know what afantastic father he had. I will make sure of that.'

Despite the rise of planned obsolescence, manufacturers have continued to push products onto the market with little thought as to what happens to them when they are no longer useful to their owners. A new bill that's currently active in the Senate would help the United States develop new methods to deal with the growing sea of electronic waste, including research on disposal methods as well as recycling-conscious product design that would help the US get up to speed with other nations that are already moving on the issue.

Electronic waste, or "e-waste," has been a concern for nearly two decades now, especially in terms of environmental and public health. The toxicity of materials used in electronics in particular is a big issue, from flame retardants to good old poisonous lead. According to the bill, the EPA estimates that "over 2 billion computers, televisions, wireless devices, printers, gaming systems, and other devices have been sold since 1980." Couple that with 67 percent of these people hoarding dead gadgets, unaware that there are restrictions on disposal methods, and there's a serious problem to deal with.

A photograph of a stunning model is sitting before you that has serious potential but several flaws.

The shade of the female model's hair is dull, her eye color just isn't doing it for you, and she has several pimples across her otherwise flawless face.

What do you do? Touch up the photo using Photoshop, of course!

The number of options available for enhancement are now sky high, but what's the best way to clean the photo up?

To simplify the retouching process, we have highlighted the best and worst ways to create a clean, professional-looking photo in Photoshop.

DON'T Rely Solely on Clone Stamp Tool for Your Dirty Work

The Clone Stamp tool is commonly used to retouch photos, but overusing it can yield horrific results.

Using a high opacity and hardness can give target areas a lumpy feel, especially if the region you're sampling isn't a close enough match in color. Opt for a lower opacity and softer brush in most cases.

If you can't avoid using the Clone Stamp tool or are just plain attached to it, don't turn your back on other tools that could smooth out the kinks. A quick swipe of the Blur tool can make a world of difference.

DO Use the History Brush.

Over-blurring a subject is a common mistake. To fix it, use the history brush. It never hurts to take incremental snapshots in the history palette as you work. Doing so saves time and a lot of undo's'.

The history brush goes hand in hand with the history palette. You need to set the source of the history brush to know where it will sample from.

You can do this by clicking the open box next to a layer in the history palette. This is why it's best to take snapshots using the icon outlined in red; this way, you know exactly what your image will look like before you apply the history brush.

DON'T Expect Gaussian Blur to Do All the Work, or Even a Clean Job

Gaussian Blur is overrated. Not only does it blur background colors with the subject, but it gives a mannequin-like feel if used incorrectly. Median is a happy medium for the blur filter technique. It keeps colors clean and intact. Never tried it? By all means, do (Noise Median).

Blur is generally used to clean up blemished skin, not for clone stamping or healing. In general, put the picture through a blur filter, keeping a copy of the original directly above in the layers palette, and erase the features (such as eyes and hair) on the duplicate layer that you want to keep sharp.

DO Give the Pen Tool Some Love

The pen tool is as precise as you can get. When it comes to selecting a small area, such as teeth or eyes, it is by far your best bet.

Heck, any odd-shaped area would fall under the reign of the pen tool. Simply outline the object, go to the Path tab, right-click on the work path and then choose Make Selection.

You could also press the Load path as selection button while the working path layer is active under the Path tab.

DO Experiment With Other Tools You Wouldn't Normally Use

This tip may sound absurd when you're racing to get a project done, but finding a newer, faster way to perform a task will help in the long run.

For example, I recently discovered the wonders of the Extract filter, and ever since I have used it every chance I get. It's especially great for hair, because you can quickly outline the area with the marker and fill it in.

Refining edges afterwards takes no time at all. With a swipe of the history brush, you're good to go. Note: Extract is not available in CS4, although you can copy it from the CS3 plug-ins/filters folder to the CS4 directory.

DON'T Neglect the Many Selection Tools at Your Disposal

Although the pen tool does wonders, tracing around a subject can be slow. Use your judgment when choosing a tool for each selection.

The Elliptical Marquee tool is great for beginners. The Quick Selection tool set at a low size is great for large elements such as lips, hair and clothes.

Hitting the Refine edge button always helps if you need something extra.

The Magnetic Lasso tool is especially good for outlining, and its slower cousin the Lasso tool is excellent if you have a steady hand.

Lastly, the Magic Wand tool set at a low tolerance is great for clothes, especially when paired with the Quick Selection tool. Overall, the sheer number of selection tools available opens many avenues to you. The lesson is, don't limit yourself to a small er, selection of tools.

• When using a selection tool, hold Alt to subtract from the selection or Shift to add to it.
• Hold Shift to create a perfect circle with the Elliptical Marquee tool. You can also hold Shift + Alt to expand from the center of your mouse.
• Selecting the object you're trying to isolate rather than the background is often easier when you want to remove it. Simply select the object cleanly and press Alt + Shift + I to invert the selection.
• When switching between selection tools, make sure to hold Shift before continuing your selection. Let's say you have selected half of your goal with the Magic Wand tool. Then you decide to switch to the Quick Selection tool to finish it up. To add to what you've selected previously, hold Shift before selecting the rest of the area, or else you'll start a new selection.

DO Let the Liquify Filter Work Its Magic.

If used properly, the Liquify Filter (Ctrl + Shift + X) can replace many tools. For instance, the Forward Warp tool, which is included in the filter, is much more accurate than the Smudge tool, and the Twirl Clockwise tool replaces the Twirl filter, which is found in Distort. These are just a few of many examples.

Not only could the Liquify Filter be your one-stop shop for distortion, it also allows you to freeze areas that you don't want to be affected.

The best part about this filter is that if you go a little crazy bloating an area, you can always fall back on the Reconstruct button to correct it.

Note: be sure to make the grid visible before editing to get a better sense of how the tool is affecting the area.

Bloat (shortcut B) is a great way to enhance features. Using a low brush rate and density is your best bet for making changes that aren't too extreme. Reconstruct is your best friend in this case. It normalizes changes in one click.

What's the best part about Liquify? It can restore all without you having to exit the filter.

DON'T Overlook Quick Masks.

CS4 doesn't have the Extract filter, unless you took my advice and copied the filter from an older version. So, what do you do when you're in a rush to make a selection? Quick Mask, of course.

Simply press Q to activate the tool, brushing around the subject you want selected, and press Q again to make all unpainted areas become your new selection. Pretty nifty, huh?

Note: Don't forget to revert your colors to the default by pressing D, so that black is your base color, before Quick Masking to your heart's content.

Quick Masks are a fast way to isolate an area. Make sure to zoom in far enough (Ctrl +) to get the perfect outline when brushing around a subject. If you make an error, switch your brush color to white (using the X hot key if colors are default) to get rid of red where it shouldn't be.

DO Heal Away the Pain

As mentioned, the Clone Stamp tool can be rough for matching colors. That's where the Healing brush comes in. The idea is similar to the Clone Stamp tool (i.e. sample an area and brush away the blemishes), but it is far more intelligent.

The Clone Stamp is a kind of copy and paste, while the Healing brush blends the new area with the sampled area and takes into account tonal qualities.

The first thing to do upon opening the Healing brush is to change the sample drop-down to all layers. This is probably one of the most important steps because any changes you make won't affect your original image (as long as you have created a new layer for your retouches).

Adjust the hardness to something a bit softer than the standard 100% for a cleaner heal with no visible edges. Don't forget to adjust the diameter of the area you'll be adjusting, using the [ and ] keys to grow and shrink the brush.

The skin here is fairly high contrast, so I was especially careful to sample the right spot. Best practice is to sample the area closest to where you will be covering up. I touched up the crow's feet and blemishes around the mouth in a new layer; so the base image is intact in case I make an error.

DON'T Be Bashful With Creating Clipping Masks

Clipping Masks make your life a whole lot easier.

Here is a good example. Say you have four layers comprised of photos and an adjustment layer above them all. You want the adjustment layer to affect only one of the four photos.

Position the photo that you want affected under the Clipping Mask. Then all you have to do is right-click your adjustment layer, and select Create Clipping Mask.

Now, the adjustment layer will affect only the photo below. This simple technique saves a lot of re-arranging; and if at any time you want to remove it, just right-click the Clipping Mask layer and select Release Clipping Mask. Life was never so simple.

DO Eliminate Backgrounds With the Magic Eraser Tool

We've gone over several ways to select objects for removal or enhancement via the selection tools, but one tool remains: the Magic Eraser tool.

This tool shouldn't always be your first choice, but it can come in handy. Its best use is for when you have a perfect photo except for the worst background imaginable (like a messy bedroom or bathroom).

The first thing to do is lower that pesky tolerance to something more bearable. I usually start with 15.

If Contiguous is selected in the toolbox, the Magic Eraser will get rid of neighboring pixels of the same color.

If Contiguous isn't selected, it will remove the selected color from the entire photo. Using the Magic Eraser tool to remove all of the background isn't wise, but it does give you a quick starting point for removing backgrounds.

Note: Press Shift + E to quickly cycle through the eraser tools. This also works with all tools that have stacked options. For example, Shift + G toggles between the Gradient and Paint Bucket tools.

DON'T Stop at Brightness and Contrast to Color Correct

Brightness and contrast can work wonders for color, but don't stop there. Merely adding a selective color adjustment layer can do wonders for tones that are too warm or cool.

Select the color you want to adjust and use the slide bars to tweak it just so. You can choose from plenty of other adjustments, so have some fun with this one.

In this first example, I slightly upped the brightness because the photo's lighting is poor. I also shifted the hue away from yellow and dropped the saturation. With these two adjustments alone, the photo already looks cleaner.

Using only the hue and saturation adjustment, I couldn't completely remove the overbearing yellow tone. By using a photo filter with a cool tone, we can steer the lighting in a more natural direction. Lastly, tweaking the levels helps remove grays and add contrast.

DO Choose an Adjustment Layer Over an Adjustment

The reason for this is simple. If you decide that you don't like an adjustment that you have made, you can just delete the layer.

This practice saves you from many Ctrl + Z's and possibly losing a serious amount of work. Note: the adjustments I'm referring to are the options marked in Image Adjustments.

A Few Quick Tips

• When working with a lot of layers, lock them.
• Always save in iterations.
• Use the history panel to navigate to previous or later states, rather than go crazy with Ctrl+Z.
• Clone in different layers to keep from damaging the original photo. It is as simple as checking Use all layers in the tool bar, with the clone stamp tool selected.
• Do most of your editing in RGB mode. It is far more editable than CMYK.
• Mind your DPIs. If you're working with print, 300 DPI is standard. For concepts, 72 DPI is acceptable.
• Make a habit of naming your layers. Scrolling through 20 unnamed layers can get confusing.
• Ctrl + left-click a layer thumbnail to select everything in that layer.
• Use the Dust and Scratches filter (found under Noise) to get rid of unwanted artifacts.
• Feathering a selection never hurt anyone, and it sure won't hurt for most selections either.
• Set your undos high by going into Edit Preferences Performance. You'll see a history and cache area, where you can set your history states to a maximum of 1000. This comes in handy for larger projects, but beware: it eats up more memory.

Written exclusively for WDD by Heather Bartron.

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The response to an earlier article Startups: 10 Things MBA Schools Won't Teach You has been overwhelmingly positive. The article has now received about 150 comments across various websites (on the OnStartups.com site, in the OnStartups LinkedIn group, etc.) Unsurprisingly, many of the comments are much better than anything I could have ever come up with on my own.

So, to further the conversation and discussion, I decided to collect, edit and share some of the fantastic insights from reader comments.

Thanks to all of those that contributed such great insights. Sorry I could not include them all.

Enjoy.

37 Pithy Insights From Street-Smart Entrepreneurs

1. Infect employees with pride of ownership. If the employees feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves, then they'll work that way.

2. Every company has "idiotsyncracies." Some crazy thing they do that works for them but would never work anywhere else. Trying to correct that ends up destroying what makes the company special.

3. You pour your heart and soul into a startup. Someone who hasn't done it won't understand the effort until they go through it.

4. Most start ups should start selling the product before they think they should.

5. Ritualize the work atmosphere -- everytime a contract comes in, ring a bell or gong and let everyone celebrate. There's a reason Survivor has rituals.

6. Competitors & customers can, do, and will do irrational things. Neither care about your title, your education, your pedigree, your investors, or your SAT scores.

7. Customers are defined as people or organizations who pay more for something than it costs you to make it. The relationship should be arms-length (which is why your dad is not a real customer).

8. A lack of competitors is almost always a bad thing because it means the market you entered doesn't interest anybody else.

9. Your core founding team needs to be smart, energetic and committed. It helps if they can fill multiple roles at the same time (sell, write software, deliver services and invoice).

10. Leave your ego at the door and hire people without big egos that can understand how to look at a problem and be open to solutions no matter where they come from. Keep those people.

11. Get exposure to potential customers as cheaply as possible and then make sure that all the information is there for them to make a decision.

12. If prospects won't open their wallets for the beta or prototype, then no amount spent on marketing or sales will matter.

13. No matter how great your service or product, there will always be very smart people who's advice you trust telling you that your service or product is crazy and will never sell.

14. S**t happens, but it's usually not as bad as it first seems.

15. It's tragic when good products never make it to market because they were never properly sold. If no one in your company knows how to find qualified leads for your product, you are in big trouble.

16. Take care of the people with integrity

17. Startup entrepreneurs need a handful of trusted, objective advisors who will share their perceptions of what's so - no matter what.

18. How are you continuing to invest in your customers and their experience after they have purchased your product? Value relates to the entire customer experience.

19. No one deal or opportunity should be worth damaging a long term relationship (business or otherwise).

20. The most successful businesses are ones where a group of friends help each other succeed.

21. Ultimately, the CEO's position is to simultaneously lead and serve others.

22. You never know when you will be working with people from your past, so always be respectful, and professional. Paths cross when and where we least expect them.

23. It is important that you like your customers. If you do not like your customers you will by design not do the best you can for them because they annoy you.

24. As any entrepreneur knows, you are pretty much selling all the time to everyone, whether VCs, prospective clients, employees or significant others.

25. Life will happen. Your best employee will quit to do something else..that doesn't mean that they don't care, just that it's their time to move on.

26. Keep doing good without being able to sight an immediate reward. The reward often comes unexpectedly.

27. A startup mentor is really like a therapist, if you think about it

28. Tough times never last, tough people do.

29. The "iasm" in enthusiasm stands for I Am Sold Myself.

30. A bad decision is often better than no decision at all.

31. There's no better way to research a market than just launching a product.

32. Often you can start selling something simpler, to more customers, sooner than you think.

33. There are three primary ways to get cash in: 1) Customers 2) Financing 3) Sale/Disposal of Assets. Great businesses figure out #1 so they don't have to worry about the others.

34. Just because you're an Internet company doesn't mean you are or should be a global company.

35. Distribution and channel partners don't want to sell your product. They want to take orders and make money.

36. Startups have many diseconomies of scale: The more people, features, markets, products, business models, investors, etc. the harder it is.

37. Be objective. Learn to listen to what the world is telling you (and often beating you over the head with).

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the conversation so far. It's great to see such energy, enthusiasm and experience from the entrepreneurial community.

Any of the above insights strike a particular chord with you? Which one is your favorite?

By the way, to get more of this kind of stuff, you should follow me on twitter here.

Looking for other startup fanatics? Request access to the OnStartups LinkedIn Group. 80,000+ members and growing daily.

Oh, and by the way, you should follow me on twitter here.