1958 Can of GoldfischliEvery so often I hear complaints about people who copy things and improve them instead of “inventing” them. It just came up again in a discussion on Bruce Schneier’s blog.
Did you hear the one about the Gold Fish cracker invented in 1958 by Oscar Kambly at his family business?
America gets its first taste of Goldfish crackers in 1962. Margaret Rudkin discovers the snack cracker on a trip to Switzerland and returns with the recipe.
The Kambly site says the idea originally was a gift for Oscar’s wife.
Who would have thought that the Gold Fish cracker is actually a Swiss invention? And I wonder why Rudkin re-branded as OEM instead of being a distributor.
Maybe the Swiss stole the idea from the French, and maybe they stole it from… will the real inventor please swim forward?
One has to wonder what would happen if the town of Cheddar had a penny for every ounce of cheese sold in America under their stolen name…
The PCI security standards council issues a press release yesterday:
With this new update, which is based on extensive feedback from the Council’s Participating Organizations, the PCI DSS will enhance the clarity of its technical requirements, offer improved flexibility and address new and evolving risks and threats.
It is mostly about clarification to resolve the issues raised with the 1.1 release.
A crude form of biometric security is emerging in what seems to be the hyper-critical climate of English politics. Problems with foreign policy or disputes at home? No, Gordon Brown is scrutinized for the condition of his hands:
Fidgety, ink-stained and with nails bitten to the quick, Gordon Brown’s hands (above) are fast becoming a visible symbol of the pressures he is under.
“Since he became prime minister, Gordon Brown looks cared for above the eyebrows – he has had a decent haircut”. That’s the pithy verdict of Veronique Henderson, co-author of Style Matters for Men.
The punk movement clearly failed. The article points out how the Cambodian death squads would kill people based only on the appearance of hands:
It was a lesson learned well by the Khmer Rouge, which ruled Cambodia during the 1970s. In a bid to root out individual thinkers, Pol Pot’s soldiers would routinely examine people’s hands. Those with soft palms were deemed “intellectuals” and despatched to the Killing Fields.
This all reminds me of the idea that biometric readers could point out health issues for users. Roll your finger across the sensor and receive data on whether you need to wash, or take your vitamins.
The big news in the windy city is that a 2006 ban of foie gras has been lobbied into oblivion. Some restaurants found it hard to comply:
Mr Durand acknowledged that his restaurant had been a “duckeasy”, getting round the ban by serving foie gras for free.[…] Doug Sohn, the owner of Hot Doug’s “sausage superstore and encased meat emporium” and recipient of a $250 (£129) fine for serving foie gras last year, said he was happy about the decision.
Apparently demand was not enough for $250 foie gras, as that would also have been a way to get around the issue — incorporate the fee into the cost to consumer. Why the fascination with serving foie gras and why do restaurants consider it such an important issue? Surely there are more important issues for them to deal with.
a blog about the poetry of information security, since 1995
