It's sort of remarkable that no one thought of this idea before. People with iPhones and iPod Touches (that pluralization seems weird) often use those devices as their primary source of music. Boomboxes are awesome. Why not bring the boombox into the 21st century? I'm going to start stocking up on D batteries now.

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[iHome]

Time to Play, an online magazine, put together a list of what they suspect will be the hottest toys of the holiday season, including the DaGeDar toys that I spent ten minutes trying to figure out at Target the other day. So, they're fancy coated ball-bearings that you race down a track? And you can unlock stuff on the internet? Ok, sure.

Also, among the faux iPads for the toddler set, more Legos, and the other actual fun stuff, they feature The Logo Board Game, which seems like a delightful celebration of Western commerce:

I suppose the customer service people at Yelp get quite a few emails from people trying to change information in reviews, probably largely from business owners upset about a burst of negative publicity posted nearly anonymously. However, the above email isn't dismissive of a difference of opinion, but an actual lie that Yelp doesn't seem to feel the need to remove:

Jesse Hirsch recently brought to my attention a review of Tuba restaurant on Yelp, by a woman who claims to write for us. She wrote:

"This place totally rocks! The food blows your mind away. I also write for SF weekly and I definitely am writing about them this week!"

There's only one problem: She doesn't write for us. I'm the editor here; I know all of our writers, and what they are and aren't assigned to do.

As soon as I saw it, I set out to correct it. But talking to Yelp isn't easy.

I don't have any contacts at Yelp, so I had to go in the front door. I couldn't find a "contact Yelp" phone number or email address. You have to sign in to Yelp's system to access feedback. So I did that.

I sent the liar this message: "I am the food editor at SF Weekly. Who are you? We don't have a Maya C. working for us right now. Please explain why you cite us in your review of Tuba."

And I sent Yelp a message I didn't keep a copy of, saying that this woman claims to work for SF Weekly, but I am the food editor and she does not.

The liar sent this response: "sf weekly voice, I will fix it. I am very very sorry to cite your name, I haven't checked my reviews since." As of this moment, she hasn't fixed it.

Thankfully, the flagging mechanism on Yelp's site has kicked the review into the "filtered" category, but this whole debacle does point out a flaw in the Yelp phenomenon - that the reviews aren't really obligated to tell the truth.

I don't generally buy much from Amazon, although I, like most not-terribly wealthy people, am not immune to great deals so occasionally I'll click away. However, reading how they apparently treat the people who pull their orders, I think I'll just fully commit to just sticking to what I can buy in town:

Over the past two months, The Morning Call interviewed 20 current and former warehouse workers who showed pay stubs, tax forms or other proof of employment. They offered a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what it's like to work in the Amazon warehouse, where temperatures soar on hot summer days, production rates are difficult to achieve and the permanent jobs sought by many temporary workers hired by an outside agency are tough to get.

Only one of the employees interviewed described it as a good place to work.

Workers said they were forced to endure brutal heat inside the sprawling warehouse and were pushed to work at a pace many could not sustain. Employees were frequently reprimanded regarding their productivity and threatened with termination, workers said. The consequences of not meeting work expectations were regularly on display, as employees lost their jobs and got escorted out of the warehouse. Such sights encouraged some workers to conceal pain and push through injury lest they get fired as well, workers said.

During summer heat waves, Amazon arranged to have paramedics parked in ambulances outside, ready to treat any workers who dehydrated or suffered other forms of heat stress. Those who couldn't quickly cool off and return to work were sent home or taken out in stretchers and wheelchairs and transported to area hospitals. And new applicants were ready to begin work at any time.

An emergency room doctor in June called federal regulators to report an "unsafe environment" after he treated several Amazon warehouse workers for heat-related problems. The doctor's report was echoed by warehouse workers who also complained to regulators, including a security guard who reported seeing pregnant employees suffering in the heat.

There was a saying I used to hear that went something like "if you want to know what God thinks of money, look at who he gives it to". I don't know if that's exactly true, but then you hear that designer diapers aren't just an item thrown on the shelves as a lark, but a product that people are actually spending money on.

A note to anyone buying designer diapers: you're spending extra money on something uses to contain feces that will be thrown away sooner rather than later. Please stop. Seriously. Stop it.

The website FloatingSheep, which has a very enjoyable set of infographic maps for your nerdish enjoyment, has taken data visualization to new heights, creating a map color coding the relative price of marijuana nationwide. Basically, if you like to smoke, don't move to Minnesota, it seems.

In other news, our medicinal marijuana column debuts on September 8th, so there's something to look forward to.

Strangely, this video makes me like Wal-Mart more and English people less, which is a strange turn of events for sure.

• Photo Ryn Gargulinski
• Dirty feet are clean in a flash with the Easy Feet foot washer.

Change your address with a move and the coupons are even more seductive, with even bigger discounts. Don’t buy something for a spell and your coupons start coming with a catalog, just to remind you of all sorts of things you never knew existed but suddenly need with a rabid furor that borders on insanity.

This is where things can get a little ugly. The latest Tucson-area catalog is stocked with items that everyone must have in his or her home, workplace, dorm room or yard — which also illustrate the sad state of the American public. If we pretend we are space aliens and base our assessment of the human race solely on items available in a Bed Bath & Beyond catalog, we come to a sad assessment indeed: humans are basically lazy, paranoid, and organized to the point of being anal.

• Flickr user "The Ewan"

While the chain hoped to stay afloat after closing a number of its stores earlier this year (including the location on Oracle), it would appear that the rest of Borders' 400ish stores (along with, presumably, the one remaining Tucson location at the Park Place mall) will begin the liquidation process as early as this Friday, with all of the locations closing by September with approximately 11,000 jobs disappearing in the process. I'll miss the 40% off coupons, but not the hit-and-miss service or trying to make my way through the hordes of kids reading manga in the aisles.

Sad news from Miss Tiggy Winkles Toys:

As many of you have observed the toy store has struggled in this challenging economy. Despite all hope a full recovery has not come. We have fought with all of our creativity and bravado for Mrs. Tiggy Winkles Toys. However we have come to the end of this road. The Tiggys realize that everything, even truly wonderful good things, have a beginning and an end. We don’t want to close our doors but we must. Rather than spending time spelling out the missteps and things that worked against us we would like to focus on the positive. We love you Tucson, especially when you wear a big red nose and ride around on a unicycle. You allowed us the space to be silly and different. We sprinkled you with fairy dust and sang out loud with you and when our town was windy we flew kites with you! There have been many memorable sword fights, tea parties, fairy festivals and toy invention workshops. Thank you so very much! Ours is a very special community and even as the Tiggy staff fold into new places in this town and go off on new individual adventures our time with you, as your ambassadors of silly, will be a badge of honor we wear.

We will be closing our doors in two weeks but we plan to appear at the Harry and the Potters Concert on June 11th at Hotel Congress and also at The Loft Cinema’s Children’s Film Festival for our final bow. If we could say just one thing it would be this, have fun! We have had so much fun and it has truly been an honor and privilege to get to laugh and dance and sing and occasionally make flatulent sounds with you.
We will have a closing sale starting today through the coming weeks. Bring a smile.

This is with all of our deepest Tiggy affection.
The Staff of Mrs. Tiggy Winkles Toys

[Miss Tiggy Winkles Bloggy Bloggy!]