When one scans the Pinal County Sheriff's Office's website, one finds a wealth of information—generally about the most recent appearance Sheriff Paul Babeu has made on national television (see the CNN video embedded on the site's front page, for an example).

When one then checks the About PCSO page, just below Smilin' Paul's face, they find this:

Interestingly enough, if one were to head to PinalSheriff.com, they'd find this:

That's odd. It seems that the Pinal County Sheriff's Office is advertising a site that is nothing but a domain-name landing page—surely this is just an oversight on their part, right?

Well, a WHOIS search got us to the bottom of this: the owner is a Mr. William Conley, who purchased the domain back in 2009.

Conley doesn't care that the Sheriff's Office has used the domain name that he purchased — as far as he's concerned, "it's a non-issue." He simply saw that the domain was available and snapped it up. If the county wants to take it up with him, they're perfectly welcome to, he says.

A call to the Pinal Sheriff's Office has yet to be returned.

Admittedly, this isn't a big deal at all—I mean, people goof up on websites constantly.

But it's interesting to note that no one at the Pinal Sheriff's Office bothered to look into a domain name that's been controlled by the same person since 2009 before pasting it up on their website...or, if they've had that image up prior to August 2009, that they haven't bothered to see if the domain was available since.

Here's some potentially good news for all those frequent fliers who can't put down their electronic devices during flights: the Federal Communications Commission has got your back.

From The Hill:

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski called on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to "enable greater use of tablets, e-readers, and other portable devices" during flights in a letter sent Thursday to Michael Huerta, the acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration.

...

"This review comes at a time of tremendous innovation, as mobile devices are increasingly interwoven in our daily lives," Genachowski writes. "They empower people to stay informed and connected with friends and family, and they enable both large and small businesses to be more productive and efficient, helping drive economic growth and boost U.S. competitiveness."

This comes as the FAA is reviewing its policies on allowing tablets and other wireless devices to be in use during flights. The FAA does note, however, that they will not be allowing "voice communication" during flights—so no cell phones, folks.

There's been no action taken on this recommendation from the FCC as of yet, so don't expect airlines to look too kindly upon your iPad use this holiday season—just listen to the attendants when they tell you to put away your oh-so-valuable hunk of metal and glass.

In another case of something that you might spend hours poring over simply because you can, here's a giant map of the internet that will show you exactly how significant your website is in relation to the rest of those on the web.

• See that speck up there in the upper left hand corner? That's your Tumblr.

So as much fun as it is to look at at guess which site is which (this would be the kind of drinking game that would kill its participants, by the way), what's the real point of this thing?

From the Internet Map's "About" section:

Like any other map, The Internet map is a scheme displaying objects’ relative position; but unlike real maps (e.g. the map of the Earth) or virtual maps (e.g. the map of Mordor), the objects shown on it are not aligned on a surface. Mathematically speaking, The Internet map is a bi-dimensional presentation of links between websites on the Internet. Every site is a circle on the map, and its size is determined by website traffic, the larger the amount of traffic, the bigger the circle. Users’ switching between websites forms links, and the stronger the link, the closer the websites tend to arrange themselves to each other.

...

The Internet global network is a phenomenon of technological civilization, and its exceptional complexity surpasses anything mankind has ever created. In essence, what we are dealing with here is a huge quantity of utterly unstructured information. The Internet map is an attempt to look into the hidden structure of the network, fathom its colossal scale, and examine that which is impossible to understand from the bare figures of statistics.

So there you have it. It's a tool to try and gain understanding of what links us all on the internet. Aside from HTML code.

(For the record, TucsonWeekly.com is an itty-bitty little teal dot caught somewhere in the gravity between aol.com and the Huffington Post. There's worse company to be in, right?)

"Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors" is an unreleased video game that was intended, generally, to screw with people. It's what Penn & Teller do: they perform illusions (because a trick is something a whore does for money); they make you laugh; and they're damn clever about everything they do.

But, for various reasons, "Smoke and Mirrors" never came out—which is no big loss, considering that one of the mini-games within the game, "Desert Bus" is a real-time bus-driving simulation, wherein the player drives a bus from Tucson to Las Vegas. In game-time, it's an eight-hour trek...and it earns you one point. For a second point, the player has to make the trek back from Vegas to Tucson—which is when the game starts to get dark. Literally. As in, the sun goes down.

This matters because for the last six years, the comedy group LoadingReadyRun has organized Desert Bus for Hope, a charity event in which a team of poor souls plays a "Desert Bus" marathon, collecting money for Child's Play, a charity organization that donates toys and games to children in hospitals worldwide.

This current marathon has been ongoing for, as of this writing, two days and 17 hours, which is a soul-crushingly long time to play a game that looks like this:

If you want to support Desert Bus for Hope, head to desertbus.org, or buy a commemorative Desert Bus for Hope 6 shirt from Tucson's very own Fangamer, which is donating all profits from the sale of that shirt to Child's Play via Desert Bus for Hope.

Google.org's Crisis Response team has updated its crisis map to follow Hurricane Sandy in real-time, in an effort to help folks prepare for the the forthcoming storm, set to hit land this evening.

The map, which you can see here, has layers, projections and alerts based on data from the National Hurricane Center, the National Weather Service, weather.gov and others. Among the information included is a 3-day forecast cone; the hurricane's projected path; and links to webcams, related YouTube videos, and (most importantly) contact information for area emergency shelters.

Tucson, if you know people in the path of the hurricane, this looks to be a quality tool to help them stay safe.

Be careful out there, friends.

The makers of the fun novelty web browser add-on Unbaby.me, which hides pictures of your friends' children in your Facebook feed and replaces them with "awesome stuff" have partnered with Buzzfeed to introduce a new, election-season-based add-on:

Unpolitic.me does the same thing as unbaby.me, though instead of removing baby pictures, it pulls posts on Facebook or Twitter related to political topics by scanning keywords and replaces those posts with pictures of adorable and/or awesome things. But more than that, it works on Buzzfeed as well, removing all of their political posts and replacing them with adorable animals.

For an example, check out Tucson Weekly's Twitter timeline, with before and after shots:

• Now you see 'em...

• ...Now you don't. It's like magic, with more cat pictures!

Of course, this has raised questions as to the future of targeted media consumption—David Holmes of PandoDaily talks about that here—which is a subject that definitely merits future consideration. But, let's be honest: That's a problem for the future-us. Let's live in the moment; one that brings us pictures of adorable and/or awesome things, practically on demand.

For more, check out unbaby.me for the link. Keep in mind though, the add-on is available only for Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome users. Sorry Internet Explorer fans; you'll just have to get your cat pictures the old fashioned way.

No matter the results of the 2012 Presidential election, its debates will be notable for three phrases: Big Bird; binders full of women; and horses and bayonets.

If you've been on the Internet at all over the past month, you've seen the hallmarks of these new memes — the Tweets, the Tumblrs accounts and the mass of spectacular images.

Which is what Esquire's Stephen Marche comments on — and laments.

From Esquire.com:

The early debates will be remembered for their production of memes. Big bird. Binders full of women. And now battleships. The two candidates took opposite tacks in dealing with the new reality. Romney clearly was trying not to saying anything memorable. That's why he stopped himself at the end of "I love teachers." Ordinarily, he might have said something like "I love teachers. They're wonderful gals." Or something like that. He probably knew, right there, or in preparations before, that something like that would end up on Buzzfeed, wittily repackaged in fifty different ways. Obama ran straight into the brave new world. Clearly the line "The 1980s called and they want their foreign policy back" was designed explicitly to generate a Twitter spike and it worked. "Horses and bayonets" alone drove a hundred and twenty-five thousand tweets per minute. #Horsesandbayonets started trending, and didn't stop. Almost instantly @horses_bayonets launched with a single line: "How do I monetize this?"

...

Twitter's first impact on presidential politics has been fun and has added a level of urgency to the spectacle, but it has also diminished at least somewhat the grace of the proceedings. That's too bad. Because if those debates showed anything, it's that we need grace more than ever. We need about as much grace as we can get.

I just wonder if regaining some semblance of grace is possible in this age of instant online vitriol.

For more, check out the post here.

The above video is PBS's Idea Channel, a YouTube show that combines internet memes, quick cuts, and thoughts about culture to make a short show that's somehow able to generate thoughtful conversation on YouTube, of all places.

In the past, the show's discussed such topics as "Super Mario Brothers Is The World's Greatest Piece Of Surrealist Art" and "Is Dubstep Avant Garde Musical Genius?"

This week's video leans a bit esoteric, as its subject is monumentally popular — within a certain, slightly-rabid internet subculture. The subject: Webcomic artist Andrew Hussie's "Homestuck," a three-year-old story that combines static images, chat logs, GIFs, lengthy animations and Flash-based games to tell a story that's 5,000 pages long — and not even finished yet. It's easy to get into, but gets denser and denser with every mass of updates.

So what does it have to do with James Joyce's "Ulysses"? My recommendation, if you haven't clicked "play" yet, is to watch the video and find out. It'll be six minutes well spent.

Image from Extreme Tech.

Interesting news coming from LG Chem: The company has developed a lithium-ion battery cable that's thin enough to be incorporated into clothing and accessories, meaning that now, you really will have The Power.

From Extreme Tech:

Now, flexible batteries have been created before — but they’ve all just standard, flat, laminated batteries made from sub-optimum materials, such as polymers. As such, as they have very low energy density, and they’re only bendy in the same way that a thin sheet of plastic is bendy. LG Chem’s cable-type batteries have the same voltage and energy density as your smartphone battery — but they’re thin and highly flexible to boot. LG Chem has already powered an iPod Shuffle for 10 hours using a knotted 25cm length of cable-type battery. LG’s goal is to have this battery ready for mass production by 2017.

I don't know about you, but I'm definitely willing to wait five years to be able to charge the ridiculous number of electronics I carry from a cable around my wrist.

Screw flying cars. We live in the future, people.

(Wait. We have flying cars now, too.)

Fangamer, based out of Tucson, deals in video-game-inspired apparel and accessories. After being open for business for the past four years, they've decided to reprint a number of beloved old designs, getting the money for that through a Kickstarter that will send shirts to folks for exactly as much as it costs to buy a shirt through the website.

Basically, they want you to invest in their company to get some shirts. Makes sense to me. But the heart of the matter is, their Kickstarter mission video is hilarious—5 minutes of your time well spent.

If you're interested in getting in on their Kickstarter, or just feel like buying some of their awesome-looking shirts and accessories, check out the links below.

[Fangamer]

[Kickstarter - Fangamer Retrowear]