'If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn't be, and what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?' -- Alice

Good morning -- or good afternoon -- everyone! I apologize for the unscheduled day off Wednesday and for leaving you all without your Byte-Sized fix! But we're back, we're breathing easy (easier) and we're ready to fall down Alice's magical rabbit hole to find our winners!

First, thank you to everyone who entered out 'Alice in Wonderland' Cap Contest, sponsored by the delightful folks at New Era. The 59Fiftys they sent over were the talk of the office for the few days I had them in hand, and I'm totally excited to announce our winners:

Congratulations to Kyle T. from Humble, TX; Joy R. from San Francisco; Clinton K. from San Francisco; and Barbara K. from Chicago!

Each of you will receive one of either the 'Cheshire Cat' cap, complete with the almost-creepy toothy grin, or the 'All Over' cap, with its white canvas covered in pencil-like sketches of the whole Wonderland crew.

Yay to all of you!! And for those of you whose luck seems to have peaked a little before St. Patrick's Day, visit http://www.neweracap.com/ and check out the selection online! If you order it soon, you could still rock your new cap while 'Alice' is in theatres.

Now, as my favorite character, the March Hare, would say, 'I have an excellent idea: Let's change the subject.' Good call, my friend! Here are a smattering of headlines to gobble while I think up another awesome giveaway for all of you, my little Byte-Sized readers! (... Side note: I'm going to miss all these 'Alice' quotes -- they're wicked fun ...)

-- Please, spare me the dramz: PlayStation's latest play is to go after Project Natal. Well, at least they're aiming high.

-- Bing is making it's mark. I'm telling you: It's totally better than Google, if only from a purely cosmetic standpoint. (PS -- Android has dropped Google in favor of Bing for it's phones. Take that.)

-- I would never, ever live in space -- but this ... well, I'd certainly consider it.

-- I promised you all a look at the best toys from the Toy Fair, and though I wasn't able to get a good look on the floor myself, here's a good replacement :)

-- If there were ever a reason to dislike Twitter, I'm pretty sure this is it.

And, one more quote for the road ...

Mad Hatter: Ah thank goodness! Those are the things that upset me!
March Hare: See all the trouble you started?
Alice: But I didn't think...
March Hare: Ah, that's just it. If you don't think, then you shouldn't talk.

Ah, truer words were never spoken by a madder, hare-brained rabbit.

Labels: alice in wonderland, Bing, London Toy Fair, new era cap contest, waterscrapers

I'm all pumped up for another LOST episode tonight! Only a few more hours until Sawyer and the Islanders are back and we (presumably) learn that Eloise Hawking (scariest lady *ever*) is Daniel's mom and who he named his lab rat after. How does Desmond key in? And, could this elusively comatose Theresa really be my beloved Boone's old nanny? Theresa goes up the stairs, Theresa goes down the stairs..... Can anyone say, 'Season 5 Hurley-sees-dead-people cameo'? I think so! Hahaha!

So, to tide you over until 9 pm ET, here are some headlines to sink your teeth into...

Our friends at Crave UK stopped by the London Toy Fair (they managed to make it out in all that snow, really?) and got some great pics of upcoming toys about to cross the pond. Their write-ups are cheeky and snappy, so be sure to read the captions!

Google Earth is taking its mapping to a whole new level -- try, 40,000 leagues under the sea! With Al Gore in attendance, Google announced that its program will begin mapping the terrain at the bottom of all the Earth's oceans, letting viewers explore it in full 3-D and taking the project another step closer to mapping the entire planet. Factoid: 70% of the Earth's surface is water.

Uber-geek Mark Zuckerberg is shopping his 150M-strong Facebook database of users to pollsters looking to capitalize on its market research benefits. This is going to bother a lot of people -- but I say, if they make the incentives good enough (meaning, if they include any at all, other than a stupid app to add to my growing list), then I'll be all for them!

In other Google news, the company is launching its second-annual 'Doodle for Google' contest for your kiddies to design Google logos from the prompt: 'What I wish for the world.' Be sure to bring this up at the next PTA meeting -- school only have until March 14 to register and can only submit 6 per school by the March 31 deadline. Last year's winner (left) got a $15,000 college scholarship and $25,000 tech grant for her school. This year's winner, announced in May, will get the same and have the logo pasted on Google's homepage on May 21. So cool.

MySpace has purged 90,000 sex offenders from its site. Seriously. Not only has it took them forever to do it since last year's agreement with law enforcement officials, but now the site is touting it like it deserves a cookie. Good boy, MySpace, you made the Web safer for kids. Here, go fetch me someone who can tell me why you didn't start off this way!

OK, I'm out 'til Friday! If you have any discussion topics on LOST or something interesting theories post-tonight's episode, leave them in the comments and I'll post them on Friday!

Labels: Google Earth, London Toy Fair, Lost theories