Four dogs owned by American visionary John McAfee, the founder of the namesake anti-virus company of the same name, were found poisoned to death near his home in Belize more than a week ago. McAfee’s neighbor, US citizen Gregory Faull, was found dead in his home soon after, a bullet wound in his head.

McAfee was suspected, though he claims he didn’t do it. So what does he do to help prove his innocence? The 67-year-old eccentric, who resigned from McAfee back in 1994, decided to put on some disguises and go hiding along with his 20-year-old girlfriend Samantha — who has “helped (him) evade detection by grabbing (him) and kissing (him), in public, in a fashion that causes passerby's to feel embarrassment at the thought of staring and by creating emotional scenes that cause the curious to momentarily forget what they were looking for.”

How do we know such intimate details from a man who is supposedly keeping himself out of sight? Well, McAfee is blogging the whole Hollywood-esque caper, whoismcafee.com, so he could shre his thoughts about the search for him, whatever facts he can dig up in his own investigation into the murder, and his anger toward the police, the media, the Belizean government, and pretty much everybody else except Samantha and his old pal Chad Essley, the director of Portland, Ore.-based Cartoon Monkey and the man who is created the blog that McAfee is posting to, according to CBS News. It's also a huge PR nightmare for his former company.Continue reading...

The latest brand to get into the "zombie" branding fad is gunmaker Ruger.

No kidding. Billed as "The Zombie Slayer," the Ruger LCP 380 ACP retails for around $460 and features neon green "Zombie Slayer" and "LCP Z" with a red slash branded on the side of the gun. The "Zombie Slayer" serial number prefixes are "ZOM," natch. For added quirk, the Ruger Zombie Slayer package includes the gun, case and lock accessories, and a copy of the book The Zombie Survival Guide.

Gun enthusiasts immediately ridiculed the stunt, leading some to question if Ruger's popular limited edition program is just lurching forward like the walking undead it's trying to cash in on.Continue reading...

Who knew that Steve Jobs' iconic black turtlenecks came from St. Croix? Who cares? St. Croix, that's who — apparently the mock tnecks touted on its homepage are selling like hotcakes, with 20% of the proceeds going to the American Cancer Society. And if you think that's tacky, check out the Jobs tribute below.Continue reading...

Russian cigarette-maker Donskoy Tabak has dropped its plans for a teen-targeted brand.

The back-story: Russia’s Ministry of Health is putting together the “strictest anti-tobacco law to date,” which would outlaw lighting up in “trains, airports, and jet liners” as well as up the tax on cigarettes significantly, according to Vesti (and translated by GlobalVoices.com), tobacco manufacturers need to find new consumers to plunk down rubles to suck down their product, right? 

Mercifully, Donskoy Tabak, one of Russia’s largest tobacco companies, has been shamed out of its new line of cigarettes that were aimed at teens and young women, called “Sweet Dreams,” according to blogger Alexey Navalny (as translated by Global Voices).Continue reading...

The United States is still unhappy with North Korea for its apparent bombing of a South Korean ship last year. And let's not forget that the country doesn’t have what you might call a stellar human-rights record. And, if that weren’t enough, North Korea’s head honcho Kim Jong-il is considered by most to be a complete lunatic.

But the Almighty Dollar is strong and there are more than 24 million people who live there. Surely, they need some fried chicken ... and something to wash it down with? A BC reader down under flags this nugget: a report by Australian broadcaster ABC that KFC and Coca-Cola “will open outlets in the communist North later this year.”

After the Associated Press was recently allowed to open an office in the country, which prefers to be known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, word circulated that the Colonel and Coke are being welcomed.Continue reading...

As the stock market tumbles and the U.S. sees its credit downgraded, luxury brand Leon Verres shows no shame in peddling gaudy baubles to the super-rich.

The maker of Billionaire Champagne, which sold out at $2.75 million a bottle, has now introduced Billionaire Vodka, which sells for a staggering $3.75 million for a 5-liter bottle. (According to the brand, “The number makes you feel as dizzy as the high-percentage of the bottle.”)

Not only is the bottle covered in 3,000 diamonds (plus a fake-fur “dress” and Russian-style cap), Leon Verres says the vodka itself is filtered over diamonds.

Billionaire Vodka will be available at “select” restaurants and bars, but those customers who have the diamond bottle delivered to their homes get an extra bonus: a pair of white gloves with the Billionaire Vodka logo “worn by the host while serving the noble drink, may, however, be passed on to the butler.”

For those who can’t afford the diamond bottle, Leon Verres — which calls itself "the world's fastest growing luxury goods brand" — is offering a .5-liter version of the vodka in a violet glass bottle decorated with Swarovski crystals. No info on the pricing for the hoi-polloi version, but it’s bound to seem a bargain next to $3.75 million.

One of the odder items that floated past our transom in recent days goes back to how the original name of Al Qaida (aka Al Qaeda, or "the world's most famous terrorism organization") was al-Qaida al-Jihad, which means The Base of Holy War.

The West’s lopping off of the last part of the name apparently really irked the now-deceased Osama bin Laden so much that he considered renaming the organization, the Associated Press reports.

Among the papers taken from bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan were some letters that suggested bin Laden was annoyed that al-Qaida was losing the battle for everyday Arabs.

The problem with the name al-Qaida, as bin Laden (no marketing genius, as you'll see below) expounded, is that it is missing any reference to religion or, as Forbes blogger Marc Babej puts it, “something to convince Muslims worldwide that they are in a holy war with America.”Continue reading...

Herein we bring a tale of brand licensing gone horribly awry. It involves geeky brand National Public Radio and hipster closet Urban Outfitters and the absurdities of trendy consumers.

Currently, Urban Outfitters is selling the above t-shirt online bearing the NPR logo (a different version is also available in select UO stores). Artificially worn and stressed to appear "vintage," it's the kind of branded staple Urban Outfitters always stocks in its tee section.

What results is a trip down the brand licensing rabbit hole, where irony rules and even NPR doesn't seem to understand what's going on.Continue reading...