All domestic violence is bad, but a report I read today from the Associated Press was especially disheartening:

“PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) A man faces a domestic battery charge after allegedly hitting his girlfriend with a sandwich as she was driving on Interstate 95. Police said the 19-year-old man became angry and hit the woman in the arm and face with a sandwich, knocking her glasses off.

The victim nearly lost control of the car because she couldn’t see the road and the man then allegedly ripped off the rear-view mirror and used it to shatter the windshield.

Police haven’t said what type of sandwich was involved.”

My colleague Ken asked if it had been a club sandwich, but that appears to be unknown.

Photo by Carucha L. Meuse / The Journal News

The new Xbox Live update that’s been in discussion for months is officially available as of today.

You can now create those dorky avatar characters that seem to be a hit among gamers these days.

But to me the coolest feature in the Xbox Live update is being able to stream movies via Netflix. Instead of having to wait for my movies to come in the mail, I can use my Xbox 360 to rock out to movies in HD in a matter of minutes.

But bootleggers beware, Microsoft is making another round of console bans, so anyone who goes online with a modded console faces the risk of getting banned on Xbox Live.

You can get the Xbox Live update automatically when you go online with your Xbox 360. You’ll need a Netflix account though if you want to watch movies.

(AP Photo)

Dr Pepper is announcing today that they’re sponsoring Tom Taylor (aka Tsquared), a 20-something gamer from Syracuse that will be featured on Dr Pepper bottles all across the country.

(Btw, did you know that there is no period after Dr in Dr Pepper? Fascinating!)

Tsquared is a hardcore Halo 3 gamer and has signed a 3-year $250,000 contract to play for Major League Gaming, the owner of the site Gamebattles.com

Apparently this dude also makes an extra $150,000 a year on endorsement deals.

Forget about working for Obama if you ever shot off a less-than-tender text message to an ex-flame.

Or get ready to do some serious explaining in a 7-page, 63-question application for a coveted spot in the Obama administration.

This ultimate interrogation barely stops short of asking applicants how much time they served in detention as a sixth grader.

Aps are asked to list every single website in which they appear and whether they have ever sent a text, email or IM that could be “a possible source of embarrassment to you, your family or President-elect.”

Um, who hasn’t?

Here we go again.

The Daily Telegraph interviewed a handful of cops and “experts” saying video games that allow players to street race and crash for fun are causing them to drive irresponsibly in real life.

Oh, totally! I played tons of Mario Kart growing up, and now anytime someone tries cutting me off on the Hutchinson Parkway, I lean out of my window and throw a turtle shell at him. Then I do a few mushrooms and speed away.

Give me a break. Anyone who drives irresponsibly does so because … they’re irresponsible! I’m sick and tired of video games being blamed for the real problem here — stupidity.

If video games are the cause of bad driving, try using that as an excuse next time you get pulled over.

“Sir, I clocked you at driving 95 mph and you ran over that old lady before I stopped you. What’s going on?”

“Umm, I was trying to catch up with Luigi?”

(Photo by Kathy Gardner / The Journal News )

Surprise, surprise… A recent study reveals that most Gen Y web surfers (ages 21-29) like sites pertaining to social networking, e-commerce and information/education. The top visited sites are Facebook , Wikipedia and YouTube. I’m happy to see that credible media outlets–The New York Times and CNN—also made the list!

Top 15 Gen Y Websites
1. Facebook
2. Wikipedia
3. YouTube
4. Craigslist
5. MySpace
6. eBay
7. NYTimes
8. Yelp
9. Flickr
10. Netflix
11. Pandora
12. PerezHilton
13. Amazon
14. CNN
15. Hulu

The study by Outlaw Consulting revealed that young adult online visitors like personalization and relevancy for engaging their attention and the ability to easily share content. Approximately 100 internet surfers from New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Miami were surveyed.

(Photo: AP/Cameron Bloch)

TiVo and Domino’s pizza signed a deal today allowing subscribers to order pizza using the popular television recording box.

Phew, thank goodness! For years I was complaining about the cumbersome burden of lifting a telephone to my ear and wasting my precious vocal cords on speaking.

Now I can use that 25 seconds I’m going to save to ponder how much of a fat lazy slob I am.

Domino’s, you never cease to amaze me. First you wooed me with cheeseburger pizza. Because I love pizza and I love cheeseburgers, but I’m too stupid to make decisions on my own.

What next? Pretty soon all you’ll have to do is grunt and in 10 minutes, someone from Domino’s will zoom over to your house and feed you.

Watch Pizza Hut steal that idea and offer to burp customers afterward.

(Photo by Matthew Brown / The Journal News )

Wow.

A prisoner in Germany is on the loose now after escaping prison in a cardboard box. Apparently the guy mailed himself out of prison and a carrier loaded the box on his truck along with the other mail.

Once the truck left the prison, the inmate cut himself out of the box and jumped off the truck.

I’m not condoning this felon, but holy crap is that awesome.

I wish I thought of that in elementary school. I could have gotten out of that science test I failed in 3rd grade by mailing myself to Chuck E. Cheese for the day.

Now that I think about it, I wonder what’s stopping me from doing that now.

(Photo by Carucha L. Meuse / The Journal News )

After writing that last post on robots taking over the earth, you guys flooded my inbox with two e-mails.

One of them informed me about a New Zealand artist named Lisa Black, who takes the remains of deceased animals and stuffs them with mechanical parts. The result is her exhibition Fixed which “combines taxidermy creatures and mechanical parts to form beautiful amalgamations of natural and industrial parts.”

You can call it creepy and gross, but you can’t deny that it’s original. She gave me permission to post some of her work, so enjoy:

Check out Lisa’s site for more of her creations. You can even purchase prints of her artwork. What better way to tell your significant other how much you love them this holiday season with a dead deer stuffed with mechanical parts?

Finally! After years of imposing draconian applications, advertising trackers and layout designs on Facebook users, the superpower of social networking will finally let us have our say, according to The Wall Street Journal tech blog.

Starting this week, Facebook users can vote on two new applications. One lets you pass a greeting card around to all your friends to “sign.” How about that group “Feel Better From Your Hangover Soon” card you always wanted to send? The other ap is a personalized news service that creepily predicts what kind of news you’ll like. What about predicting what we won’t like? Now there’s a push for a real informed public.

The voting application itself is a hidden advertisement for the company that built it, a clever way Facebook is trying to stir the inner consumer Facebook users.

Oh, Dobbs Ferry kid Mark Zuckerberg, you were so much dreamier when you were just the nerdy guy in the dorm who could supp up a Commodore computer.

(AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)