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You'd be forgiven for mistaking the Hamster's Lunch as a lunch for hamsters. No, it's intended for human consumption. You can buy a box at Coco's in Los Angeles, where nearly every product on display includes a helpful explanatory note.

Hamster's Lunch $4.45



Rice crackers and a hyper realistic, mercilessly charming hamster figure.

Note: We would like to thank Microsoft Windows Mobile for sponsoring mobile posting on Boing Boing. In the coming weeks, we'll be using the system to post audio, images, text, and video.

Here's a little more information about the sponsorships and ads on Boing Boing:

— Boing Boing's been running ads for years. It's a little surprising

that so many readers are only just now realizing it.

— This kind of sponsorship — in the immediate case, Microsoft

Windows Mobile — is structurally no different from sponsorships and

ads Boing Boing's done in the past.

— In fact, Hewlett-Packard sponsored a series of audio posts just

last year, no one made a fuss about them, and they certainly didn't

affect what appears in Boing Boing (aside from allowing some of it to

be an audio feed).

— In further fact, this kind of advertising and sponsorship has also

been going on for some time now in many other major weblogs. We

repeat: it's a little surprising that so many readers are only just

now realizing it.

— The presence of major advertisers and major advertising campaigns on high-traffic weblogs is not evidence of a conspiracy to somehow buy off the

online audience. Those high-end ad campaigns exist because the weblog-reading audience is now large enough to compete with old-media

advertising venues like print magazines.

— Finally, and most importantly, no advertising or sponsorship has

ever had any effect on Boing Boing's content or editorial policies,

nor will it influence them in the future. Our editorial content is

completely independent of our advertising.

I hope that answers your questions. Thank you for reading Boing Boing!

— Mark Frauenfelder





