Ripping through print

Those automobiles are just ripping it up in publications across the country.

Buick went to the trouble of matching the publication's typefaces. Buick also made the individual pieces of type fling themselves up into the third dimension. Cool.

"Wild, Wild West" titles

I was always a little confused about one part of the opening credits to "The Wild, Wild West."

When the big hand is pointing a gun at West and West does something to disarm the big hand, I thought West hit the gun with a karate chop.

Not so.

He pulls out a small derringer and shoots the big hand.

I didn't know that until I saw the opening credits recently on the new season 2 DVD set. The credits look great.

One other thing I didn't notice. The background of the titles is a version of the American flag. Nice.

Replacing the UPC bars? Or what?

What is this little grid? I've only seen it on one product -- a can of tomatoes.

Is it a replacement for the Universal Product Code, only smaller? Does it have some additional information in it?

Is is an inbetween step on the journey from universal UPC use to universal RIFD chip use?

I've seen symbols like this on postage-machine postage, but larger.

What is this thing?