A robot made of the kinds of things one finds in the back of their garden shed is hitchhiking across Canada. HitchBOT was created by researchers David Smith and Frauke Zeller who are studying the relationship between people and technology. The bucket-bodied creature is set to reach is final destination Sunday in Victoria, British Columbia.

An investment firm just got busted for defrauding clients of $120 million—some of which was funneled into a "sexually-oriented charter cruise venture." What is a "sexually-oriented charter cruise venture"? And does it have an unlimited soda plan?

Media buyers and major publishers say that despite ComScore shareholders' worries, Google's Ad Planner, which provides Web metrics and demographic data to online advertisers, won't dislodge Web-traffic measurement leader ComScore or its rival Nielsen. “[Google needs] to add so many things, it’s not even a consideration at this point,” Mediasmith CEO David Smith told Mediaweek. “It’s absolutely not ready for prime time.” And publishers say Ad Planner won't provide advertisers a more accurate look at their inventories. “Their numbers are as bad or worse as anybody else’s out there,” Forbes.com CEO Jim Spanfeller said. So why bother? Google just wants advertisers to pay more attention to the sites it reps through its AdSense network.