According to RFID Journal, Scott Martiny, CEO of Capton, a provider of liquor-monitoring technology, estimates that $7 billion is lost in the U.S each year from bartenders overpouring, undercharging or failing to charge for some drinks.

The company has developed the Beverage Tracker system to combat these losses. The system, which consists of RFID-enabled liquor spouts, an RFID reader and proprietary software, costs between $10,000 and $20,000, but can save $90,000 per year for an average bar.

The system is currently in place at 100 hotels, resorts, bars, stadiums and other locations worldwide, including Treasure Island in Las Vegas. Remind me to get my drink on at the Tropicana next time I’m in Sin City.

German entrepreneur Alexander Schoppman is working to launch a luxury airline called Smintair, short for Smoker’s International Airline. He plans to offer flights between Dusseldorf and Tokyo, using leased 747s configured with only 30 first class seats and 108 business class seats.

According to the BBC (and the company’s website) Schoppman seeks to emulate a “grand hotel” atmosphere from the 1960s, where smoking would be allowed throughout the plane.

On the website Mr. Schoppmann writes nostalgically about the old times when Lufthansa offered its passengers a vast selection of Montecristo cigars.

Before it can launch, Smintair needs to find at least 40 million euros for an operating licence from the German federal aviation authority.

Everyone wants to save money, but not everyone is willing to clip coupons.

Starting today, there’s a cleaner, paperless method for coupon distribution thanks to Cellfire, a San Jose-based startup.

Cellfire is free software for your cell phone. Install it and you’ll have access to coupons for restaurants, stores, entertainment venues and more. Hollywood Video, T.G.I.Friday’s and 1-800-flowers.com are some of the first marketers to offer discounts via Cellfire.

323 billion coupons were distributed in 2005, but consumers redeemed only about one percent of them, according to Promo Magazine. TechCrunch reports that Cellfire’s test in California blew those figures away with a 20% redemption rate.

Currently, only Cingular phones can be used to redeem Cellfire coupons, but more carriers are expected to get on board.

Digg is a technology news website that combines social bookmarking, blogging, RSS, and non-hierarchical editorial control. With digg, users submit stories for review, but rather than allow an editor to decide which stories go on the homepage, the users do.

Starting Monday, Digg will feature new categories beyond technology—entertainment, gaming, science, world & business, and online video.

According to TechCrunch, about 800,000 unique visitors come to Digg every day, generating 9 million plus page views. The site is doubling in traffic every two months. Those are the kind of numbers the New York Times pulls in. And the amazing thing is that Digg does all of this with just 15 employees.

Rob Hof at Business Week wonders if the Digg brand can stretch beyond geekdom and appeal to the general population. I’m wondering if those 800,000 visitors a day are all geeks. Or if there are even that many geeks on the planet.

Headed to a game? Might want to check the sponsors before you dress for the event. More than 1,000 Dutch soccer fans probably wished they did as they sat in their underwear watching their national team play in a recent World Cup match in Stuttgart, Germany.

The fans, decked out in orange pants complete with fuzzy lions’ tails (in honor of their Dutch mascot), were given a choice at the stadium gates: Drop the lederhosen, or skip the game.

So they dropped.

It seems the aforementioned pants are trademarked garb of the Bavaria Beer Company, and thus forbidden en masse at the World Cup games, which are exclusively sponsored by Budweiser.

In an NPR interview, Robert Siegel spoke with Bavaria Beer Chairman Peer Swinkles about the mandatory disrobing, during which Swinkles brought up an interesting point: Would fans also be forced to remove Nike shoes for fear of a mass ad for a competitor of World Cup sponsor Adidas?

Makes you wonder… Also makes you wonder what would’ve happened if any of the Dutch fans happened to be wearing Heineken underwear. Maybe Budweiser is just trying to find a market for Budweiser Speedos.

The Guardian is reporting on yet another creative use for cell phone technology.

Two Italian directors who wanted to follow in the footsteps of their legendary countryman Pier Paolo Pasolini have reportedly scored a first - shooting a feature-length documentary using a Nokia N90 mobile phone.

The 93-minute film, called New Love Meetings, is a modern version of Pasolini’s 1965 documentary, Love Meetings, in which Pasolini interviewed Italians to find out their views about sex in postwar Italy.

The new version, shot by Marcello Mencarini and Barbara Seghezzi, was filmed in MPEG4 format with a mobile phone. For two months last year, the directors interviewed some 700 people across Italy, at bars, open markets, on the beach.

Nokia does not appear to be involved in the production, but the company stands to benefit from the free press generated by this story. Having seen the quality of the footage represented in the trailer, I’m impressed. Enough to upgrade my phone? Perhaps.

Here’s a unique gift item for the tarmac warrior near and dear to you.

Currently Hubwear only has three verisons of this shirt: ORD to SFO, ORD to LGA and ORD to LHR. Yes, it’s a Chicago-centric offering, but customers are welcome to suggest alternate routes. I just suggested SAV to ORD.

The designs are printed on American Apparel t-shirts.

[via Gridskipper]

Universal Pictures found an engaging way to build pre-release buzz for their car culture film, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, in theaters June 16, 2006.

After dozens of videos submitted and thousands of votes in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift Online Showoff, the smoke has cleared and one tuner has risen above the rest. Vergel Oriel’s tricked out 2002 Toyota Celica sped away with the most votes from the online car community to win a cool $1,000 and a private screening of the film for himself and 100 friends.

“I hate the Internet. I’m going to get famous the old-fashioned way, one person at a time.” -Neko Case

Neko Case will perform her song “Maybe Sparrow” on Late Night with David Letterman tomorrow night, June 14th.

Her latest album, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, was released on March 7, 2006. Case’s music is frequently labeled alternative country, although she doesn’t describe it in that way.

She is protective of her artistic independence, combining punk’s “do it yourself” aesthetic, a strong business sense, and clear opinions about her artistic goals. She has spurned offers from major record labels because they don’t offer her enough control of her music, remaining affiliated with Mint Records in Canada and Bloodshot and ANTI- in the U.S.

Case can write. Songs and prose. Here’s how she describes herself on her new website:

I was born on an Air Force base in Virginia to some teenage children. After a short classified assignment for the president, my family returned home to Washington State. From about age four to age fifteen, I was raised by dogs and cats. I occasionally intersected with my parents by accident. “Oh it’s you?! I have to make you a lunch, don’t I?” As I grew into a young adult I was very confused and lacked direction. My parents very much wanted me to become a crack-whore, but I gravely disappointed them by graduating from college. Though they did not notice until years after the event, they still take my failings personally.

For someone who “hates the internet,” she sure knows how to put a site together.

According to The Register, British agit-pop artist, Billy Bragg, is waging another noble battle against the titans of industry. The funny things is, the corporation in question is not dodging Bragg’s bullets, nor looking to darn any armor.

MySpace says it’s revising its legal terms and conditions after songwriter Billy Bragg withdrew his songs from the website in protest.

MySpace is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News International, a bete noir for Bragg for more than 20 years. On 18 May, Bragg’s management withdrew the song files, citing the terms and conditions.

Bragg said the terms allowed News International to reuse his content without remunerating the artist.

“Because the legalese has caused some confusion, we are at work revising it to make it very clear that MySpace is not seeking a license to do anything with an artist’s work other than allow it to be shared in the manner the artist intends,” Jeff Berman told the New York Daily News. “Obviously, we don’t own their music or do anything with it that they don’t want.”

By the way, if you’ve yet to listen to Bragg’s two collaborations with Wilco, Mermaid Avenue Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, you’re missing out.