'10,000 friends ain't to Rat Pack'
Posted: Friday, September 15, 2006 3:59 PM by Will Femia
Frank Sinatra would not have been a MySpace fan.
Speaking of rejecting the Web trendy, How to Dissuade Yourself from Becoming a Blogger - Oh sure, now.
And as long as we're bashing MySpace, Jealous ex used MySpace to plot hit: police - In short, the ex-girlfriend used the new girlfriend's MySpace page to get the information needed to direct the hit man undercover cop to the person he was meant to kill. I know it seems like another obvious lesson in publishing too much personal info, but seriously, if she was willing to go far enough to pay for a murder, she probably wouldn't have stopped at MySpace to find the personal information.
Currently listening to "Not your usual bollocks" based on this recommendation.
I did click the rumor/story that JK Rowling almost lost the next and last Harry Potter book to airport security, but thankfully got mail the other day from Brenda Coulter and her sharper thinking. The blogger does make a good point though. How does JK Rowling not own her own plane?
Two stories are really resonating in the blogosphere today, the news of Microsoft's iPod-killer called Zune, and the passing of Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci.
I'm not seeing a stand-out "must click" on either subject though, so if you're interested the best bet may be to peruse the Tailrank threads:
The Daily Show kills with this twist on those Geico commercials you see on MSNBC all day long. Little Richard translates for President Bush. Perfect fit.
I wrestled with sharing this one all week because of a couple graphic points, but it's extremely well done and it's legitimately been on the viral charts all week. It's a slash mash-up. You'll recall that the slash in "slash fic" refers not to a knife but to the slash between the names of the characters written into a fictional erotic story. Superman/Wonderwoman. The concept has expanded to video, often pairing a love song with clips of the characters. For some reason it seems like there's a lot of gay slash material out there, perhaps because there isn't much actual gay sex in the mainstream. This particular piece celebrates the anniversary of Star Trek by editing together scenes in such a way that if you didn't know the show you'd be sure Spock and Kirk were lovers. Though I generally think the distinction of SFW and NSFW is a good enough rating system, it's funny to note that the creator of this video has contributed the category of NSFM (not safe for mom). It's not really that bad, but y'know... it's Spock and Kirk gay. Lastly, the song it's set it is NIN's Closer, which was a mainstream hit, but does quite clearly use the F-word many times, so there's that too. OK, you've been warned, here's the link.
UPDATE: In the mail a bit of clarification:
"Slash" does not equal fanfiction about romantic relationships. It specifically refers to fanfiction about homosexual pairings, usually of characters portrayed as or assumed to be straight in the canon (whether that's TV or movies or books, or whatever. There's Jane Austen slash, believe it or not.) Romantic relationships between heterosexual characters are usually described simply as "Het" or "Het fic" or whatever. Fanfiction that doesn't portray romantic relationships is called "Gen"
So, in otherwords, there's no such thing as Superman/WonderWman slash. Superman/Batman = slash. Superman/WonderWoman = het.
Speaking of viral video, Viral Video Chart tracks the top clips on YouTube, Google Video, and MySpace video. I see Olbermann at number 6. He's been blowing up all week. This kid freaking out on an amusement park ride got a bit of play around the cube farm yesterday too.
As long as I'm posting warnings, remember when I said there was a huge nerd audience out there looking for content that meets their interests? You probably couldn't do that any better than with a girl in her underwear posing with geek gadgets and video game controlers. Not safe for work, but too ridiculous to be truly dirty.
Speaking of gadget porn, here are a couple I haven't tried but sound cool:
Speaking of iPod add-ons, how about the iBreath, the iPod breathalyzer? Could this be real?
Forecast Advisor not only gives you the weather forecast in your area but also shows you the accuracy rating of weather services in your area. I have long asked for a service like this. In fact, what I think should happen is that a weather man should be held to account on the evening news for his forecast from the morning. Instead of playing "my Doppler is bigger than your Doppler," the local news outlets should be bragging about accuracy ratings. And naming your weather with an "accu-" prefix doesn't make it any more accurate by the way.
Mailing broken stuff back to the company rather than simply throwing it out can score you some new, unbroken stuff.
UFO visits China. Of course it's real.
I don't know how close the current situation with Iran is to that with Iraq in 2003, but some similarities are hard to ignore.
Commuter Click: If you only read the news story about the Pope and the latest Muslim outrage, you missed the good part. His actual talk is more interesting.
Somewhat related: In case you find yourself asking where are the Muslims speaking out against the extremists of the religion... "The leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, recently issued a decree to its supporters: Kill at least one American in the next two weeks. Well, I am an American too."
The Wire is indeed the best show on television. The only one I would consider buying on DVD. There's still time to catch up on this season's.
Media ownership study ordered destroyed - FCC draft suggested fewer owners would hurt local TV coverage
Blogging the scene of the Montreal shootings this week.
Since I'm always critical of terror paranoia police state tactics against photobloggers, here's a story of polite cops doing their job and a reasonable photoblogger cooperating.
The new Peter Jackson movie(s?) sound awesome already. "I can't wait to see Napoleonic battles fought with a squadron of dragons. That's what I go to the movies for."
