Live by the blog, die by the blog
Posted: Thursday, February 08, 2007 1:25 PM by Will Femia
When I'm wrong, holy moly I am wrooo-ong with two syllables. Let the record show that I said, "I can't see anyone really caring that much about the personal foibles of a candidate's Web master." Oh? How about readers of the New York Times and the Washington Post and ... Catholics?
Not only do Edwards' bloggers run the risk of eclipsing him (and by the way, they were fired [no they weren't **see comments]) but back and forth debates about candidates' bloggers appears to be a new aspect of campaign coverage.
Here's the John Edwards blog by the way, in case you're curious about how these particular bloggers were appearing.
"A forthcoming bill in the U.S. Senate lays the groundwork for a national database of illegal images that Internet service providers would use to automatically flag and report suspicious content to police." That sounds like a real Pandora's Box to me, assuming it even works. I remember an idea for a parent filter once screened for pixel color codes that matched skin tones. I don't think that one caught on. Meanwhile, I didn't know that "cartoon minors" counted as child porn. I don't doubt that pedophiles collect it but I'm surprised they could ban such a thing. Is there a similar law for anything else?
Commuter Click: The Psychology of Security - I read about this as a presentation here and went to Bruce Schneier's site to see if he had a transcript posted and it turns out he's got a whole long essay.
Speaking of psychology in blog entries, Thinking Faster Makes You Feel Happy and Brilliant
Real-world success with virtual goods - The buzz phrase to know is "real-money trading" which is what they call selling virtual items for real money. The news in this story is that it's looking like game makers may begin to sanction and even broker real-money trading, which could not only boost the industry but finally put hard numbers to what has been mostly anecdotal reports of moneymaking success.
I don't know how I missed the story of the guy trying to raise money for a Super Bowl ad to propose to his girlfriend because apparently it was in the news everywhere. In the end he didn't make enough for a Super Bowl ad so he bought local TV ad time on a show his girl watches. Her reaction is here on iFilm. (She kind of freaks out. Better keep her away from the scissors.) That soundtrack from Feelgood Science is nice if you're in the mood for it.
I think the deadline on the Amy Sedaris craft challenge is past, but it still fun to look at the entries. Especially since we just looked at those "snackimals" photoshop contest entries.
Lopez Murphy for President - When I first watched this I didn't understand how a campaign video from Argentina would make it into mainstream English meme trackers. If you watch to at least the midpoint you'll understand. It reminds me a little of the Tom Delay acrostics we saw in December.
Nerf Druids - This is a bit esoteric, but also kind of funny and you gain a bit of insight on gamer culture. NOTE: Not vulgar or sexual but you should probably put your headphones on for it if you're at work. You'll see.
Skateboarding robot - We should just hand our whole civilization over to them now, Sarah Connor and all.
5 Things You Need to Know About SLR Lenses - Very handy basics.
11 Most Important Philosophical Quotations - Ordinarily you'd expect this to be something stupid like the "drive on a parkway, park on a driveway" gag, but actually it's real and interesting.
A “Yakuza War” has started in Central Tokyo
The true cost of bottled water, summarized here, full report here and from memory, "Bad to the last drop." Basically bottled water is a blight from its starting point to the production to the shipping to the finished product that pollutes the earth with a jillion plastic bottles.
Did you see that Ozzfest is free this year? - Of course, that doesn't mean it's actually free, it means it'll be interesting to see how much the free tickets cost on eBay.
Has anyone ever had sex in space? In the end it sounds like he's saying No, not that we know of. But in the middle there's a strange bit of implication that the space station is like an orbiting love shack.
The Internet Anagram Server figures out anagrams for up to 12 letters.
