Some kink in the link
Posted: Thursday, April 10, 2008 2:44 AM by Will Femia
Filed Under:
Games
Time.com has launched an annual index of the
top 25 blogs on the Web according to them. (Smart readers will skip the annoyingly paginated original list and
see Valleywag's handy simple list instead.) The idea of such a list, especially the way they derived it, is as preposterous as it is obnoxious but you can't fault the blogs themselves for that so enjoy the list for what it is.
It's fun to see
The Reverse Cowgirl* on there. (She was also on
Rex's list this year.) I think I've told this story here before but when she used to blog on Salon in 2002 and I was writing Weblog Central here at msnbc.com my editor decided we shouldn't link directly to her because of the sexual content. Outraged, she drafted a cartoon in which I was represented as a man in a suit with an NBC logo for a face spanking a woman in a schoolgirl uniform (her). As you know, years later I now link to occasional sexual content without much concern about getting it past my editors (the
NOTE I add is a courtesy to readers). I wonder if there was much debate at Time about the inclusion of a sex blogger on the list. I wouldn't be surprised if there was none. I'm not sure where the turning point was in linking to content that might otherwise be out of bounds. Maybe when the meaning of "NSFW" became widely known and it was unavoidably apparent why such a marker would be useful. I do remember arguing at one point that one couldn't very well claim to report on what's popular online while ignoring all of the (extremely popular) sexual content. Maybe that argument now goes without saying.
*NOTE: In case you don't actually read the words on Clicked, I'm talking about a blog that covers the porn industry and other aspects of sex worker culture. It's not a porn site but there's a good chance you'll see some
naked body parts (or more) in some of the photos.
By the way, The Reverse Cowgirl is a great example of the difference between a blog and a tumblelog.
Her Tumblelog is here. In the way that writers are advised to "show don't tell" it is sometimes the case that seeing what a person highlights in the course of surfing the Web is more revealing than the long form thoughts expressed in a blog. (And speaking of hard to discern turning points, when did blogs become the "long form" option?)
Speaking of changing times, years ago the common advice given to companies who wanted to keep track of online opinion of their product or service was to search regularly through Technorati. Somewhere in the past year (or the coming one) the tech evangelists who work the conference circuit are going to have to amend that slide in their PowerPoint presentation to
include Twitter.
More interesting than today's launch of
Flickr video (which we knew was coming and doesn't really break any ground as far as video goes - though the
sleepy cat video is one for the ages) is the new
Pitchfork.tv.
Speaking of popular music sites turning their attention to video, Stereogum now has
Videogum. In this case, however, the subject matter is actually visual media.
Where on Earth is Waldo?20 Percent of Scientists Admit Using Brain-Enhancing Drugs -- Do You? No, caffeine doesn't count.
Magic Pen is like that Crayon Physics game we saw a while ago. Draw the shapes to roll the ball into the flag.
Charlie Daniels is angry that Guitar Hero has taken his Devil Went Down To Georgia song and made it more about the Devil than he ever intended.
Al Gore's new slideshow. This is actually his recent TED talk. A half hour long. If I can figure out how to play the video on my phone I'm going to try to make this a Commuter Click for today. I always the people on the subway watching video need to break their TV addiction but today I'll be one of them.
Speaking of using your phone for something other than calling, I found
New Media Bytes by accident and have been watching the coverage there of QR codes - like funky bar codes. Today's entry is about how to make your own.
The idea is that you point your phone's camera at the code and the software you've installed translates it into something - a message or sometimes a link, which you can then click through on you phone's Web (or presumably bounce it somewhere to look at later on your computer).
Here's an odd subculture even your kids may not have heard of:
Shriiimping. It's graffiti on bikini girls. It seems a little like a fetish but I think it's more like body art.
NOTE: NSFW Contains boobies.
Speaking of putting graffiti on stuff, I got a kick out of this
series of Darth Vader helmets.
The New York Times shows us
the hand signs used on the floor of the stock exchange. I thought they were more complex than this.
The first few pages of the upcoming Oliver Stone movie on George W. Bush have been released/leaked. Even if you're not interested, this is a pretty cool way to build buzz about a movie. I'm sure we'll see a lot of fact check stories when the movie finally comes up but here's an early look at Bush biographers giving it the sniff test.
ADDING: Ok, I just read it and maybe I'm missing the vision (or it's been greatly improved since this October draft) but it seems pretty crappy.
Speaking of kicking Bush in the pants on the way out, I also clicked this item about h
ow American historians rate him. (Answer: poor.)
But (yes, this isn't an all out Bush-bash item) I was more convinced by this brief blog entry explaining
why history will treat Bush well. In short, he's attached his name to some big ideas that will likely eventually come to fruition. Time will forget the specifics and associate him with any successes farther down the road.
The Segway people have a new cool thing being demo'd. I say "cool thing" because I'm not sure what to call an
omnidirectional rolling platform. The guy shooting the video calls it creepy but I don't think it is, though the wheels are really cool.
The more I poke around MySpace the less I like both for content and searchability but did find this cool instructional video on
how to do a streetball slip and slide. Ultimately I lost some of my day to
Streetball.com.
"Kettering University student Will Foster
builds half-scale Panzer." He built it for paintball, so yes, it does fire. Authorities treated him much better than the guy who
built his own submarine.
The Improv Everywhere folks struck again, this time in California they
treated a random little league game like the most important game in the world, complete with mascots and autographs and shirtless men with letters written on their bellies, Goodyear blimp and real actual NBC Sports newscasters and Jumbotron. I don't recall if it was Improv Everywhere or another group but something similar was done with unknown rock bands once as well. A whole team got together and acted like the band's biggest fans.
Hot Pads foreclosure heat map shows per capita foreclosures across the US. Zoomable by town or even neighborhoods. I see confirmation of what I've heard from folks I know in Florida who say the situation is grim down there.
Somehow, even when Yahtzee the video game reviewer in Zero Punctuation likes a game it
still sounds like he doesn't.
NOTE: Some coarse language but the guy talks so fast you may miss it anyway.
