YouTube: The people's court?
Posted: Friday, May 16, 2008 12:21 PM by Will Femia
That teenage rape victim YouTube clip. Jezebel has the CNN segment
along with some remarks. The story in brief is that the girl believes she was raped but authorities are charging the guy with "promoting sexual activity of a vic less than 16-years-old." This doesn't appear to be a news story (yet) so I'm hesitant to relay any details I can't confirm. I can't even confirm the authenticity of the video. Regardless, bringing rape allegations to YouTube is an idea I don't think we've seen before.
Speaking of judging teenage girls, here's that girl who was barred from entering her prom because her dress was too much... or rather,
not enough.
Speaking of teens and sex and the law,
Jailbeta is a disturbingly active blog tracking stories of teachers accused of having sex with their students and other inappropriate acts.
Portion sizes then and now - I generally believe the premise of this because I distinctly remember when I was young I'd order the largest of any size that gave me a choice. At the time, large was called "large." But even if I still had my boyish metabolism there's no way I'd be able to keep up with today's largest sizes. That said, I'm not sure I agree with everything on this list. Maybe coffee was served in a smaller cup, but weren't you more likely to drink that at a counter where a waitress would refill it? And I know for a fact that the tub of popcorn is more than 20 years old.
Jason Kottke
rounds up some interesting links on the controversial gray area between real photos of real things and illustrations.
Related: I'm making
this item on photo retouching my Commuter Click. I read a crappy summary of it and I see it at the root of a lot of discussion online so I should read the original piece. This is the guy who says the "real" women in the Dove ad are still pretty heavily photoshopped.
No off switch: "Hyperconnectivity" on the rise - Not surprisingly, a new study shows that people are online at work and online at home and online in between. There's an ominous tone to this piece with a focus on work/life balance and worker fatigue. That's hard to deny but at the same time (and obviously I'm biased here) I think there's something to be said for having an overlap in home/work tools. A person who has integrated Web use into their whole life is more likely to be more efficient at its use than someone for whom the Web is something they wrestle with only at work. (P.S. I think that graph is wrong.)
California Building
220 MPH High-Speed Train from San Francisco to LA -
The California High-Speed Rail site has a cool map of the route. I have to think it's easier to do this in California than on the
Eastern Seaboard because they don't have to deal with any interstate
issues.
Here's
that Tennessee GOP video attacking Michelle Obama that the news has been chewing on this morning.
The RIAA Explains How It Catches Alleged Music Pirates - While it's interesting to see that the RIAA has an automated system that uses Limewire to search for songs, check IP and send a takedown notice to the University (if it's a university IP), what I want to know is how they narrow their prosecution down to individuals. Like what made them think
this lady was a pirate and what went wrong in their analysis?
Microsoft TouchWall can
inexpensively turn any flat surface into a multi-touch display - This reminds me a little of the
projected keyboard in that it can see what your hands are doing even though you're not touching any real hardware. The part I don't understand: "Microsoft is quick to say that they have no current plans to productize and sell TouchWall." Why the heck not??
That Bill O'Reilly freak-out
remixed with a dance beat. Actually really catchy.
NOTE: Remember this was chock full o' F bombs.
Speaking of fun new music, the new Flight of the Conchords video for "
Ladies of the World."
Still speaking of silly videos, we've seen a few examples of obsessed fans making compilations of tiny pieces of their favorite movies and shows. I think the most recent example was that assemblage of characters on Lost saying, "What?" It turns out that kind of thing has a name,
Fanboy Supercuts, and Waxy has put together a list of what must surely be every single one of them.
The Mirror joins
the Guerrilla gardener who is secretly brightening up London - I love the idea of "plantfiti" and sneaking some living things into barren urban environments but this story is really weird. The police and town council actively enforce keeping public gardens ugly and untended?
Looking at the Web site they seem pretty well organized. I'm surprised they can turn the project into something like the adopt-a-highway program (except that they actually do something.)
Why has no one previously figured out that it's a good idea to
put a lid on the bottom of a jar as well as the top?
9 Ways To Start a Fire Without Matches - Was this on the man-list we saw the other day? Does the fact that this appears on a site called The Art of Manliness mean we can identify a trend in "real man" instruction?
