The Fear - Williamsburg

Williamsburg is looking pretty bad-ass these days, according to the Brooklyn Paper's police blotter. Some highlights:

A crazy roommate vs. roommate fight ends in one losing a finger and the other losing "$300 in cash, a Treo cellphone, an IBM ThinkPad laptop, and a Compaq laptop". (B/t Wythe and Bedford)

A 25 year old actress was robbed at Luna Lounge.

A 41 year old man thought he was being pranked when he was robbed by 2 kids who, when asked, definitely weren't joking when they told him to turn over his cash. They ended up taking a gold watch, cellphone, and $135 cash.

Two roommates, (who work at home by the way), were robbed of over $4,000 worth of while they were at work, at the corner of Graham and McKibbin St.

Some 17 year kid was a walking cliche when he said, "Gimme your F--king money" to some dude walking by the Williamsburg bridge. Gimme your F--king money is the most original thing you can say when robbing someone? Please. You better make me laugh for $70 in cash. (Roebling and the Bridge)

Two dudes mugged at 29 year old with a razor blade. Cops caught them and found a bag of cocaine. That's like sticking up a bank with a needle. Or burning someone's eyebrows for $20 bucks with your safety-less lighter. Freeze, motherf--ker, or I'll throw a spoon atchu! (B/t Union and Lorimer)

And finally, at my favorite try-to-balance-on-my-bike-while-waiting-for-the-light-to-turn-green intersection:

"A thug repeatedly pounded a woman in the face, all so he could make off with her $50 headphones. The disproportionately violent attack, at 12:05 am on Nov. 22, took place as the 31-year-old woman was at the corner of Grand Street and Manhattan Avenue. After the attack, the thug, whose face remained partially covered the whole time, fled. The victim, complaining of severe pain in her head, was taken to Woodhull Hospital."

Watch your back, bitches, and have a great weekend!

BROOKLYN PAPER

2 Girls 1 Cup - The Scoop Behind The Poop

In "The Scoop Behind The Poop", The Smoking Gun reveals the creator behind the hit "2 Girls 1 Cup" video.

"The repulsive video--which has become such an online sensation that it has been knocked off by John Mayer, Perez Hilton, and has launched tons of hilarious "reaction" videos--can be blamed on Marco Fiorito, a Brazilian man who describes himself as a "compulsive fetishist" and "an artist in the art of movie making." The 36-year-old Sao Paulo resident became interested in cinema in 1994 and, two years later, began a fetish film business with his wife."

SuperBad Penis Drawings - Animated

The penis drawings from the movie Superbad are being turned into a 5-part animated cartoon, which premiered on November 22nd, and ends December 5th! Sorry for the pre-ad if you get it, and the post dvd ad, the animation is the meat in the middle!

"From the minds that brought you Superbad, and inspired by the original drawings by David Goldberg, this is an original animated series (in 5 parts) you'll watch over and over!"

From Crackle: Sushi Penis

UPDATE: Good lord, Crackle has the most horrible, ad-heavy embeddable player ever. Now we know.

Mythbusters and Light Bulbs

According to the Mythbusters,

"Based on the amount of energy consumed turning on the bulb, they were able to calculate how long the bulb would have to be turned off to make it worth the energy savings. "

It's best to turn off the lights when you're leaving the room for:
(and this is ranked by bulb-type)

Incandescent: 0.036 seconds
CFL: 0.015 seconds
Halogen: 0.51 seconds
LED: 1.28 seconds
Fluorescent: 23.3 seconds

GRANITEGEEK

Panoramas from the Chernobyl Zone

These are incredible. Two photographers (Michael Foster Rothbart & Dave Menninger) traveled to the Chernobyl zone in Russia, and took some amazing panoramas from different spots around the area. You can step inside the creepy Kindergarten room, stand next to the failed reactor, or steer clear of the radiation, and view from one of the rooftops. Click: Panoramas from Chernobyl

Facebook's Beacon is in trouuuuuubleeeeee.

Screw you, Facebook.

I knew it was weird when you told all my friends about the movie tickets I bought on Fandango. I didn't even have a chance to stop your announcement to my "friends". All I was told, was "Hey Brian, we just told everybody what you just did. Next time, you might be able to stop us. Click here for more information"...or something along those lines. Then, a few days ago they tweaked the system to have more visible notifications on both Facebook & Partner sties when these types of transactions go down. But now, stories of ruined Christmas surprises, embarassing purchases on eBay, and an exposed Yelper are examples of what's causing Facebook users to be a little more skeptical of the new system. MoveOn has taken to the issue, creating a Facebook group and releasing statments almost daily. Their most recent came MoveOn spokesman.

"Adam Green, a spokesman for MoveOn, hopes other social networks that have their own Facebook-like feeds about users' actions—namely, News Corp.'s (NWS) MySpace—take heed of such warnings. "We hope that this is opening a lot of people's eyes to the very real privacy concerns on the Internet," says Green. "The privacy interests of Internet users should get put before the wish list of corporate advertisers." "

For those of you unfamiliar with how Beacon works, read this summary by BusinessWeek:

"Even as Facebook mollifies disgruntled users, it risks rankling some of the partners that signed on in hopes of benefiting as members broadcast their purchases—say, from Blockbuster (BBI) or eBay (EBAY)—to a circle of friends. As part of the Beacon arrangement, partners pay for what Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg has called "trusted referrals." The idea is that Facebook users will be more apt to patronize the sites and stores their friends are using. On Nov. 6, when he announced the system, Zuckerberg called trusted referrals the "holy grail" of advertising (BusinessWeek.com, 11/07/07).

Facebook's response is basically that it's disgruntled users are just bluffing their anger. They constantly remind people about the hub-bub over the News-Feed when it first came out over a year ago. People threated to leave, people threatened to sue, people even threated the lives of Facebook employees, but in the end everything settled down and the majority of Facebook users utilize their News Feed on a daily basis.

This time, people need to do more. We need a list of all the partners that have signed up for Beacon, and a call to arms to launch a full fledged boycott just in time for the holidays. While it is a huge step, we need to do much, much more than complain on MoveOn's Facebook group, switching back and forth between a lagged game of Scrabbulous.

Until then, keep checking your privacy options in your Facebook account page to make sure no other websites have secretly signed you up after a recent visit. Business Week is saying that there might be a major announcement later today involving Beacon changing for the better, so hopefully that will play out favorably. Thank you MoveOn for leading the charge on protecting Facebook user's privacy. And to the users: Stop whining and start taking action! Start with boycotting Fandango, Overstock, and eBay. If anybody can find a list of all the partners, I'll post that too.

BUSINESS WEEK

Morning Update

I changed the setting that controls comments, so from now on you don't have to be a blogger user to comment on here. Any old joe or joenette can leave some commentary, so don't hold back.

Deserted Island - Gukanjima

Gukanjima is an island located off the coast of Japan which was built to sustain a booming and bustling coal industry. It was built in the 19th century on a coral reef, and was home to over 5300 people. However, in 1974 the mine tapped out, so the entire community packed their bags and left their above ground Atlantis for the mainland.


At a younger age, photographer Saiga Yugi visited the island when it was still a bustling coal town. It's citizens, he claimed, boasted that there wasn't anything they needed which couldn't be found within the city's walls. Upon returning years later with some food, drinking water, and a camera he found it's contents in a state of human-less slumber, "pure objects" as he deemed them.

"As days passed on the island, my impression of it began to change greatly. The innumerable articles left behind, all shrouded in dust, rusted,to me at first seemed merely drifting toward death. Yet, from one point in time, they started to look vivid, and beautiful. I thought perhaps the island, while appearing to fall deep asleep, had gradually commenced to awaken, the day it was deserted.

Order and value that only prevailed through human existence had long been disrupted. Items were scattered here and there with no context, no ranking. Everything had equal value. The sight I saw spoke of the relationship of the master and servant that had vanished at the time these items were discarded, which liberated them from human reign. To be abandoned meant freedom from all. The items left behind on the island lost their names, their given tasks, even the meaning of their existence. They laid there, as mere "objects." Books and clocks and empty bottles were no longer books and clocks and empty bottles. Things that had been domesticated by humans no longer existed on the island.

Just as the inhabitants started their new lives by leaving the island, these things too, left behind on the island, shed their identity once forced on by humans, to start their lives as 'pure objects.'"

Today, the island is completely closed to the public, and is protected by a high sea wall to keep out curious intruders. As you'll see from these pictures, all that remains is an eerie, seemingly post-apocalyptic ghost town full of decaying apartment complexes, empty birdcages, and a movie theater with no patrons.

Check out the photo set to get a rare glimpse of what's left inside the deserted island of Gukanjima, as captured by photographer Saiga Yugi. Or, read his thoughts on the experience which include the above quote. Thirdly, here's the all-important Wikipedia article on the subject. The island is now named Hashima Island, and apparently scenes of Battle Royale II were shot there.


Update: Making Places is a group of people committed to creating Gukanjima in a virtual world! That's cool. They also have a much more extensive photo set. So, definitely explore that a bit.

APN

Mister Splashy Pants - Part 3

Ah! It just can't get any better. Greenpeace is super excited now, naturally, that they thanked both Boing Boing and Reddit for their help, and have even extended the competition a week longer. From their blog:

"Thanks to our friends over at BoingBoing and Reddit, Mr Splashy Pants is in the lead for the Greenpeace name-a-whale competition."

Then the rest of the blog is about some "super-clicker" who clicked a million times a minute for a while in an attempt to sway the competition, but that it didn't matter, Boing Boing and Reddit traffic had done the job. They did however nullify the votes by this mysterious "super-clicker"...

"To be fair to everyone else, this clicking marathon was removed from the voting results, but it didn't matter. BoingBoing and Reddit had both seen Mr Splashy Pants fly into the lead and posted the story on their sites...the rest as they say...'might' be history. If you don't like Mr Splashy Pants as a whale name, you had better get your friends to vote for something else."

Greenpeace, don't know if you know this but, nobody has any friends who don't like Mister Splashy Pants. That's like asking a classroom of third-graders to help you kill Santa, or set a mousetrap out for the Easter Bunny. Mister Splashy Pants is part of our world now.

GREENPEACE BLOG

Mister Splashy Pants - Part 2

Reddit is so pleased with the recent turn of events in voting to name Greenpeace's whale "Mister Splashy Pants", that they've temporarily changed their icon to reflect their pride in the name!!!

REDDIT

New White Stripes Video - Conquest

Brand new video of the song "Conquest", off their newest album Icky Thump.



YOUTUBE

Awk....ward....

The little-known awkward side of winning the Nobel Peace Prize is posing for a photo opp with your sworn lifetime rival. The two met afterwards for a 45-minute meeting where they talked about....can you guess?

Global Warming.

AP ARTICLE

Mister Splashy Pants

As Jesse so delightfully discovered last night, Greenpeace's online vote to name a Humpback Whale has taken the path least suspected when a reddit post from yesterday asked it's community to vote for the name "Mister Splashy Pants", the wild card in a pool of names like Anahi, Libertad, and Manami. Greenpeace had asked it's supporters to help name a whale by picking a winner from the finalists a pool of over 11,000 submitted names.

"More than 11,000 possible whale names were submitted but we are now down to the last 30 possible whale names...which ones will be given to the wonderful humpback whales currently travelling on the Great Whale Trail?"

Of course, reddit readers responded and it looks like some poor whale will now be called Mister Splashy Pants. If you'd like to take part, I suggest you vote soon, as voting ends November 30th at 7pm Amsterdam time (whenever that is...). Click HERE to vote, and not to sway you or anything, but here's how the top results are looking so far:

LINK TO VOTE

Obama & Net Neutrality

Techcrunch posted a quick re-cap of Obama's release last week, which addressed a few of his stances related to technology. They went so far as to claim he understood the issue "better than any other candidate", and gave a quick summary of what he stands for:

• He doesn’t feel the FCC went far enough in promoting competition with the upcoming 700MHz spectrum auctions.
• He supports Federal intervention to encourage more ubiquitous broadband Internet access and delivering technology to schools.
• He wants to keep the Internet tax free, and he wants to “close the loophole” that allows venture capitalists to recognize investment profits as capital gains.
• He supports temporary increases in the H1-B visa program from the current levels
  He plans to make big investments in renewable energy, and supports caps on carbon emissions.

It seems his interns have done their research. Let's hope these issues get more airplay, and that other candidates pick up on the trend.

TECHCRUNCH

The Untergunther

This is the Pantheon. Since the 1960's, the French Government ignored it's decaying clock, and had pretty much written it off as a casualty of time until last week, when French court documents surfaced showing that underground "cultural guerillas" had been working over the past two years to fix the Patheon's once famous clock. Under the nose of the buildings administration and security, they would lock themselves in at night, and set up shop in a secret workshop deep within the Pantheon's walls.

"Under the supervision of expert clock-maker Jean-Baptiste Viot, the group slowly brought the once decaying clock back to life. Getting into the building was the easiest part, according to Klausmann. The squad allowed themselves to be locked into the Panthéon one night, and then identified a side entrance near some stairs leading up to their future hiding place. "Opening a lock is the easiest thing for a clockmaker," said Klausmann. From then on, they sneaked in day or night under the unsuspecting noses of the Panthéon's officials."

They go on to admit...

"The hardest part of the scheme was carrying up the planks used to make chairs and tables to furnish the Untergunther's cosy squat cum workshop, which has sweeping views over Paris."

The group even managed to connect everything to the electricity grid and bring in a computer, set up to the internet. Their group is part of a movement in underground awesomeness, called The Untergunther.

"Klausmann and his crew are connaisseurs of the Parisian underworld.Since the 1990s they have restored crypts, staged readings and plays in monuments at night, and organised rock concerts in quarries. The network was unknown to the authorities until 2004, when the police discovered an underground cinema, complete with bar and restaurant, under the Seine. They have tried to track them down ever since."

We need a chapter in Brooklyn, like, right now.

GUARDIAN

Taser Watch

Dude gets unfairly tasered by another cop overtepping his authority. 2007 is clearly the year of the Taser.

Status Updates

This is a link to the most efficient web page I've come across in a long time. It gives you a real-time status report of your current internet usage. imontheinternet

You know who posted on my blog because I left Blogger signed in?

Jesse posted on my blog because I left Blogger signed in.

Who do they thing they are? - Part 2

Boing Boing posted an insightful piece today further ripping into Amazon's new mistake. With a history of being innovative and pro-consumer, everybody's asking what made Amazon go evil? Was it the prospect of entering the handheld technology market? Was it the fear of failing copyright protections? Either way, Amazon has lost all its credibility in the eyes of the consumer, and can now be thrown in the closet for a ten minute make-out sesh with the RIAA, the big movie studios, and Satan.

Here, Cory Doctorow offers some good reasons on why he won't be buying the Kindle:

"...it spies on you, it has DRM (which means that it has to be designed to prevent you from modding it, lest you mod it to remove the DRM), it prevents you from selling or lending your books, and the terms of service are nearly as abusive as the Amazon Unbox terms (and worse than the thoroughly dumb-ass Amazon MP3 terms)."

Further, in a post on Dive Into Mark, Mark Pilgrim shows us the hypocricy's in Amazon CEO Steve Besos' policy on book ownership:

"When someone buys a book, they are also buying the right to resell that book, to loan it out, or to even give it away if they want. Everyone understands this.
Jeff Bezos, Open letter to Author’s Guild, 2002

You may not sell, rent, lease, distribute, broadcast, sublicense or otherwise assign any rights to the Digital Content or any portion of it to any third party, and you may not remove any proprietary notices or labels on the Digital Content. In addition, you may not, and you will not encourage, assist or authorize any other person to, bypass, modify, defeat or circumvent security features that protect the Digital Content.
Amazon, Kindle Terms of Service, 2007"

BOINGBOING & DIVEINTOMARK

You know who's awesome?

Jesse is awesome.

Charge your iPod with some Gatorade & an Onion

Video DIY on charging your iPod with no more than a white onion, some Gatorade, and a screwdriver.



VIRAL VIDEO CHART

Who do they think they are, Apple?

Today, Amazon announced that they will singlehandedly lead the charge to burn all books. Their new product, Kindle, is a technological burp that should've found it's way to stores five years ago. The product seems like five iPhones and a Laptop combined into one fit-in-your-backpack-but-not-your-pocket sized device. Using what they call, "electronic paper", Amazon not only proves their innovation in display technologies, but also their knack for clever names. Electronic Paper, thats the best they could do.

All this aside, the fact that it's using actual ink particles is kind of cool.

"Utilizing a new high-resolution display technology called electronic paper, Kindle provides a crisp black-and-white screen that resembles the appearance and readability of printed paper. The screen works using ink, just like books and newspapers, but displays the ink particles electronically. It reflects light like ordinary paper and uses no backlighting, eliminating the glare associated with other electronic displays. As a result, Kindle can be read as easily in bright sunlight as in your living room.The screen never gets hot so you can comfortably read as long as you like."

I give it a big fat D- for making the product way too big, way too late, as innovative as they claim it to be.

AMAZON

Onion Goggles

Tear no more. A company called RSVP international is producing and selling "Onion Goggles", which "have fog-free clear lenses and a foam seal that protects the eyes from irritating onion vapors." Add that to my Christmas list......sike! Got ya!

On another note, it's now cool again to say "Sike!" after statements that simply aren't true, but are said anyway to gauge a reaction.

LAUGHINGSQUID

Miss Landmind Angola

A Norwegian artist called Morten Traavik created the competition to raise global awareness of the landmine problem, as well as challenge and question beauty standards. From his manifesto:

* Female pride and empowerment.
* Disabled pride and empowerment.
* Global and local landmine awareness and information.
* Challenge inferiority and/or guilt complexes that hinder creativity- historical, cultural, social, personal, African, European.
* Question established concepts of physical perfection.
* Challenge old and ingrown concepts of cultural cooperation.
* Celebrate true beauty.
* Replace the passive term 'Victim' with the active term 'Survivor'

BOINGBOING

Live Blogging from 255 Mckibbin (update 11:36pm)

Topic of conversation is "New Years Party'. Are we all aboard? It was a mediocre response, but it seems that people are willing to be on board. The general attitude seems to be a not-so-crazy party...more of an intimate atmosphere with 50-60 people. The kind of party where everyone knows whos at the party, and why they're here. Roommate AG brought up the idea of a "door person". Me and the same roommate just jinxed each other, so now all i can do is type. That jinx happened when we said, "Maybe we could have a password!". So, if you're coming to our new years party, get ready to know the password. Girlfriend is going to make a postcard, like an invitation, so to get in you need to have a postcard and the password. It seems the direction is going to a potluck appetizer dinner, and dress to impress. Live blogging is hard. I feel like I can't talk, or I'll lose my brain-stream.

My friend KS has a girl? He's waiting for a call, but nobody's thinking it's going to happen. Now, they're looking at pictures of our dog Boss playing cards. Roommate JS just got back with snacks. I'm bouncing, to eat, and will return to live blog in the future.

But wait, roommate JS just publicly told us that he's never had a new years that's ended on a good note. It always starts great, he claims, but then ends on a really bad note.

Roommate SE just told us he "may or may not" illegally had sex with someone under-age on new years. Now, JS's badnotes are suddenly in G-major, beautifully resonating in our ears. SE just admitted it may or may not have been in a bathtub, making us all cringe with the thoughts of SE having sexual relations with a 15 year old. I've got to leave now, as live-blogging just got "real".

Live Blogging from 255 Mckibbin

I'm here live at my apartment. My girlfriend, my roommates, and a few friends are sitting around us. We are drinking pabst and my girlfriend has a Red Bull/40. In case you're not aware, red bull/40s are the new hotness, and have been for a few years now. They were invented 3 years ago in Syracuse, NY. Oh, I am reminded to remind you that baby bibs are the shit. Oh, someone is playing "Smell Yo' Dick". My other roommate just said, "This isn't really live blogging, because it's not streaming". Well, between you and me, screw him!

Dancing Crab (YMCA)

So, my roommate spotted our crab Sebastian doing some crazy dance moves earlier tonight. I grabbed the camera, caught him on tape, edited in the YMCA, and here you have it - Sebastian the Dancing Crab, YMCA remix.



YOUTUBE

Whole Lotta Mountain Goats Covers

For the past three days, music blog The Bathysphere has been posting an average of five Mountain Goats cover songs from various shows, per day. Songs include five versions of Ace Of Base's "The Sign", Merle Haggard's "I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink", and Billie Holiday's "I Wonder Where Our Love Has Gone", among many others. Go, click the below link and give 'em a listen because the Mountain Goats rock!

THE BATHYSPHERE (Mountain Goat's Tracks)

Military Air Space for Commercial Travel?

President Bush announced some measures which will actually work to clear up holiday travel traffic for the first time in the history of the world! The military is opening up the "Thanksgiving Express Lane", or unused military airspace, for planes during the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend. If it works well, it might re-open for Christmas travel. Some other provisions that will happen are:

• FAA will focus on preventing delays and work with the Port Authority to reduce bottlenecks in the NY-NJ area;
• FAA will work with airlines to expedite check-in (like extra ticket kiosks, staff) and have extra seats and extra planes on hand;
• FAA will use the Internet to provide real-time status on flight delays at Fly.FAA.Gov;
• Proposing more compensation for passengers affected by airline delays ("For example, a passenger forced to wait more than two hours for another flight would receive a minimum of $800 under our idea -- instead of the current $400.");
• Making airlines collect better data on delays;
• Developing long-term solutions to reduce congestion - perhaps like "congestion pricing" of the skies, which would involve airports charging fees for times of day when demand is greatest.

GOTHAMIST

Blogs Pass Newspapers On Meaningless Graph

So read the headline in today's Valleywag blog, later to be reposted in Gawker, where it was classically stolen and posted to the money clip. Below, you'll find a random chart with little to no explanation, showing us how in the eternal battle of good versus evil, it appears the devilishly good is winning.

VALLEYWAG

Smell Yo' Dick

This one's a little R-rated. Here's a video/song on YouTube, giving a little advice on how to tell if yo' man is a cheating fool.

***UPDATE***
So, now that YouTube has taken our little Riskay down, here's a link to her MySpace page which of course features the hit song, "Smell Yo Dick".

http://www.myspace.com/riskaydramaqueen

Ashes to ashes

Going to Disney Land is no longer just a plan for recent Super Bowl winners. In what appears to be a growing trend, people are dumping the remains of their loved ones all throughout the park. The most popular rides appear to be 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and 'Its a Small World'. A woman was caught last month dumping a mysterious substance all throughout the ride, but the teenage workers couldn't do much to stop her. When confronted by security, she tried to explain that it was simply baby powder. You know, b/c pirates get sweaty nuts with all those layers! Gotta keep the chafing down, y'arrrr.

"Some Disney watchers said park-goers tell them that people smuggling in the cremated remains of their loved ones and then sprinkling ashes on rides has been going on for a while.They said it started at the Haunted Mansion, but now the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride is growing in popularity. Al Lutz, who runs Miceage.com, told KABC that it is not unusual for people to scatter a loved one's remains at the happiest place on earth."

LOCAL 6 NEWS

Gene Simmons is a D.Bag

In a recent Billboard article, Gene Simmons proved he needs to stick with Celebreality these days, and gave me yet another reason never to buy a Kiss album.....

"Every little college kid, every freshly-scrubbed little kid's face should have been sued off the face of the earth. They should have taken their houses and cars and nipped it right there in the beginning. Those kids are putting 100,000 to a million people out of work. How can you pick on them? They've got freckles. That's a crook. He may as well be wearing a bandit's mask."

And he goes on to talk about Radiohead's "failed" attempt last month of naming your own price for In Rainbows.

"...that's not a business model that works. I open a store and say "Come on in and pay whatever you want." Are you on f*cking crack?"

Really, Gene? Even though 38% of the people who downloaded the song actually paid for it when they could've downloaded it for free?! According to Variety:

"About 1.2 million people downloaded the album in October, which puts the number of people who paid at about 450,000. Intriguingly, the largest percentage of those paying (52%) did not take the cheap way out and paid between $8 and $12."

Gene is exemplary of the older execs running the music labels into the ground. You cannot ignore the new marketplace for online music, you need to embrace the early adopters, and I'd say follow in the Apple iTunes Store's footprints and stick up for your customers, instead of suing 18-year old kids with freckles and single moms like Jammie Thomas.

Remove Facebook Ads

It's been only a week since Facebook announced their revolutionary new advertising opportunities at the Tech Crunch conference. Now, hackers have given us a way to remove Facebook's recent ad onslaught from your News Feed, profile, etc via Firefox Add-ons, in what appears to be Mark Zuckerberg's first major defeat by the community which earlier this year seemed to fully embrace the new F.Book platform.

U.S. Online Advertising is Booming

Well, this is good for the industry that I've found myself a part of. An exec at Interactive Advertising Bureau, said "The continued robust growth of the industry indicates that marketers increasingly understand and appreciate the benefits of interactive advertising". He went on to say that, "Marketers large and small have come to accept digital media as the fulcrum of any marketing strategy."

The players are coming to realize how truely important it is to have a solid web strategy, and that you no longer can create a shit steady website and hope people find it in Google search. Integration, innovation, and aggressive Implementation are not only the three "I's" which are the backbone of a solid net campaign, they are now copyrighted by me as my three pillars of the Money Clip.

REUTERS

Ten Crazy rumors of 2008 Presidential Candidates

Top 10 Craziest Rumors of the 2008 Presidential candidates so far...compiled by the Huffington Post:

1. Dennis Kucinich sees UFOs
2. Mitt Romney is really Mexican
3. Mitt Romney has a gay, albino son
4. Hillary Clinton is a lesbian (i actually believe this one...see LINK for more proof)
5. John McCain has an illegitimate African-American kid
6. John McCain is secretly a communist
7. Dick Cheney and Barack Obama are related
8. Barack Obama is secretly a radical Islamic terrorist (overplayed.)
9. John Edwards had an affair with a campaign staffer
10. Rudy Giuliani married his cousin

So, to expand on those. Hillary is a lesbian. Apparently the LA Times is holding up a story due to "ethical reasons", which is said to expose Hillary's lesbian relationship with her campaign aide Huma Abedin. Mitt Romney is a Mormon from Massachusetts, so I'd believe anything. Who Cares if John McCain has a kid or is a communist, either one would be good for him. Dick Cheney has no relatives, as he was conceived from dirt and rotten banana peels. Number 8's just dumb. John Edwards, good for you. People let rock stars get away with it, why can't he?

As for Rudy, I'd be more likely to believe that his parents were cousins, and he's the illegitimate offspring between a terrorist and Dick Cheney's banana-peel father, conceived on a UFO in a bed of nachos, witnessed by a gay, albino campaign staffer.

Hulu Backdoor

This was last week's news, but figured I'd repost here just to make my blog seem important. Buzzfeed listed a Hulu backdoor, which is indeed still up, and easily accessible.

All you need to do is paste the url: http://www.hulu.com/embed/1 and just keep changing the number, anywhere from 1 through 1801.

HULU seems pretty rad, as it operates fully in-browser with fairly speedy load times. The video quality is so-so at the moment, but also varies from show to show.

I found an episode of the Office that was of decent quality, but then some of Jay Leno's monologue that was really crappy. But that's nothing new.... Bwa-ha-hahaaaaa.

But seriously, jokes are fun.

BUZZFEED

Christmas Season with BearForce1

BearForce1 is back!. This time around, this band of Bear brothers sends us some Christmas cheer to a hairy & sweaty bouncin' beat. Check it.



PEREZ

Jumbo TV Remote

Insider Tip: Buy stock in Harriet Carter, because these things are about to become the HOTTEST thing since kool-aid.

BUY IT HERE

Crank Dat - Soulja Boy (Barney Remix)

This one's much better.

Date Rape & Aqua Dots

A top selling toy at both Wal-Mart and Toys R' Us has been recalled after authorities found that the Aqua Dots were made of a chemical that literally changes to GHB once ingested. GHB is better known as the "date-rape" drug, or to clubbers, liquid ecstasy. The Chinese government stopped all exports and temporarily revoked the business's license which was manufacturing the toys.

"U.S. consumer officials said the bead toys contain a chemical - 1,4 butanediol - that turns into gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, commonly known as GHB, when ingested. Also called liquid ecstasy, GHB is a sedative used by both club kids and date rapists."

SMP Films, the people behind the Mean Kitty Song video, created a spoof on YouTube but its really not that funny so I won't even bother posting. A brief scan on Ebay and Amazon found no Aqua Dots for sale, sadly. I guess I'll have to call my dealer and see if he's got them in stock.

Here's a four-star review on Amazon from R. Morningside, from the now-closed Amazon Aqua Dots page:

"We ordered these from the TV commercial and my son loves them. His school uses the 'melting beads' that are similar to these, but these are MUCH easier (because of the dispenser pen) and safer (no heat/ironing necessary). My son is 4 years old and figured it out all by himself and can do this craft without an adult helping him. My only complaint is the cost, but I am sure that will go down as the newness wears off. I would definitely recommend purchasing these at Toys 'R Us or here where they are more reasonably priced than on TV and because the website for Spinmaster does not always work. Overall, this is an easy craft for little ones."

NY Daily News & Cached Amazon Page

Brit-brit unedited, live in Las Vegas 2001

Oh No They Didn't and D-listed posted this hilarious audio clip of Britney singing along to Britney during her Live in Las Vegas HBO special from 2001. As if you didn't know already, it 100% confirms that Britney is an alien or some kind of mentally deficient troll. If I sang backwards to her songs while under water, I'd probably sound better. Check it out at: AUDIO

David Blaine - Street Magic 2

From funnyordie.com

Crank Dat - Soulja Boy (SpongeBob Remix)

This is something else. The music's by a band called, "I Set My Friends On Fire", and I don't know what they're deal is, but I guess now we know what it's like when people sing in that "Breathe-in" and roar voice, like when you try to talk like a robot. Yea, so, here you go:

The Waitress should have the last word

Fact: Hillary's cheap and forgot to tip. Get over it, says the affected waitress. She's been harrassed by reporters, bribed by local Clinton campaign staff, and finally she let everybody know the deal:

“You people are really nuts,” she told a reporter during a phone interview. “There’s kids dying in the war, the price of oil right now — there’s better things in this world to be thinking about than who served Hillary Clinton at Maid-Rite and who got a tip and who didn’t get a tip.”

NY TIMES

Plague Case Confirmed...

Oh my sweet lord. The Plague just may be making a come back here in the states. A wildlife Biologist recently died at the Grand Canyon, and tests are coming back showing that it was the Plague that took his life. What's that mean for the mid-west? Well, if the wildlife's got the plague kicking around, and they've got fleas, then the fleas bring it to the people, and when the people get pneumonia, the plague starts spreading, and once you have pneumonia AND the plague, you've got a 50% of living. Lesson? Don't you dare touch dead animals.

York became ill on Oct. 30 and called in sick for a couple of days before being found dead in his home on Nov. 2. As a wildlife biologist, he often came into contact with wild animals that can carry the plague or in areas where rodents congregate. He also was an avid outdoorsman and liked to hike and hunt.

LINK

When Democracy Unravels (updated 5:00pm)

Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister and opposition leader in Pakistan has been placed under house arrest this morning, following the military crackdown by Perez Musharraf. As she attempted to leave the house, twice, she was physically stopped by police. They proceeded to unwind barbed wire around the house, set up checkpoints, and wind up 5,000 of her supporters all. All of this means Pakistan is rapidly falling from one of our closest allies in the middle-east, to another corrupted & unstable totalitarian state.

*5:00pm update: Bhutto apparantly "un-arrested", but the barricade still stands. LINK

Manhunt 2

This past week I've been playing Manhunt 2 for PSP on the way to and from work. I've caught myself going three stops too far on the subway, immersed in the world of gore and revenge. As a matter of fact, my train broke down this morning somewhere under the river, but I didn't care. This just meant more Manhunt. They kicked us out at 1st Ave., but no problem, I just kept doing my thing - eyes glued to the screen, headphones maxed out - following the heels of random commuters in my peripheral. Check these screenshots out.

Get your own Turkey!

Barc Shelter...the fantastic no-kill animal shelter in Brooklyn where we got our Boss is having a fundraiser next Wednesday, November 14th. It's at the recently opened bowling alley called "The Gutter", which is just around the corner from McCarren Park. Doors at 6:30.

Borat on Good Morning America

Borat's making the rounds pimping his new "travel guide", and I'm selflessly promoting it on this here blog because that's just what I do. The book's called, BORAT: TOURISTIC GUIDINGS TO MINOR NATION OF U.S. AND A. and BORAT: TOURISTIC GUIDINGS TO GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN", and it came out yesterday. So go buy it. AMAZON LINK.

Speaking of Squidbillies....

hm.

Four Gigs of Radiohead

So, now you can buy a whole buncha Radio head in a weird little USB-form for $160 or so dollars. Screw $3 dollar downloads, this is the way to go!

LINK

Obama supporters pressed officials to keep Colbert off ballot

Goddamnit Obama. Now, no one really cared if Colbert was on the ballot or not...we all knew it was a joke and a stunt. However, to have one of your "supporters" be publicly identified as one who worked to keep Colbert off the South Carolina ballet is a huuuuge mistake. Now, I think, you really will lose votes to ol' Stevie. Your campaign has attacked what I would call an ally in this election season. You could have embraced his campaign, helped him even, as your targeted voting bloc is the exact same demographic. I might have just lost a bit of faith in your campaign Barack. I might actually consider writing in Mickey Mouse, after all.

Two prominent supporters of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign in South Carolina called state Democratic Party officials and urged them to keep funnyman Stephen Colbert's name off the primary ballot, according to party officials and Obama supporters.

LINK

Squidbillies on DVD

The greatest story of a squid is finally on DVD. We watched it grow in 2005 on Adult Swim, and I've missed it since. It's coming to stores tomorrow!

Buy it many places, one of them being Amazon!

Realization

There are things that make me freak out:
[Dan Deacon & Liam Lynch - Drinking Out Of Cups]


Follow that up with another awesome creation, and Dan Deacon's found himself a new fan in me: [Dan Deacon - Crystal Cat]

Look at this dog...

Benny Lava