- Wikipedia’s article on Astroturfing I’m increasingly aware that the future of lying and propoganda lies in social media and astroturfing. It’s a problem we should really be looking towards more seriously.
- A Terrifying Message from Al Gore (via Futurama) “The movie that could make you feel like you should probably do something”
- Colbert on Demand… Let’s hope that this frankly astonishingly awesome site is somehow legal and produced with the permission of the Colbert people, because it would be a terrible shame for it to be shut down…
Category: Links
- Super awesome meta-classy episode of the Ze Frank show which I’ve watched three times I’m going to find out where he lives and buy him things and then I’m going to put them in a little circle around his house and record some noises and … it’s difficult to know where I’m going with this one…
- Meg Meish grabs the Sun’s awesome headline from yesterday and pushes it all over the shop A lovely fun post with a nice retro beginning of the blogosphere feel to it. Much missed casual observations with class…
- Scenes From “2001: A Space Odyssey” Sort of can’t get enough of You Tube at the moment. Earlier today I stumbled upon all these awesome old bits of Moonlighting which I probably haven’t seen in fifteen or twenty years. Which is scary in itself.
- Google buys YouTube for $1.65bn Well there you go then. Quite a lot of money, that. Be lying if I said that didn’t raise an eyebrow.
- A message from the founders of YouTube Never seen people look quite so pleased with themselves in my life. Probably with good reason too.
- Google has built in Malware warnings! Was looking for the official site for GECompanion, opened a bunch of windows and found this among them. It’s a pretty smart thing for them to be doing…
- The New BBC One idents launched yesterday I was going to link through to the BBC’s own page on them, but it’s in a pop-up and it’s all nasty Real stuff and I couldn’t easily get it to work so I just went to YouTube instead. Flash video’s quite nice.
- Just for comparison, some BBC idents from BBC Two These started being broadcast when I was seventeen. I don’t know whether it’s just nostalgia, but I rather prefer them. The new full video idents are interesting though.
- Creative Review has a weblog and they’re using it to respond to criticism of the new BBC logos I’m not sure what I think about them. Like many mainstream British television theme tunes, they seem restrained, lacking punch, with no bass or weight to really get the heart pounding. Pretty or constrained. The Daniel O’Donnell of branding?
- I’d Love This Product Even If I Weren’t A Stealth Marketer The Onion cuts right to the heart of the issue as usual.
- The Extraordinary World of Warcraft / South Park episode that was broadcast a few days ago So like any good nerd I was both stunned by the accuracy and also irritated by the errors. You totally can’t build up XP on boar! After a few levels you stop getting XP from something so much weaker than you!
- Media Convert Free, online and apparently quite powerful media conversion utility. I haven’t had a play with this yet, but it looks like it could be pretty useful. Wonder if it’s got a web service around it.
- Cuddle Party – ‘boundary-appropriate workshop’ Learn how to stop touching inappropriately! Get warm and close to lots of other people who crave human contact! Stop creeping me out! What’s wrong with an affectionate nod?!
- xkcd decides to represent one of Simon Willison’s major life events The world afterwards has been resolutely full of squirrels.
- Robert Anton Wilson needs our help He wrote the Illuminatus trilogy, he inspired many of the weirdest counter-cultural figures of the last several decades and he’s poor and dying. A contribution can help him to die in peace.
- Let your council sell your details to marketing agencies to avoid paying any council tax? No doubt some people thinks this is a really really good idea, but all I can see is a disturbing border being breached between viewing me as a citizen and viewing me as a consumer.
- Lance Arthur’s Conspicuous Consumption Nice idea – a weblog where you detail everything you buy and what you think of it. If only we could distribute this around the web a bit more. Nicely designed too, old chap!
- Responsible adults should always use sexual consent forms It’s the right thing to do. Apparently.
- The Wall Street Journal says Google are in talks to buy YouTube Now that’s an interesting bit of gossip. What with the parallel gossip from my guys as well, you can’t help feeling that this should be a more profitable time to be in social media. It’s raise time around now, right? Right?
- The Daily Show explore exactly what George Bush’s job is God, it’s really about time someone did that. The whole liberal media has been really slack in trying to work out what he’s for. Poor old chap must be terribly confused. Do I sound snarky? Do I?! Sleep deprived more like. Grumble.
- The BBC report on the spotting of the Mars rover from space I’ll resist the temptation to mock and say that we sort of already knew that was there, and instead ask why on earth the BBC or NASA would say that there’s a picture of the mars rover that’s visible from space and then show a picture in which it clearly i
- Why an atheist cares about religion Fascinating video on the way atheists are viewed in large tracts of the US and the way that religion is written into schooling, politics, power and history.
- Netflix are offering $1 million to anyone who can substantially improve their recommendations algorithms The most interesting thing is that they’re opening up a substantial dataset in order to help them work through these issues. I’d be really interested to get my hands on that with a talented data visualiser. Maybe Stamen should have a play?
- AOL Europe are looking for a Social Media / User Experience Intern Could be a really interesting opportunity for someone who wants to get into this whole territory, and would be working with early UK weblogger Meg Pickard of NotSoSoft/Meish fame
- David Filo posts up the puppet video from yesterday’s Hack Day Beck concert Now that was a strange and awesome experience. I’ll write more about the whole thing when Hack Day’s over and I’m a bit more relaxed.
- The Guardian reports on the memorandum of understanding between The BBC and Microsoft I have absolutely no idea what to make of this whatsoever.
- Your own personal Cassette Tape Generator Now this is a way to have a nostalgic grew-up-in-the-eighties musical retrotrip.
- ‚ÄúWeb 2.0 ‚Äòexit strategy‚Äô‚Äù badges Lots of badges, reflecting the various ways to cash out of the Web 2.0 ecology. Get bought by Yahoo! Get bought by Google! Get bought by Murdoch…
- Alan Yentob wants to know why You Tube matters to you It’s weird. This couldn’t look more cheap and yet simultaneously staged if it tried. I’m sort of weirded out by it. Interesting move, but at the same time, could you look any more stiff and formal?
- Hypoallergenic cats are now available for people with cat allergies This is quite smart. You don’t genetically engineer the cats – you just find the ones that don’t have the genetic marker and breed them as you would otherwise. I’d be surprised if said cats don’t represent the majority of purchased cats within thirty years…