DEATH OF THE INTERNET?

YouTube is now mainly commercial junk. The "YouTube HomePage does not promote Individual Videos." (Is The YouTube SEO Guy Smoking Crack?)

You try to watch a YouTube video which is 'non-commercial' and find that it buffers and buffers and buffers.

You switch to a YouTube video that is 'commercial' and find that it plays beautifully.

You Google 'CIA, Tunisia, voltairenet' and on the first page you find no mention of voltairenet's article on the CIA's role in the Tunisia coup.

You Google 'Tunisia revolt' and you are unlikely to find any mention of Soros or the CIA.

The CIA and its friends appear to be constructing a two tier internet.

Commercial stuff is in the top tier.

The rest is in the bottom tier and will be difficult to find and slow to upload.

At PCPRO, on 21 January 2011, the question is asked: Is the internet as we know it dead?

The answer involves:

"Websites and services that are willing to pay" being "thrust into the 'fast lane'".

"Those that don't" being "left fighting for scraps of bandwidth or even blocked outright."

According to Andrew Heaney, executive director of strategy and regulation at TalkTalk, Britain’s second biggest ISP:

"We have a .... differentiated network at all levels, with huge levels of widespread discrimination of traffic types..."

( Zen Internet doesn’t employ any traffic shaping across their network, and Zen has won the PC Pro Best Broadband ISP award for the past 7 years - Zen Internet)

Streaming video is the largest single category of internet traffic.

"Broadcasters willing to pay will be put into the 'fast lane'; those who don't will be left to fight their way through the regular internet traffic jams."

~~

Anonymous brings our attention to: "Why does Google block "Bilderberg" from auto-complete?".

"I would like to know why Google blocks 'Bilderberg' from auto-complete when it has over 2 million search results. Could this have anything to do with Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, reportedly being in attendance for the 2009 Bilderberg meeting?"

~~

THE CIA WAS INVOLVED IN THE TUNISIA REVOLT - THIERRY MEYSSAN OF VOLTAIRENET .

~~

GOODBYE GOOGLE & YOUTUBE!

Website for this image

The much hated Google deserves to go bust.

Users visiting YouTube today will see a message telling them they MUST link their YouTube account with their Google account.

Here are typical comments from the public (YouTube wants you to link your Google account The Web Services ...):

1. "This is the most idiotic thing Google/YouTube ever did.

"Now, there are thousands of us that cannot access our YouTube accounts anymore.

"This is an absolute train wreck...

"Time for millions of users to leave google and go to another video hosting service like blip.tv

"Many of us are fed up with Google's privacy invasion and data mining, and have gone to Startpage Search Engine

"See you in Hell Google/YouTube."

2. "What a idiocy and arrogance!

"They do not allow direct access to our youtube accounts?!?

"This is playing with users patience...

"I hate it when someone else decides what is better for me...

"Google/youtube it is time to say goodbye."

Website for this image

3. "I am looking for an alternative.

"This is insulting to me... my account is years old.

"There is no need for Google to know what I do on YouTube aside from tracking my every move.

"Screw them."

~~

"The account linking blip comes in the wake of the site's redesigned user homepage, and coincides with the movement to boycott YouTube today in protest of the website's increasing commercialization." (Google Forces YouTube Account Linking‎)

~~

Twelfth Bough: some problems are unpatriotic

~~

MC Amnesia: What's My Name?

The WTF Collective
The WTF Collective: MC Side-Tracked Easily, MC Insecure, MC Fatigued. Not the best rappers, but they've still got more rhymes than... um, something that rhymes a lot. (Jon Lajoie via Buzzfeed)

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All Your Viral Videos Are Belong To Us

Watch 100 of YouTube’s most famous viral videos in just over three minutes. Are there 100? Dunno, I didn't keep track, but it would take you a lot longer to find and watch them all separately. I should know, seeing as how many of them I recognized. Consider it a time-wasting time saver. (Link via Presurfer)

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Why Starbucks Won't Be Contacting Douglas Coupland Anymore...

Rainy day crafts with Douglas Coupland. "I know a lot of morning people and I know a lot of night people, but I have yet to meet a late afternoon person" (Link via @DougCoupland)

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MC Voldemort Owns Harry Potter

Poor Harry Potter, he just can't bring the hurt against Voldemort, even with his "Hagrid-sized balls."

I'm the darkest dark wizard in all of history
I'll slay your ass out like Cedric Digory
With a wave of my finger I'll put you on the floor
You a punk ass little kid without Dumbledore
I'm the best wizard rapper you ever will see
You're a puny rich midget with a dead mommy

(Link via /Film)

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M-M-M-M-Make It So

"He just kept talking in one long, incredibly unbroken sentence, moving from topic to topic so that no one had a chance to interrupt... It was really quite hypnotic."

Topless Robot posted this the other day as an example of why Star Trek: The Next Generation is actually inferior to the original series. I think it illustrates exactly the opposite. Jean-Luc Picard has got moves!

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United Breaks Guitars

Dave Carroll of the Halifax band Sons of Maxwell had his guitar broken by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. They gave him the runaround and ignored him for nine months, so he wrote a hutin' song and put it up on YouTube, where it is now on its way to going viral. Beware of pissed of customers.

United, United, you broke my Taylor guitar
United, United, some big help you are
You broke it, you should fix it
You're liable, just admit it
I should have flown with someone else or gone by car
‘Cause United breaks guitars'

Link via all over, but initially Steve Pratt

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Legos Crawl In Search Of Blood

"I have something I want to tell you. I'm not like other guys." Truer words have never been spoke.

You know it's thriller, Lego thriller night. Tired of the Michael Jackson tributes and retrospectives? Too bad, I was away for the weekend and need to get it out of my system, mostly by posting this recreation of Thriller, entirely in Lego. I did an extensive five-minute search and couldn't find a less-blurry version, or the original creator for that matter. Stupid internet.

Of course Jacko's lasting legacy, at least for me, is introducing me to the world of pop culture parody, vias Weird Al Yankovic's Eat It.

Just eat it, eat it , eat it
Get yourself an egg and beat it
Have some more chicken, have some more pie
It doesn't matter , it's broiled or fried
Just eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it
eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it, ooh

That's gold, people. Thanks Michael. Thanks Al.

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Buffy Dusts Edward

Stick a stake in Twilight, it's done. Pop culture hacker Jonathan McIntosh's mashup of Twilight and Buffy the Vampire Slayer takes down the latest vampire craze.

Sez the artist: "It’s an example of transformative storytelling serving as a visual critique of Edward’s character and generally creepy behavior. Seen through Buffy’s eyes some of the more patriarchal gender roles and sexist Hollywood tropes embedded in the Twilight saga are exposed."

He means it's funny, folks. (Link via Buzzfeed)

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Swamp Stomp Country

Yesterday, at the end of my street a group of good ol' boys called The Wild Turkeys set up with their washboard, bass, guitar and suitcase drum kit and just started letting loose. They are from Sault Ste Marie and on a tour out to the east coast and decided to make themselves a little gas money. Just one of those things I love about Toronto.

They performed for quite awhile, but I only recorded two songs. Of course I can't remember either song title, except that the one above is an original. Check them out if you can.


P.S. - excuse the crappy camera work and sound. I think it is time for an upgrade.

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Beaker Never Wins!

Beaker, the put upon assistant of Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, really does take the most abuse of any Muppet. But this time he's going for the wind with his version of Ode To Joy, over at the Webby Awards. And you can't help him with your vote, because I don't read my subscriptions in a timely fashion! But this mayhem-filled video is still worth watching. Mee-mee-mee, Beaker, mee-mee-mee.

Update: It appears that Beaker does win on occasion, taking home a People's Voice award at the Webbys for Ode to Joy. As a reward for the people who voted, they have pulled the above video. One step forward, two steps back, Muppets crew.


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Lego Silence Of The Lambs

Buffalo Bill and Catherine singing Put the Fucking Lotion in the Basket from Silence of the Lambs, as Lego characters. Doesn't get any weirder than that. I love pop culture. (Link via JazJaz)

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Yar, Pirates!

Ok, I know pirates aren't the romantic, comedic, swashbuckling figures of books and pop culture. Yes, they are murderous, desperate, drug-addled fiends, just like the real pirates of old. So I can't help but echo the excitement Rayne, of Least I Could Do, over the reemergence of real-life, high-seas cutthroats.

I mean, come on, pirates! I totally wanted to be a pirate when I was a kid. Now that I've (purportedly) grown up, I'd rather be a space pirate, but I many have to pass that dream on to my son.

Of course maybe the media is oversimplifying the story — we do that, you know.


Hmm, the cartoon man may be right. How else to explain the serendipitous emergence of a Spike TV show about U.S. Navy pirate hunters? What an amazing coincidence!


But until we get that thoughtful documentary, I'll be following the pirates on Twitter and dreaming of treasure.

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Disney: Copy, Paste, Repeat

Some of these scenes are just like the others... Now what I've read on all the Digg comments (always a reliable, impartial, source of information), this is a technique often used in animation. Maybe so, but it's still a surprise when you see it side by side. (Link via Nick McGylnn)

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Inside All Of Us Is Poop

Do you remember when you first learned that everyone poops? Spike Jonze wastes no time adapting another 10 page children's book into a film and LandlineTV manages to suck some of the pretension out of the upcoming Where The Wild Things Are movie.

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Nirvana Vs The Beach Boys

Well I feel so broke up I wanna go home. Today's strange mashup is Nirvana Vs The Beach Boys - Smells Like Sloop John B. The only time I've seen those two bands side by side is when my iPod is feeling mischievous. Still, it works and you have to wonder if Kurt Cobain and Brian Wilson might have been kindred spirits. (Link via The Drill Down)

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8 Kilomètres

Rap battles as competitive French beat poetry, filmed as classic European cinema: "I'm gonna force-feed you like a duck... and make foe gras out of your liver. Cluck, cluck, bang!... Say bonjour to your wife."

Turns out this French version of Eminem's 8 Mile is a viral campaign from Stella Artois that also parodies Die Hard (Dial Hard) and 24 (Vingt-Quatre Heures), but the product placement is so subtle it's blink and you'll miss it. Très magnifique! (Link via PopTube)

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If U Seek Mr. Bean

Mr. Bean takes on If U Seek Amy, and he has got some serious moves! Britney Spears needs to hire him as her next choreographer. (Link via PopTube)

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Old Russian Proverb: When Zombie Attack, Wise Man Get Shotgun

Alex Poutiainen is the filmmaking poster boy for the recession. For a mere $24 and six days of shooting he made a seven-minute, stop-motion zombie short called Zoo of the Dead. Twenty-four bucks! I've spent that much on popcorn at a movie. At that price he could make a full-length feature for $300. You couldn't film one second of the recently leaked X-Men Origins: Wolverine with that kind of budget.

Admittedly, it doesn't have the quirkiness of his previous work, Rise and Fall of Nazi Dinosaurs and the camera work started to make me nauseous, I can't wait to see what he does next.

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