Social Networking: Now in the Crappier Parts of The World

Posted on 13. Aug, 2008 by spencer in Idiocy, Internet, Lifestyle

According to ComScore.com, while new social network users in North America seem to be leveling off, the global trend shows that sites such as Facebook and…well, mostly Facebook, are gaining new members in the parts of the world where I’m pretty thankful I wasn’t born.
From Information Week:

The number of new users in the Middle East and Africa has risen by 66%, while the number of new users in Europe rose 35%. In Latin America, the number of new users on social networking sites rose by 33%.
Facebook.com has held the top [...]

Wizard People, Dear Readers: Happy Birthday Harry Potter

Posted on 30. Jul, 2008 by spencer in Chico, Comedy, Film

Thursday, July 31st, marks the birthday of much beloved, occasionally demonized, fictional character Harry Potter. This auspicious occasion will be celebrated by throngs of booknerds, who, tearing themselves away from MMORPGs and LARPGs (if you don’t know what these acronyms stand for count yourself among the lucky) will assemble in various theatres across North America and Europe, to witness full screenings of Wizard People, Dear Readers, a version of the first Harry Potter movie, The Sorcerer’s Stone with the original sound turned off and replaced with a recording of a [...]

Ed Harcourt on the Tonight Show…tonight

Posted on 06. Jun, 2008 by spencer in Music

I can’t believe he hasn’t played on American Television before. UK heartthrob Ed Harcourt will be on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show this evening to promote his new album (well, that is to say his 2006 album that never got released in the States) The Beautiful Lie, which came out on Dovecote Records last Tuesday. Listening to The Beautiful Lie (and his back catalogue as well) it baffles me why he isn’t as huge in North America as he is in Europe. Last March during SXSW I ended up tagging along [...]

US Still Getting Pwn3d by Chinese Pollution

Posted on 19. Mar, 2008 by Daniel Taylor in Crime, Idiocy, Lifestyle, Science, TV, Technology

A new NASA study, using advances in satellite technology, has finally been able to measure the long-rumored drift of pollution from China and other East Asian countries, into North America:
“We used the latest satellite capabilities to distinguish industrial pollution and smoke from dust transported to the western regions of North America from East Asia. Looking at four years of data from 2002 to 2005 we estimated the amount of pollution arriving in North America to be equivalent to about 15 percent of local emissions of the U.S. and Canada,” [...]