Media Unspun Groks the Media

As mentioned in yesterday’s blog, the folks behind Media Grok have reemerged with Media Unspun. This is from their FAQ:

What is Media Unspun?

It’s a new newsletter published by the team that
produced Media Grok for the Industry Standard. Now, as
then, our goal is to keep our readers up to date on
the most important business news, show how different
news outlets interpret the same information in
different ways, and, if we’re lucky, entertain you.

The same team? Really?

Yes, 100 percent. Deborah Asbrand, Michaela Cavallaro,
Keith Dawson, Jen Muehlbauer, and David Sims are still
the writers. Jim Duffy is still the copyeditor. I’m
still the editor. I appear to be the publisher, too,
since no one else has volunteered.

The first two articles in this daily send are about the Democratic probe of Enron and the media’s sudden enthusiasm for Nasdaq.

Welcome back! You’ve been missed!

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No, I Want to Be Britney Spears’ Boyfriend!

Jack Vinson writes:

So, I was listening to our local college radio, where they talk too much and play good music. The particular duo I enjoy are Michael Stephen and Producer Nick. Michael has his own cheesy website, and they were joking that Producer Nick doesn’t have his own site. As it turns out, there is a producernick.com. He is apparently a Berklee music student who really likes Britney Spears. Check out his “hit song”: “I Want to Be Britney Spears’ Boyfriend.”

I found it quite amusing for the first 1.5 minutes and then it degenerates into a repetitive techno-groove (or whatever the kids today would call it). But I do enjoy people declaring their songs hits regardless of how many people have heard it.

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Speaking Volumes about Traffic Tickets

A former boss of mine came into work one day in 1987 or so, jubilant. He had done a lot of research about how he could contest a speeding ticket he felt he didn’t deserve. At the hearing, the judge asked him for his story. My boss took out the giant law volume he’d been studying, and began: “Well, Judge, according to…”

“Case dismissed!” said the judge.

It sounds like times have changed, unfortunately. Perhaps the Web has made so many traffic violators into pre-jailhouse lawyers that a show of expertise doesn’t have the effect it once did.

(The National Motorists Association apparently has a helpful site for the Wrongfully Accused and/or Cheap.)

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RecursoBlog

Doc writes:

Dave points out how a Google search for “intelligent Weblogs” goes to an “interesting place.” So I thought I’d search for “smart weblogs” and hit the “I’m feeling lucky” button. At first I though there was some kind of problem, but it turns out I really am lucky. Incrediby lucky, in fact. And I mean that literally.

So, Dave blogs Doc’s blog:

Doc discovered how insightful Google can be. Not!

So, I go to Google and try Doc’s search string — “smart weblogs” — to see what the fuss is about and hit the “I’m feeling lucky button.” Where does it take me? Back to Doc’s blog entry where he talks about how amusing it is if you enter “smart weblogs” at Google and hit the “I’m feeling lucky button.”

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PC ROI

Chris Pirillo’s Lockergnome recommends a compelling download: Anti Mosquitoes v1.10b, a 261K app that causes your sound card to emit a sound mosquitoes find repellant. [Insert your own joke here about whatever musical group you don’t like.] Chris hasn’t tried it and neither have I; as Chris says, this is “for those of you who’ve already downloaded everything.”

Chris’s blog is as spunky as he is, and comes recommended by no less than Doc, which means there’s an alternative universe better than this one in which it is compulsory reading. Doc also points to Gretchen Pirillo’s blog; she and Chris are husband and wife, although there’s an alternative universe in which they are wife and husband.

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Media Grok Redux

From Jimmy Guterman, formerly with the Media Grok newsletter of fond memory:

Do you miss Media Grok?

The team that produced Media Grok will launch a new newsletter tomorrow.

See you then.

Alas, there are no details. I suspect from the email address that it will be called Media Unspun and that you’ll be able to find it at Topica.com. Of course, I could be just plain wrong. (Not that that’s ever happened before. Sigh.) But we’ll know more tomorrow. And not a moment too soon!

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Dept. of Thanks a Whole Hell of a Lot

Noted: This explanation in Office XP (Standard) errs on the side of caution, skipping the part where it’s actually helpful:

As Ring Lardner once wrote: “Shut up,” he explained.

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Opossum Sites

In my weekly column for Darwin Magazine online tomorrow, I’m going to talk about some sites and services that I like beyond their intrinsic merit because they remind me that the Internet will survive our commercial attempts to subdue it … like an opossum I saw on our suburban sidewalk a couple of years ago that somehow managed to last through our paving of its habitat. The examples I’m pointing to are:

• Google
• UseNet
• Sites where you can get technical help from amateur experts
• Arts & Letters Daily as a straightforward aggregator

Do you have your own examples of sites that get it so right that you not only like and use them, but are actually grateful to them for existing?

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Complete Mozart

Chris Worth points us to a funny review at Amazon of the complete works of Mozart.

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So What

Luke Seemann beat me by 1.5 years to a discussion of the use of the word “So” to begin a story. Very amusing.

[Thanks to Peterme for pointing this out to me.]

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