McFlashmobbing

What happens when two dated fads collide? 

In this interview with Branislav Knezevic, president of the western division of McDonald’s Europe, Martin Lindstrom explores the flash mobbing of European burger joints. Organized by web and mobile device, the events are part social happening and part prank. Much like excessive traffic can “crash” a web server, [...]

Democrats Have an Early Lead … in the Web 2.0 Race

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Two weeks ago, in a 38-second YouTube video, presidential hopeful Fred Thompson chomped smugly on a cigar and issued a scathing, belittling response to Michael Moore. The documentarian had just that morning challenged Mr. Thompson to a debate after the former Tennessee senator criticized Mr. Moore’s recent trip to Cuba
The [...]

Andy Card Gets a Thumpin’ at UMass

Here is Thomas’ take on the Andy Card thing:

There comes a time when decorum and protocol need to be thrown out the window. Think Eartha Kitt telling Lady Bird Johnson at a White House luncheon that President Johnson was responsible for killing children in Vietnam. As President Bush’s Chief of Staff, Andy Card led the [...]

Greek mayor goes on hunger strike for beach rights

There is something really offensive about caging people up and preventing them from using their own beaches.  Now the mayor of a Greek suburb is taking action:

Athens – The mayor of an Athens’ beachside suburb went on a hunger strike Friday to try to pressure the government to ensure free public access to the city’s [...]

The Visible Man: An FBI Target Puts His Whole Life Online

For some time now I have been arguing that the best way to protect your digital identity (or identity in general) is to own your own story.  Now Hasan Elahi is taking this approach to new heights:

Hasan Elahi whips out his Samsung Pocket PC phone and shows me how he’s keeping himself out of Guantanamo. [...]

Would you like a cocktail with your warplan?

For
those of you who may be visiting the Bahamas next week, you may want to
check out a private, off-the-record meeting of Gulf and Middle East
specialists of a rather narrow ideological bent at Westin’s luxurious Our Lucaya Resort on Grand Bahama Island. The meeting takes place May 30 to June 1.
Source: ips.org

NowPublic

Tags: Bahama | [...]

Does Google Still Matter?

There was a story today in Advertising Age about how McDonalds is trying to re-brand the McJob as something that doesn’t suck (good luck with that). So I went to Google to see what came up in their results for that entry. As is almost always the case the first entry was something [...]

Study Finds 25 Countries Block Web Sites

I just found this:

The OpenNet Initiative, a collaboration between researchers at Cambridge, the University of Oxford, Harvard University and the University of Toronto, had the time and capabilities to study only 40 countries and the Palestinian territories. The group found that at least 25 countries around the world block Web sites for political, social or [...]

Watch this space

In the last 3 weeks I have been amazed at the number of people who have discovered facebook. I have also heard countless people say they are making the switch from myspace to facebook. My prediction is that these lines will be very different in a month:

note: red line = myspce; blue [...]

Pandora Shuts out Canada

Some sad news for Canadian fans of Pandora today. Tim’s email makes it official:
Dear Pandora
listener,
Today we have some
extremely disappointing news to share with you. Due to international licensing
constraints, we are deeply, deeply sorry to say that we must begin proactively
preventing access to Pandora’s streaming service from Canada. We began blocking
access from almost [...]