Craiglist reaches a billion page views

Craiglist has reached a billion page views per month and has expanded its $75 fee per job listing into New York and Los Angeles in addition to San Francisco. Craiglist is an excellent example of the new media paradigm. It started grassroots and has built its business from the bottom up, word of mouth, one person at a time.

"When asked whether he understands that newspapers feel terribly threatened by Craigslist, he replied: 'I know they're worried about us; I wouldn't say threatened. If they're worried about us, they're worried about the wrong thing.'"

From Poynter Online - E-Media Tidbits

Don't worry, be happy?

The Happy Poster Project

I love this webpage. It never fails to cheer me up and make me laugh.

Will Ferrell and America Coming Together (aka. Act)

I came across this wonderful parody of George Bush's campaign ad done by Will Ferrell on Adrants today. While I always enjoy Will Farrell, especially his ad parodys what I found most interesting was the backing, a NFP called America Coming Together (aka. ACT).

There is a great overview of ACT on Disinfopedia. They are fully committed to swaying the vote in swing states through very targeted grass roots activism which include concerts, canvassing, and phone campaigns.

The Vote for Change Tour (October 1-10) includes Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, Bonnie Raitt, Dave Matthews Band, Dixie Chicks, Jackson Brown, John Mellencamp, Ben Harper, Kenny 'Babyface' Edmonds, Pearl Jam, R.E.M and others.

ACT's financial backing brings us to George Soros (Disinfopedia.org) who is very interesting character. He has donated five million dollars to ACT thus far. He was born in Hungary in 1930, survived the Nazi occupation and left communist Hungary in 1947 for England where he studied economics and started to pursue his philanthropic interests. In 1956 he moved to the United States and accumulated his fortune by managing very successful investment funds. He has been involved in world wide philanthropy since 1979 and is currently the chairman of the Open Society Institute.

The Open Society Institute (Disinfopedia.org) is a NFP (Not for Profit) founded by Soros. The Soros foundation's goals are as follows.

"The goal of the Soros foundations network throughout the world is to transform closed societies into open ones and to protect and expand the values of existing open societies. The concept of open society is, at its most fundamental level, based on the recognition that people act on imperfect knowledge and that no one is in possession of the ultimate truth. In practice, an open society is characterized by the rule of law; respect for human rights, minorities, and minority opinions; democratically elected governments; a market economy in which business and government are separate; and a thriving civil society."

"...The Soros network supports efforts in civil society, education, media, public health, and human and women's rights, as well as social, legal, and economic reform."

More Links:

Will Farrell in the 2003 MTV Music Awards Matrix Parody (24mb, Win Media Player format) via Milk and Cookies.com

Actforvictory.org — Act's Website complete with blog.

A Castle in the Michigan countryside?

So, I'm enjoying an evening ride up here in the Michigan countryside yesterday with my brother dave and a few miles off in the distance we see a large grey structure peaking out above the tree line. We proceed closer and start to circle the approximately 2 square mile country block trying to find the drive back to it as it's 3/4 mile off the road. It seems to be a... castle. Finally we locate a nondescript private drive and proceed down it until we come upon a sign that offers "$5 tours of the castle". It IS a freaking castle. There is btw, a closed gate and no trespassing sign, but we're too intrigued to turn back. We press on.

We proceed cautiously until we are spotted by a man coming down the drive in an old mid-90's Taurus or equivalent. We're very worried at this point. I wave. He stops, he gets out. He's lanky, wears glasses, is dressed in a working man's clothes, and my first impression... he doesn't have what I'd call a "smiley demeanor". We've been busted trespassing. To top it off my brother and I are both 6'+ and are imposing people. For all I know this guy could be packing a gun. I introduce myself, ask him to pardon our intrusion and ask about the $5 tour. To my surprise he introduces himself as Scott. We chat and have a pleasant conversation and even though neither my brother nor I have brought wallets on our ride he offers us a complimentary tour. Amazingly even though I forgot my wallet I had grabbed my bag and lucky for you it had my camera in it.

His name is Scott Bredschneider. He is a slightly eccentric developer and entrepreneur, aka. the dungeonmaster on his website. He broke ground on the castle on July 4th 2002, and expects to be able to move in by this winter though there is much work still to be done. The castle is 3.5 stories with a pyramid shaped top inside a 5.5 foot crown. It is complete with a dungeon / wine cellar, balcony, stables (3 car garage) and an elevator shaft for an elevator to be added much later.

One last thing. He is having a haunted house this Halloween at his castle. He should have the majority of the interior ready for the public AND he is looking for a few volunteer monsters. I'm not the acting nor the dress up type, but I'm considering it. It's going to be very cool. BTW, his address and contact information are on his website.

Enjoy the pictures.

Freely downloadable Free Culture going into third printing

"Stanford Magazine carries a story this month about our chairman and co-founder Lawrence Lessig's book which has just entered its third printing. This is interesting because the book is freely available online for download (under a Creative Commons license), and has been downloaded about 180,000 times. On the one hand an author can give away free content for folks to remake into audio books, translations, and other formats, and the author still gets paid through traditional book sales. Amazing how that works, and works so well sometimes."
From Lessig's free book still racking up the sales | Creative Commons

Cannibals vs. Conversion

"Lessig's bottom line has to do with cannibals and converts. People who decide not to buy a book because it's free online represent the cannibalization rate. The conversion rate reflects the number of people who hear about a book because it's online, but decide to buy the hardcover because it's easier to read than the downloaded version. 'If the conversion rate is greater than the cannibalization rate, then you sell more books,' Lessig says."
From Give It Away and They'll Buy It - STANFORD Magazine: July/August 2004 > Farm Report > News

A word about attribution

I saw this excellent news on Joi Ito's web log, whom attributes the quote to Creative Common's web log, who read about it on Copyfight, whom read about it on I/P Updates who made the post at 1:34 pm on July 26.

Wow! That's quite a chain of attribution. On behalf of myself, Joi Ito, Creative Commons, and Copyfight I thank you William F. Heinz of I/P Updates. If you read this I'm just curious where you heard about the article? Did you hear it straight from the source (the Stanford Magazine) or did you read about it on someone else's blog or an RSS feed? My curiosity about the dissemination of information has now turned into a temporary obsession. I didn't realize how deep this rabbit hole went until I noticed Joi Ito's blog had an attribution on his attributed quote.

Bikes as extention of public transportation

Explanation: Oybike is a public bike rental system that uses a cell phone enable electronic lock system to secure and track bikes.

The main objective of the system is to supply an increased choice in your mode of transport traveling around Hammersmith and Fulham...

This looks like a brilliant idea. I think it might work better in a tourist capacity or tourist town like Put-in-bay Island (OH), or Cape Cod, or the Florida Keys, or Hawaii that already rent a lot of bikes, but the availability of inexpensive bikes and cheap electronic gadgetry for electronic locking systems might make this a go. I hope it's successful so I can start one in Chicago. In fact there are some great bike rental places in and around Navy Pier and downtown Chicago for taking rides on Chicago's famed lake front bike-path.

A few other thoughts though, you need to pre-signup. Pre-signups are the ban of simple convenient pay systems. For example pre-signups are the ban of internet wireless services such as that of TMobile / Starbucks service. Why not just put the 1800 number on the bike and let people call in and use a credit card. After that they just give their name and security code and go.

Second, To go a little further; with todays cheap WAP interfaces and wireless devices you could simply create an interface in which you just type in a username and password and it automatically unlocks the bike and charges your card. Think of it as an e-commerce system built into a cell phone / lock built for the sole purpose of buying bike time. No phone calls or human interaction necessary. This leaves the 800 number people and staff to simply offer support, keep track of and maintain the bikes and electronics. I think I could almost build a cellular enabled lock system myself with a couple hundred dollars. A mass produced unit would be even cheaper.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Phones power bike rental scheme

The most interesting article I have found is and an post including correspondence on a local UK cyclist club website at htcycliests.org. It explores a plethora of issues and is fascinating. Read the full report it is truly fascinating.

Barbie in a Blender responds to Orrin Hatch

Thanks Barbie in a Blender. : )

Boing Boing: Barbie in a Blender responds to Orrin Hatch

Publisher peeved at "This Land" political parody by JibJab

JibJab and their political parody "This Land" are in the news again. (my previous post) They are being sued for copyright infringement by Ludlow Music, Inc., a unit of The Richmond Organization whom owns the rights to Woodie Guthrie's classic song.

Oddly enough Woody Guthrie once used this as a copyright on one of his early recordings.

"This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don't give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do."

Publisher peeved at political parody. - Jul. 26, 2004, CNN

This Land Isn't Your Land, EFF: Deep Links

Wired News: Sue You: This Song Is Our Song

Using Copyright to shut down satire

Bikes against bush makes Popular Science

Kinberg's degree is an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design in New York City, and his thesis is a bicycle that receives text messages and prints them in foot-high chalk letters, then blogs a digital photo and GPS map of the printing, all while the rider cruises along.

A self-described "hacktivist," Kinberg's other school projects have included Magicbike (a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot he and a professor take to outdoor cultural events) and the Hello World Project, which let people laser-project their own messages onto landscapes and landmarks all over the world.

Kinberg will officially roll out the bike during August's Republican National Convention in New York, but he says the project is as much performance art as protest.

From: Popular Science | Taking it to the Streets

Bikes Against Bush Blog

Video of the Maiden Voyage

(via SMS-printing bike - Engadget - www.engadget.com)

Mountain Biking New Pastime for Bush

Bush is trying to kiss up to me to get my vote for the election and while I like it I still ain't votin' for em. :)

Bush offered a glimpse of his new pastime to an Associated Press reporter Monday, roaming the dirt roads and far-flung pastures of his 1,600-acre ranch. About halfway through, he sailed over the handlebars during a dangerous descent, but dusted himself off, picked up his $3,100 bicycle and kept riding.

Yahoo! News - AP: Mountain Biking New Pastime for Bush

Thanks you for Pigzilla, I had a blast.

Pigzilla was last weekend. It was a blast. Four kegs of Old Style Beer, two ninety pound pigs, a few extra shoulders for good measure, forty or so pounds of potato salad, and all the fixings. Wow! It was a blast. A very large and gracious thank you to the hosts (you know who you are).

Here's napalmmk9's original post on the subject, my original post, his reflection on the number of RSVP's, and his recounting of Pigzilla

In very much related news...

"While hunting on a private Georgia plantation in June, guide Chris Griffin killed a feral hog that supposedly weighed 1,000 pounds and was 12 feet long, the Associated Press reported. The news of the animal has created a buzz in town and is even reaching a legend-like status with locals now referring to the beast as ?Hogzilla.? 'People just sit back and ask, ?is it real,?' one Alapaha resident told the AP regarding a photograph that captures a dwarfed Griffin standing beside the hog hanging from a rope."
From: Field & Stream - ?Hogzilla? vs. Hunter

At last count there were 94 article on Google News regarding Hogzilla.

Photo from: Yahoo! News - Top Stories Photos - AP

People: Leo Burnett — The man who brought image to advertising

"In a career that spanned nearly six decades, his aptitude for inventing evocative, easily recognizable corporate identities spawned the Jolly Green Giant, the Marlboro Man, the Pillsbury Doughboy and Tony the Tiger, among other familiar icons of commerce. By the late 1950s Burnett had emerged as a prime mover in advertising's creative revolution, which grew in the glow of television's rise as America's consummate commercial medium. By 1960 Burnett's roster of clients had grown exponentially; at the time of his death the agency's billings exceeded $400 million annually. By last year that figure approached $6 billion."

TIME 100: Leo Burnett

Must "fucking" read: The New Yorker: Shouts and Murmurs

We've all seen and heard it about it. Most of us have stopped laughing over it or fuming over it weeks ago. You can even buy the t-shirt. However, The New Yorker will make you laugh about it all over again. This is a must read on the infamous Dick Cheney vs. Senator Leahy encounter on the Senate floor. Enjoy.

NEW DETAILS SURFACE — The New Yorker: Shouts and Murmurs

Related posts:
Cheney's 'big-time obscenity'

Following up on the Dick Cheney F'ing incident (warning political rant)

Mr. Vice President ...Your pants are on fire

Cult Brands and the Global Brand Report

Apple and the Neistat Brothers video "iPod's Dirty Little Secret", Harley Davidson, Starbucks, McDonald's and Morgan Spurlock's film "Super Size Me". It's all about brands that drive their fans to passionate acts.

A full half of Harley Davidson's buyers are return customers "upgrading" to new Harley's. Think about what it means when all those customers re-sell their Harleys to the next guy. That should give you some idea of what it means to be one of the most legendary cult brands.

How about the Neistat Brothers who produced the short film "iPod's Dirty Little Secret" after they were so insensed about the iPod's 18 month battery life? It was an attack on Apple for a device they love and a trust betrayed. Luckily Apple brought them back into the fold and now offers much better battery replacement options, but not before that video was viewed over 1.4 million times.

Then there is Morgan Spurlock who created the documentary film "Super Size Me" to document the decline of his health over a thirty day period in which he ate nothing but McDonalds. Within Months McDonald's pulled the "super size" value meals off their menu.

Consumers are speaking up, people are finding their voices. They're getting more demanding, more direct, and what they are demanding is a larger say and more control over the world in which they live, brands are merely one of the front lines.

BW Online | August 2, 2004 | Cult Brands

The Global Brand Scoreboard (pdf) from Interbrand

The existance of rogue waves is proven commonplace

The presence of rogue waves of 100 feet was thought to be a myth until now.

As part of a project called MaxWave - which was set up to test the rumours - two Esa satellites surveyed the oceans.

During a three week period they detected 10 giant waves, all of which were over 25m (81ft) high.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Freak waves spotted from space