TalkingApes

PantherInsider Draft Blog

I am writing a draft blog on PantherInsider.com for about the next week and a half, culminating next Saturday with our live podcast and chat session during the 2008 NFL draft. For more information, check out PantherInsider.com for more details.

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My new favorite baseball logo

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CDC: Drug-resistant staph deaths may surpass AIDS toll – CNN.com

CDC: Drug-resistant staph deaths may surpass AIDS toll – CNN.com

Deaths tied to these infections may exceed those caused by AIDS, said one public health expert commenting on the new study. The report shows just how far one form of the staph germ has spread beyond its traditional hospital setting.

How scary is this?

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Mychal Bell of Jena 6 fame had FOUR previous offenses, ordered to juvenile hall for probation violation

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Britney Spears at the VMA’s. Wow.

It’s amazing how many people have beautiful lives giftwrapped for them and squander it. If you haven’t been following the Briney Spears spiral over the last few years, welcome a) to earth, b) back from your coma.

Last night’s VMA appearance, we won’t call it a performance, was her latest moment of embarrassment.

Poorly lip-synched, poorly choreographed and little effort to perform. It was brutal. Don’t take my word for it. View it online — Britney Spears 2007 VMA appearance, “Gimme More” Live.

The look on her face… was she high? Did she just not care? Or is it that how she acts when she’s embarrassed? Is it possible for Spears to be embarrassed? I think that’s a valid question that needs answering.

I can’t attest to the whole show. I just watched the first 15 minutes. I couldn’t stomach much more than that. Very poorly produced, directed and designed from top to bottom.

Let’s not forget Sarah Silverman either, who blasted Spears directly after her performances. Calling Spears’ children mistakes and continuing to denigrate the woman’s children on LIVE TV shows what little character she has, herself.

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Social Networking sites traffic ranking, trends

I’m interested in social networking sites not named MySpace.com or Bebo.com — two of the largest on the web right now.

My focus is on some of the lesser-known ones: Virb.com, TagWorld.com, yfly.com and wallop.com.

You can see in the traffic graphs posted below that nearly each one had a huge spike that trailed off into a whimper, which generally means that people weren’t that thrilled with the offerings after their initial visit(s).

3 Months

6 Months

1 Year

TagWorld.com had the highest spike, which occurred around August 2006. Since then, it’s seen a gradual decline and now ranks second of the four profiled, finishing behind Virb.com.

Wallop.com also had a lot of initial buzz and a enjoyed a big traffic spike around the end of September last year, but hasn’t generated much traffic since then. My guess is that people didn’t like the big circle thing in the corner and the bugs that riddled the site. I thought it was a cool concept though, and it was my favorite of the four.

virb.com has actually gone up and has enjoyed a traffic boost since March of this year. Will it be the one to challenge MySpace.com?

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The next social networking target: families

People are starting to figure out social networking is a good way to communicate with one another on the web and that it’s not just for teenagers any more.

There have been quite a few social networking sites to crop up lately that are focused on another segment of society: families.

Families share pictures and news, opinions and recipes. These sites aim to be your “social network” for your family:

MyFamily.com
“FREE family web sites for sharing photos, stories, news, and more.”

FamFridge.com
FamFridge isn’t live yet, but you can sign up to take part in their beta testing.
“FamFridge is a startup company aiming to enhance family communication and connectivity through technology.”

Zooof.com (3 o’s)
“With ZOOOF you can discover, expand and maintain your family ties!

* Choose from 35 languages
* Build a contemporary interactive family tree
* Invite family members to a private environment
* Write your biography and immortalize your family history
* Chat, mail and share!
* Discover the ZOOOF Family levels
* Join for free”

Famiva.com
“Welcome to the premier social network for families, a secure and password-protected place for you and your relatives to connect and collaborate. Work together to build the family tree, visualize the extended family network, share photos and stories, stay current with family events and reminders, explore family maps, and much more. Best of all, Famiva is completely free.”

Amiglia.com
$50.00 per year
“# Family tree with photos that you can blog
# Linked albums of related families
# Personal profiles linked to nuclear family
# Family facebook of your entire family
# Family calendar with birthdays and events
# Maps of geolocated photos
# Easy tagging for people, themes, places
# Easy search for family photos
# Elegant slideshows to view, email and blog
# Music uploads to any slideshow
# Intergrated Skype calling and chats
# Riya import
# Interactive photo-based babies’ games
# Easy mass uploading
# Upload by email or with camera phone
# Import from Flickr or Photoshop Album
# Easy GEDCOM imports at signup
# Video clips support (up to 5MB each)
# Advanced privacy, no spam, no ads
# Backup CDs or DVDs at minimal charge
# Email reminders for family birthdays”

I haven’t tried any of these, but I would like to hear about your experiences if you have used them in the past or are presently using them as your family’s social network.

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Video: 30 Rock — Kenneth and Tracey Jordan harmonize

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=1QiBnJ4sGOY]

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Video: Wheelchair gets lodged in truck grille

Wheelchair gets lodged in truck grille
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncF0N5gEyfo]

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Does anyone really give a ____ about Paris Hilton?

Honestly? Do you care? Why should I care? Why is this treated as news? I got email blasts. It’s on the top of news sites where things like “Tornado kills 10 people” or some other kind of important breaking news should go. Enough already! We’ve got people nearly being run over by police cars trying to take pictures of her crying being hauled off to jail. We got people taking pictures and video of people nearly being run over by police cars trying to take pictures of her crying being hauled off to jail.

So what is the fascination with Hilton? Is it because she’s stupid? Rich? Was in a porno? Really, I can’t figure out why I’m supposed to care. This is kind of like the Anna Nicole coverage when she died — It was tragic, but I think there was more coverage of her death than there was of Mother Teresa when she died.

And why am I giving it even more legs writing this blog post?

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