Welcome to the digital age, where technology has advanced to a point where a small group of people - or even a single person - can start a business able to compete with even the most established corporations. Or, a few citizens can take on their government, which is what is happening in the Communist country of Cuba.
Governments maintain control of their people by exercising censorship over the media and keeping the outside world *out*. But, the Internet and today’s technology is making that increasingly difficult. One person can broadcast to millions very easily.
Original Description:
A growing underground network of young people has been spreading news the official state media try to suppress.
Submitted to Mixx by spuds, to Propeller by Jordan, and to Digg by spudsstuff 7/29/2008
Cuil made the front page of many websites. Some of these stories hit the front page of social media sites. It got a lot of press, had a lot of visitors, and in the end it had a lot of…
FAIL.
Have you tried it? You should. If you don’t, you probably won’t believe how bad it really is.
I tried a search for Holmes Honda. The listing for Holmes Honda was below the fold, 3rd if you read it vertically, 7th if you read it horizontally. Keep in mind that the dealership is called Holmes Honda, their website is holmeshonda.com, and yet the top listing on Cuil is a third party site that sells leads.
The article from ReadWriteWeb doesn’t necessarily talk about these things, but it’s one of the first articles that took a different angle. It didn’t look at “what” was Cuil but rather “why” was Cuil and “How” did it get the press that it got. It definitely didn’t live up to the hype.
Original Description:
An alternative search engine launched last night. It’s called Cuil and, if you’re a reader of tech blogs and/or the New York Times, you’ve no doubt been hammered with the news all day
Submitted to Digg, Reddit, and Propeller multiple times, but just won’t flip
Rather than spoil this piece with some of my normal bland diatribe, I’ll offer you just the pictures as a teaser to this wonderful story. Skip my words, go straight to the source, and keep submitting this puppy until it hits the front page. It’s worthy.
Cool Island
Another Cool Island that reminds me of Super Mario for some reason.
Original Desctiption:
Artificial islands — those created by humans rather than natural means — constructed in the distant past and becoming increasingly rampant in recent years have been built by all sorts of revolutionary and bizarre methods and materials, from construction upon existing reefs, drudging of sand and blasted rock, to stainless steel, and even trash.
Submitted to Reddit by PaperLess and to Digg by bamafun 7/26/2008
Oh, what a history we’ve had as a country.
American’s have had their share of shady characters at Vice President. From a reported Canadian (not that Canadians are shady) to a grumpy oil tycoon (no, not Cheney), the United States Vice Presidents of the past (and maybe the future) have had their taste of scandal, fame, and fortune.
Needless to say, the list is incomplete, as our current and soon-to-be past veep is less than 6 months from exit. Of course, that’s if he isn’t indicted before then.
Original Description:
Now that Obama and McCain are on the cusp of choosing Vice Presidents, maybe it’s time to take a look at 10 of the most memorable backup plans, and what they might want to avoid.
Submitted to Reddit by someone who deleted it and to Digg by besos 7-26-2008
The idea makes a lot of sense, but then it brings to mind the possible negative consequence of forcing more cars to be built to meet demand.
In theory, we can reduce the carbon footprint of those who have high-pollution automobiles by buying them back, then converting them to scrap (hopefully scrap that can be recycled, but that part isn’t covered). We can assume that the people who take advantage of this will then go out and buy newer, more eco-friendly cars.
My only question: is it worth the expenditure? Can that money be used better in other ways, since we’re talking about a lot of money? Good topic for debate. I would love to see the actual numbers.
Original Description:
Basically, the idea would be to have the federal government buy up many of the country’s oldest, most polluting cars and scrap them; the owners, who would likely be lower-income individuals, would be paid at above-market prices and allowed to spend the money however they would see fit.
This election, at one point looking like it could lean towards a runaway, is not getting appearing to have the tightness of the 2000 election. Every little vote counts, now. LiveScience takes a look at the body language that each of the candidates uses and helps to translate it into what we, as voters, are reading from it.
More importantly, it takes a peak at what they, as candidates, are trying to say by it. Can they be trusted?
Original Desciption:
Body movement analysts say that McCain represents stability in how he stands firmly and holds onto the sides of a podium. By contrast, Obama has a forward-looking gaze and strolls about in a relaxed fashion during public appearances. Yet both men share an introspective quality that could make them strong leaders.
I think the title scared off a few diggers (OMG, thousands? That’s too much. Do you have an abridged version?).
Some album covers seem to have gotten ripped off or spoofed repeatedly over the years. AC/DC and the Beatles looks to have had all their albums copied or spoofed.
It’s a long list and the maintainer is still keeping it updated with tips from readers.
Original Description:
This is a list that compiles album covers that are either obvious homages and/or spoofs of existing album covers. Some are rip-offs, some just happen to look very similar. Anyway, new suggestions are always welcomed as this list is constantly getting updated.
So a few people think that Amy Winehouse should be the next Dr Who? Pigs must have taken flight.
Most people are sick of Amy Winehouse news. It falls under the “never ceases to amaze us” category, except we still get amazed by the asinine behavior.
With that said, this odd outlook on the AW-phenomenon falls out of the normal self-destruction category and straight into the insane. The list is funny, yes, but somehow I think it is almost serious. Here’s a video of someone who slightly disagrees:
Original Description:
Dr. Who has turned into yet another brand of sci-fi dog food and something needs to be done to reinvent the series. This isn’t about having slick special effects — that was never the point of the show! Only Amy can jump start the show into something more interesting and original worth watching.
The article was poorly written and most likely written by someone for whom English is a second language. But, the numbers he presented about DivineCaroline’s success on Digg are impressive and his points are valid.
I have to confess I’m a little biased here. I’ve perused through a few stories from the site - ones that hit Digg’s FP - and found the content to be very low quality. A few times, I found blogscraping on their site.
DC hit the FP 153 times in the last year, which would place them in the top 100 sources according to stats from di66.net. [EDIT: I just checked the stats right now for one year. DC is number 35 on the list.]
I also want to note that the second to last paragraph should have been redone to reflect the proportion of the number of the submitter’s popular stories from DC to the overall number of their submissions - not to the total number of stories that went popular by each submitter. He uses the stats to suggest gaming on the part of the users, but they really only reflect the success of the domain.
Still, is the quality of the content on DivineCaroline really deserving of that many FPs?
Original Description:
Divine Caroline was founded by Real Girls Media in February of 2007, as a the first of three female-oriented sites to be launched that year. The ‘Woman’s Web 2.0 Networking site’ has a target audience of females, ages 25-54. Considering that Digg’s audience is 76% male, this hardly makes sense to me.
There aren’t a whole lot of things that you can say. While there seems to be some pretty nifty features available now, this just isn’t what everyone was waiting for. Some people we’ve spoken to about it are downright angry.
I just don't think there's anything else that needs to be said. The top story on the front page of the new Propeller says it all.
Do you have an eye for content? Do you see things hit the front page of your favourite social media site that shouldn't while you watch great content fall off into oblivion?
We need you for popFAIL. You don't need to be a super-power-mega-user to be able to contribute. You don't have to be on the top 100 list. You just have to recognize good content and post it here.
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![artificial_island_13sfw 45 Absolutely Incredible Artificial Islands [PICS + VIDS]](http://www.lifeinthefastlane.ca/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/artificial_island_13sfw.gif "Cool Island")
I think the title scared off a few diggers (OMG, thousands? That’s too much. Do you have an abridged version?).
The article was poorly written and most likely written by someone for whom English is a second language. But, the numbers he presented about DivineCaroline’s success on Digg are impressive and his points are valid.
