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• Category:Entertainment, FAIL, Gaming, Lifestyle, Offbeat, Science, Sports, Technology, World & Business

This is not my personal blog; nor, is it JD’s.  It’s starting to feel like it, though.  We need contributors, and in order to satisfy that end, perhaps we need to expand the mission of this blog a little further.  You may not have thought it was possible, but I assure you; it is.

Our first and primary mission was to highlight those stories on Digg that, for one reason or another, did not make the front page.  It was a result of being frustrated at and confused by an obscure algorithm that no one could even begin to understand.  How does one story get picked over another?  Is the decision to promote one piece over another truly being crowdsourced?

Through our posts we highlighted apparent flaws in Digg’s algorithm, its system design, and its community.  Not satisfied with that and feeling rebellious, JD decided to highlight the utter crap that managed to be promoted to Digg’s homepage.  Thus, even from its earliest days, this blog’s mission has always been two fold:

1) To highlight those stories that may have deserved to have gone popular.

2) To highlight the garbage that manages to become popular, but should really have not.

Mostly, we added human intellect and judgment to the selection of stories to go popular that Digg’s algorithm could not. Read more…

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• Category:Entertainment, FAIL, Gaming, Lifestyle, Offbeat, Science, Sports, Technology, World & Business

This is an open call for writers.  We need you.  The original concept of highlighting stories that should have been on the front page of social media sites but that didn’t quite make it is starting to lose steam.  We will continue to do it, of course, but we want more.

Lots more.

We want this site to spark the interests of the readers out there who want more from a blog.  There is a distinct need to expand on our successes and bring this blog to the next level.

It has done well so far.  It achieved a PageRank of 4 in a relatively short time without unnatural link-building.  The traffic has been wonderful and we have seen 3 of our posts hit the front page of Digg, including one story that had over 3000 Diggs.  Our subscribers are moving up nicely and consistently, but still… Read more…

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• Category:FAIL, Lifestyle

Submitted to Digg by jazzking2001 8/12/2008

In our world of high tech CG, robots that paint, and virtual reality that can seem as real as… real, sometimes the things that amaze us the most are those things that take time, that start with something completely simple and turn them into things that are amazing.

Below are perfect examples of human ingenuity and patience that express the creative potential of being alive. Here are some samples, but check out Neocrisis for all 25 of them.

Paper Castle

Paper Spider

Paper Boat

Original Desctiption:

25 masterpieces made out of paper.

read more | digg story | digg front page fail

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• Category:Lifestyle

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.

read more | digg story | reddit story | propel story | blog about social media

• Comments:4 Comments
• Category:Lifestyle

Submitted by warrior007 on 07/18/2008

I’ve got a “touch” of insomnia myself, so I may be a little biased in judgment here - actually, I suffer from it tremendously.  I’m either up too early or falling asleep so late.  I do get a lot of work done at the oddest of times.

In either case, the 5 myths listed in this article really are widely unknown, but should not be.  According to the article, 35 million Americans suffer from insomnia.  I’m sure quite a large number exist on Digg.

Original Description:

Our culture is obsessed with sleep, and the lack of it, yet many of us don’t know some basic facts.

read more | digg story | social media blog

• Comments:1 Comment
• Category:Lifestyle

Submitted by xdcc 7/4/2008

A recent study shows that caffeine is able to increase glycogen levels by 66% 4 hours after a strenuous workout. This comes on the heels of news last month that drinking 6 cups of coffee a day can improve your health.

Glycogen, the muscles’ primary fuel source during workouts, is important in recovery and in generating energy for the following day’s workout.

Another story was also submitted to Digg and Mixx a day earlier, but the newer story highlighted here from ConsumerAffairs.com is a better read. Perhaps the 600 Starbucks slated for closing can be reborn in gyms across America.

Original Description:

More good news for coffee drinkers. A study released last month found no ill effects from coffee and now Australian researchers say coffee can be just the thing after strenuous exercise.

read more | digg story | popFAIL

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• Category:Lifestyle

Submitted by Mattman9876 on 07/02/2008

What’s better than a beautiful beach?  A secluded one.  One of the goals of a vacation is to get away from everything, including other people.  We may be social creatures, but once in awhile we do crave solitude.  Some of us more than others.  It aids the thinking processes.

The only thing I can see wrong with this article is the fact that the 12 beaches were split onto 13 pages.  Some diggers have a problem with this.  but, this article was worth it.

Original Description:

Just about everybody loves the beach. For confirmation, try finding a spot to spread your towel on a popular strand when it’s umbrella and lounge-chair season. But a beach you can love without having to share —such as Florida’s Cayo Costa pictured here—that’s our idea of heaven. Some of those, as you’ll see from our list…

read more | digg story | popfail

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• Category:Lifestyle

Submitted to Digg by MaxP3 on 07/02/2008, to Reddit by modestokun, and to Mixx by Tomatoes

Happy 4th of July

It’s a problem that some experience, ugly cold sores that appear around the mouth occasionally.  Researchers at Duke University have discovered how it hides itself temporarily from the body’s immune system.  Understanding this is helping researchers find an actual cure - as opposed to just treating the virus.

Adrian67 also submitted this story to Digg from a different domain on the same day.

Original Description

The secret of how the cold sore virus manages to persist for a lifetime in the human body may have been cracked by US scientists.

read more | digg story | reddit story | mixx story | popfail

• Comments:2 Comments
• Category:Lifestyle

Submitted to Mixx by SlateReader and to Digg by lwlamar 6/27/2008

While I think the teaser headline was better (Go Ahead, Put Baby in a Corner) the general point is made. “Timeouts” were a hot recommended punishment in the 80s and 90s as an effective alternative to striking children, but they have become more of a punchline lately.

One of the problems is their waning effectiveness. It isn’t that the punishment isn’t being used. In fact, it’s being overused, and improperly at that. If you are a parent who uses timeouts for kid control, this article is a great one to check out.

Excessive timeouts do more harm than good, making a child irritable and more volatile in his reactions, and more inclined to escape and avoid the adults who punish him. Just as important, parents who punish excessively tend to escalate punishment, increasing the side effects and losing track of the original intent of giving a timeout, which is to improve a child’s behavior. The opposite happens, in fact.

Original Description:

This one is for all the frustrated parents out there, a gentle reminder that we all need from time to time.

read more | digg story | mixx story | popFAIL

• Comments:2 Comments
• Category:Lifestyle, Technology

So… If you were on Digg or any social media sites this week, you might have noticed that Firefox 3 was officially released this week.

Now, we love Firefox 3 - we really, really do, but the problem is it just doesn’t have all the options we want. So we thought we’d list a few features we want to see them implement before the next release.

1) Michael Arrington Moustachifier

TechCrunch’s Michael Arrintgon would look like a pimp if he had a giant moustache. The problem is that I dont think Michael would grow one… so why not help him out?

Utilising facial recognition technology, this feature would scrape pictures of Mike and add a random moustache from a large image moustache library.

See what we mean? Total pimp.

2) Not-Bin Laden

The US Government cant find Osama Bin Laden. Just like a set of keys that you need to get to work when you’re late, he seems to be just beyond our ability to locate. Why not help them out by utilising the power of the Interwebz?

What this would do is use your webcam and check to ensure that you are NOT Osama Bin Laden. If you are not, it would notify the US government that Osama Bin Laden is not there. By narrowing down where the bearded man isn’t, it should be easier for them to find out where he is.

Just a thought.

3) Spam-Seeker

We all receive a fair amount of spam. I sure as hell won’t buy this stuff, but apparently SOMEONE out there is (otherwise why would anyone sell it?).

Just for those poor souls, Firefox should introduce The Spam-Seeker 3000. This pro-active application would automatically fill out details into known spam sites for you, just in case you are one of those people that buy this kind of crap.

Someone would probably use it… we’re sure of it.

4) First-alizer!

What the First-alizer! does is when you are reading a blog post, it checks to see if there are no comments yet, and if it detects none, then it posts automatically posts “First!!!”

This would help those people that do this kind of thing. You know who you are.

5) Auto Dude Detector

Online dating is here to stay. It’s a simple fact of life. Why not help those guys online who are trying to find an actual female. The Auto Dude Detector picks out which female profiles are real and which are guys posing as girls. An optional feature could be used by women seeking men, real men, by detecting which 6′3″ muscular studs are actually 6′3″ muscular studs and not 5′5″ 14-year-old nerds posing as 6′3″ muscular studs.

No Crying Game moments for users of this useful tool.

6) De-Emo

This should be mandatory Its aim? To remove the Emo’s off the Internet, one at a time

Some thoughts on how we can achieve this Replacing all periods with little smiley faces to make them happier?

7) Meme Destroyer

Hopefully with this addon, Meme’s that get too old just die out.

If I see another “lolcat” or “rickroll”…. Someone is going to get hurt…

If you have any ideas for new awesome features below? Let us know in the comments!