This is one of those enigma submissions.  Great topic, interesting title, reliable, diggable source, over 200 Diggs, and yet it still didn’t flip.  Something isn’t right here.  There were no other stories that I could find with the keyword “Schwarzenegger” that hit the front page in the last few days, so I just don’t know.  Great read, though.

Original Description:

Bay Area leaders are hoping to turn the region into The Electric Vehicle Capital of the US by building a $1-billion electric vehicle infrastructure. The group involves Silicon Valley ’s Better Place and a group of wide-eyed politicians: California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the mayors of San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland.

read more | digg story | Social Media Blog | Friends of Popfail

With the financial crisis and credit becoming evermore scarcer by the day, it was bound to happen.  People are finding new ways to pay their bills and off their debts.

This man’s is definitely the most amusing so far.  He submitted a drawing.  The correspondence between him as the agent is even more so.

Original Description:

I’m so doing this…

I think i’m going to try this!

read more | digg story | digg sotry | social media blog

Yeah, Diggers and other social media users get upset when blogs and small websites do these things.  So, how about when the big media sites do them?

The NY Times, especially, used to get on my nerves with their Twitter account.  Every morning at 4AM, they dumped 10-20 links into the twitterverse.  They’ve since stopped.  Although, I’m still disappointed when I see mainstream media sites use Twitter as an RSS feed.

I really don’t think they get the Internet.

Original Description:

Forbes, BusinessWeek, The New York Times, Mens Health, you name it. The big guys think that they because they entered in the game early, or because they have some popular print publication backing them up, they can get away with whatever they want.

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Got kids?

Adults lie as well; in fact, kids are just really practicing for when they’re older.  Or, perhaps they’re getting even for Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.

My favorite part of the article is the linking between lying, high IQ, and good social skills.

The world would fall apart if we could all read each other’s minds.

Original Description:

“Daddy puts on your bras sometimes,” my then 4-year-old said nonchalantly as I tried on lingerie in a department store dressing room. “Excuse me? When?” I asked, astonished. “When you’re asleep,” she replied — and proceeded to describe how, early Saturday mornings, he’d slip a bra over his T-shirt and then jump on our mini-trampoline.

read more | digg story | social media blog

Life is short. Have an affair.

The fact that adultery is illegal in Massachussets is apparently not in issue here, as the law is antiquated and not really enforced by any of their law enforcement agencies.  It is, of course, still a legal grounds for a divorce.

Their radio spots started airing last week.  In one, President and CEO Noel Biderman promises “an affair to remember.”  TV spots begin airing next month, just in time to wreck marriages before Christmas.  This does not seem to be an issue of regard to the company or its CEO.

“The era of the scarlet letter is long over,” he said.

Currently, 70% of the agency’s 2.7 million users are men.  Most of them are in their mid-30s to early-40s and have been married for 5-10 years.  Their radio spots are currently running on sports-heavy stations.

The goal, according to Biderman, is not to convince anyone to have an affair, but just serve as a venue.

“These are decisions people have already come to in their life,” he said, “and we’re just providing them with access to other people who feel the same way.”

* * *

Read more about failures in culture at popFAIL.

(Source: Boston Herald)

There hasn’t been a time in history that a President has been hit with as much ridicule as George W. Bush.  Bill Clinton had his follies, but they were nothing compared to what has transpired the last 7 years, 10 months.

This article about a Bush Autobiography actually received quite a few Diggs considering the submitter.  It would have been nice to see it hit the front page simply for the crowd-sourced continued list of alternative book titles for a Bush book.  He says he’s considering it.  Should be interesting.

Original Description:

President Bush says he has many regrets. He is even considering writing a book about his presidency. Possible titles? Economy: Gone with the Wind. Or: Iraqis are from Mars, Afghans are from Uranus. Or: Me and Dick

read more | digg story | pop culture blog

There are some who live in legends behind the scenes.  They are the people who effect the lives of many who probably have no idea who they are.  They are in the shadows.  In the corners.  Behind the walls.  We use their services, and we never know their name.

Welcome to the world of aXXo, the undisputed champion of pirating movies on BitTorrent.

This article on Slate takes an in-depth look into what aXXo does and technically how he does it.  At the time of this post, it still has a slight chance of hitting.  We’ll.

Original Description:

Slate profiles the trademarks of BitTorrent’s most popular movie uploader. Countdown until the MPAA lawsuit? 10, 9, 8…

read more | digg story | Popular Blogs

The Astronomy Picture of the Day has been an amazing and anticipated thing for some time now.  NASA posts 1 image at 9:00 PM pst every night, give or take 5 minutes.  The images are normally stunning and are absolutely unique to the post in almost every circumstance.

It is one of the most Diggable pieces of regular content on the Internet.  There are a couple of problems, though, that make it miss sometimes.  First, the timing - dozens of top users know exactly when it will be posted.  Second, the place - the URL string is date-stamped, so it can be anticipated when it will be posted.

Submitted 3 times

Many of the top diggers have avoided it altogether recently, as the APOD-race can get brutal.  If someone pushes the submit button the second it is live, copies and pasts the title and description, hits the category, and gets the captcha on the first try, then scrolls down past the potential duplicates, there will still be one or two other people who are able to post the picture.  As long as they push submit before the first person is done, they are in.

Submitted 3 times too

There is another flaw.  The LAST person to submit it gets their submission listed on the “Digg This” button, not the first.  It would almost be wisest to click submit, wait a couple of minutes, change the headline a little bit, and post last instead of first.

It’s an easy fix.  In a scenario where multiple people are submitting the same URL, Digg could lock it out after the final step by the first submitter.  In other words, when the subsequent submitters are on the “check for duplicates” page, if they story is posted even a second before, when they push the last button to submit it, it takes them to the “Cool, this story has already been submitted” page.

Submitted 2 Times

1 URL should equal 1 submission.  Period.

Read more Digg analysis on this blog.

The Department of Justice remained true to their assertion that a Yahoo/Google deal would prompt anti-trust lawsuits to block the deal.  They were so passionate about it that they made a weekly call to the parties every Wednesday telling them that it wasn’t worth going forward.

It didn’t go forward.  Now Yahoo is still in big trouble and Google must find someone else to gobble up.

In the whole scheme of things, this isn’t a shocker.  What is really interesting, however, is how the government let it go on with their stance staying the same and yet not clearly stating NO.  Probably wasted a ton of a lot of people’s time.

Video after the jump:

Original Description:

Early Wednesday morning, the Department of Justice notified Yahoo and Google that if they proceeded with their controversial search agreement, it would file a lawsuit to block the deal. In some

read more | digg this | Social Media Analysis

… and submitted to Twitter by DoshDosh - which who I got the link from.

The list was compiled by researchers at Oxford.  But, what was most interesting about this article, is the fact that they have researchers (and software, I assume) that monitor phrases used and construct a database of them.  The purpose of the database: What expressions are disappearing and which words are misused.

Looking at the list, I think Professor Strunk would have approved.

Original Description:

A top ten of the most irritating expressions has been compiled by researchers at Oxford University.

read more | digg story | social media blog

I laughed hard when I read the title, because I had a good idea what was coming.  I can’t believe this didn’t front page, especially seeing the amount of commentary on the post.

Sure, there were a lot of submissions announcing Obama as the 44th president of the United States, but the Onion did it best - hands down.

Original Description:

African-American man Barack Obama, 47, was given the least-desirable job in the entire country Tuesday when he was elected president of the United States of America. In his new high-stress, low-reward position, Obama will be charged with such tasks as completely overhauling the nation’s broken-down economy, repairing the crumbling infrastructure,..

read more | digg story | social media blog

It isn’t often that a story by MrBabyMan makes it to popfail simply because he already makes it to the front page of Digg very often.  This story, however, was exceptional and deserves to be highlighted, but at 58 Diggs in 23 hours, it probably won’t hit.

Thus, I’ll post it here.

The real problem isn’t with the article.  It goes in depth into the different styles that each of the Presidential candidates brings to the table.  It discusses their past and more importantly their future.  An excellent read from a great source - but it’s 3 pages long.  Probably too much to digest for the front page of Digg.

Original Description:

The extraordinary powers of the presidency await either Barack Obama or John McCain. So do a grim national mood and a challenging global order. A look at how each man would face an epic challenge

read more | digg story | popular politics blog | Friends of Popfail

Sure as hell can’t be the title - as in why didn’t this post make it to the front page.

No, the user account has very little activity associated with it.

The post is to a long “poster” of the 2008 election.  I think just about every controversy and ridiculous aspect of the 2008 campaigns have been included.

Original Description:

The 2008 election summed up as if one long poster.

read more | digg story | social media blog

Sorta like the recent article I posted on Iceland’s citizens going back to fishing… only different.  Instead of acquiring jobs that actually produce something physical (or even to another industry altogether), they’re relocating to other areas of the country and sticking with the financial industry.  So, basically the rats are abandoning ship and Wall Street is experiencing population decline.

Interesting article, but left me slightly disturbed when the author referred to the talents of bankers and brokers as “rarified.”

… in what world?

awwww… look at the sad little banker…

Original Description:

Bankers and brokers looking to escape the financial meltdown are scrambling to relocate their families, possessions and rarified talent far from Wall Street to places such as Florida, Chicago, Milwaukee, Virginia and Asia.

read more | digg story | social media blog

Um… not the best way to get out of marrying someone.  Especially, if you already have a wife!

Why didn’t he just tell his fiance about the other woman?  That usually works.  It’s certainly a lot easier than setting fire to a hotel.

Link to the original source

Original Description:

A Japanese man set fire to the hotel where he was due to get married at the weekend, rather than go through with the ceremony later the same day, newspaper reports said Monday. Tatsuhiko Kawata, 39, had gone along with wedding plans despite already having a wife, the Yomiuri newspaper said.

read more | digg story | social media blog