Podcasting News reports on Purdue University's launch of BoilerCast (a play on Boilermakers), a podcasting service that provides lectures in streaming format or as downloads. "Many universities are experimenting with podcasting, but I'm not aware of any other university that is deploying a podcasting service on the scale that we are," says Michael Gay, manager of Broadcast Networks & Services for Information …
Queen Of Pop Checks Herself
The Telegraph: They have been used to sell everything from washing powder to New Labour. But now it seems that even Madonna has woken up to the power of focus groups. The most successful female artist in chart history has chosen songs for her next album after secretly trying them out on nightclubbers. The tunes, with her distinctive vocals removed, were played in clubs from Liverpool to Ibiza throughout June. The …
Bob Dylan Shills For The Kaiser, And Opposition Mounts
When the unmistakable opening guitar chords of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'" popped up during a commercial break, I perked up my ears. Turns out Kaiser Permanente is using Dylan to promote its new "Thrive" campaign, encouraging people to adopt healthy habits. But some people don't like it--as evidenced by this website, which is committed to exposing the 'truth' behind the ad campaign and other KP …
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Gretchen Gets Skoalded
According to this AP story, redneck crooner, Gretchen Wilson, has received some unwelcome mail from Tennessee's attorney general. The state attorney general wants the country singer who made the song "Redneck Woman" a hit to stop "glamorizing" the use of smokeless tobacco at her concerts. State officials said Gretchen Wilson can be seen on concert jumbo screens pulling a can of Skoal from her pocket while performing …
Browser Woes
Random Culture points out that MTV has love for Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Much to my surprise, when I tried to visit the MTV Overdrive section of the site, I received an error that said, "PC users with Netscape, Mozilla or Firefox: you need to run Internet Explorer to use MTV Overdrive." The biggest problem I have with this is that MTV is supposed to be on the cutting edge of culture, right? And this is …
Volvo Works It’s Safety Positioning
Washington Times: The Swedish unit of U.S. carmaker Ford Motor Co. is experimenting with a built-in breathalyzer and speed governor to reduce road accidents. The breathalyzer is part of the seat belt mechanism, and before the car will start, the driver must blow below .08 percent or less with the belt buckled. All 50 U.S. states have adopted .08 as the legal limit, while in Sweden, the legal limit is .02, or the …
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Katrina And The Waves
OK...I just love how bizarre news coverage of storms can get. Yesterday, someone in the French Quarter dropped the F-bomb on Shepard Smith, live on FOX. See it here. Shep: "Why are you still here?" Man: "None of your f--kin' business." Shep: "Well, that was a good answer, wasn't it?...I'm watching two dogs drink out of a glass of ice water, and it's none of my business why they are still here." …
Greed Kills
New York Times: Two and a half years after the music business lined up behind the chief executive of Apple, Steven P. Jobs, and hailed him and his iTunes music service for breathing life into music sales, the industry's allegiance to Mr. Jobs has eroded sharply. Mr. Jobs is now girding for a showdown with at least two of the four major record companies over the price of songs on the iTunes service. If he loses, the …