A couple of rednecks can really shine some light on Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaignery.

Jeremy Schoemaker, alias “Shoe Money,” made his way through the BlogWorld exhibits and attendees in his markedly nonchalant manor. Shoe is a blogger, yes, but his true ability is his wizardry with affiliate marketing. While even highly trafficked bloggers struggle to earn even $100 per month through their monetization schemes, Shoe’s “skills to pay the bills” earn him more than $100,000 per month.

After he raided the HackerSafe exhibit for beer I had a brief chat with him about blogging and journalism. He said more and more people are dropping print news subscriptions for the blogosphere. The core of this, he said, is the sheer mobility of bloggers.

Read the rest »

There was an upsurge in ninja video viewing on YouTube today. Some are attributing this to the annual Day of the Ninja, which takes place Dec. 5. The tradition, started by the folks over at Ninja Burger in connection with Ask A Ninja is, well, silly really.

I’m not sure how many people actually dressed like ninjas or brought throwing stars to work or school today. This sort of dangerously off-kilter behavior is not exactly advisable anyhow.

Here’s a video near the top of YouTube’s daily viewing charts today.

This whole ninja fad is twice as played out as pirates and nowhere near as timeless as Chuck Norris. But still, you must admire some of the following. Some trend setters have even combined pirates and ninjas into an entirely different subculture. Only these fanboys are armed with production experience:

Amateur video production sure has come along way. Still, as far as I’m concerned the Onion takes the cake. Here’s their spooftastic coverage of the Ninja Parade.

Ninja Parade Slips Through Town Unnoticed Once Again

The Expo opened with a few words from Matt Mullenweg, the creator of Wordpress, thanks to which you now read this blog. He said the secret to his success in creating a multi-million dollar blogging platform that sees 100 million users a month is the hiring. With 18 employees comprising the whole company, he adds only two new hires per quarter.

“When you find people who are willing to do it regardless of the living, then it’s not work,” Mullenweg said. “It’s fun.”

His advice to aspiring bloggers was laden with common sense. Early on in the blogosphere, he said, there were many “rules” on how to create a good blog: you should have 14 posts on the front page, sidebars should look a certain way and so on. What he realized is the thing that makes the blogger stand out most, is a bit of originality.

“You really want to find what’s unique about you,” Mullenweg told the crowd. “You have to be unique and you have to love what you’re doing.” Read the rest »

So this isn’t necessarily a “conspiracy.” Really’ it’s more of a doom prophesy.

The Mayan calendar officially ends in 2012 and many believe this year will spell the end of the human civilization - the Apocalypse if you will. On December 21, 2012 we’ll supposedly start to see tidal waves, volcanic eruptions and starvation.

The strangest part about this prophesy is that science seems to endorse it. Well, it endorses a version of it. Watch this video.

So on December 21, 2012 we’ll be entering some sort of cosmic super-alignment. That part is fact. As to just what this means? It could be the second coming of Christ, a pole shift leading to global catastrophe or anything in between.

My guess is there will be a very wild party. Some will get sick. Most will have fun. Here’s a fun place to check out some of the doom saying.

Yet again the nation’s interests have been hijacked. Because “they” hate Americans we now have to crusade against the global network of TERROR. 9/11. Al Qaeda.

Ahem. Oh sorry for that, just clearing my conscience - er - throat.

It seems lately that conspiracy theories are flying around like tater tots in a grade school food fight. Maybe now that Americans are starting to realize that terrorists don’t actually pose the U.S. too much of a residual threat, we are all just looking to find something to justify our deep-seated cultural fear. I’ll be discussing a few of these over the next week.

One of my favorite conspiracy theories purports that the international bankers are trying to create a North American Union out of the Canada, Mexico and the U.S. This would abolish the dollar, looney and peso and render our beloved Constitution no more useful than a spork (hey, it looks good on paper). The new currency would be called the “amero.” Read the rest »

The first thing I notice about Las Vegas, being the news junkie I am, was that all the newspaper vending machines typically found at busy intersections have been replaced with smut boxes. The trashy mags found inside display loose women wearing nothing but censor bars.

“$49.99 Special,” they proclaim, “Danielle is a real girl!”

During the days, mischievous minds seek out their plunder. During the nights, hands are filled with 48OZ novelty drinks and colorful casino chips. Hoards of homo sapiens wander drunkenly from one bright, cacophonous money sink to the next. Even my most sober moments in Vegas have a certain blurred quality about them.

Clearly it is the ideal spot for a gathering of bloggers and Web innovators. Read the rest »

Beating out search giant, Google, Microsoft has purchased a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook for a total of $240 million. According to a story on chron.com, Microsoft plans to sell ads internet ads for Facebook as the popular social networking platform expands into global markets.

It was a good move on Microsoft’s part, even if Facebook’s audience would probably rather have seen the powerful yet lovable Google secure the percentage. As Facebook’s membership increases, so does the opportunity for advertising. But perhaps even more valuable is the wealth of personal data that can be compiled about individuals through the site. Will this data be used for good or evil? Only time will tell.

I would caution Facebook users to be careful what the post on the site. Anything you post up there, from information to pictures, is owned by Facebook. Now Microsoft has a foothold into that all-you-can-eat buffet of personal data. Please, learn from the frog.

Viacom has finally taken steps to make 13,000 clips of their hit political comedy, “The Daily Show,” available online. But don’t be mistaken, none of these will be on YouTube. You can now watch John Stewart dish out his insightful brand of satirical political comedy right on TheDailyShow.com. You can even embed the videos there in your blog (see above).I suppose this is some sort of bitchslap aimed at YouTube, whom Viacom is currently suing for $1 billion - as if to say, “Hey YouTube, here’s our prized content. Ohh you can’t have it. And look at all the pretty advertising we’re selling.”

The thing is, nobody really goes to Viacom’s pet Web sites to be entertained by Web video. As of today, the show’s website ranks 1,035,743 on Alexa (that’s bad) vs YouTube’s ranking of about 4 (thats cray). YouTube is not just a Web site. It’s an online community of people entertaining one another with video. It is, itself, an entertainment platform. This is why Viacom’s little experiment won’t work: it’s not just about the Daily Show videos, it’s about where people want to go to find fun videos. Right now, that’s YouTube. And sometimes iMoondo.

Leave it to the English. In spite of all the fad diets that give millions of Americans a small shade of hope one grande-nonfat-machiato-no-whip at a time, U.K. scientists have managed to prove that most people are dead wrong about why everyone is getting so fat. We can’t just point the finger at excess snacking, lack of exercise or improper dieting. Rather, our modern society itself is the bigger issue. There is no escape. Read the rest »