<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" media="screen" href="/~d/styles/rss2full.xsl"?><?xml-stylesheet type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~d/styles/itemcontent.css"?><rss xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0" version="2.0">

<channel>
	<title>SeanPAune.com</title>
	
	<link>http://www.seanpaune.com</link>
	<description />
	<lastBuildDate>Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:58:15 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8</generator>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
			<atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="self" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Seanpaunecom" type="application/rss+xml" /><atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="hub" href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com" /><item>
		<title>Modern Warfare 2 To Keep Call Of Duty Name?</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Seanpaunecom/~3/Un8kQutqcSw/</link>
		<comments>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/09/modern-warfare-2-to-keep-call-of-duty-name/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:58:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sean P Aune</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Video Games]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[call of duty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[call of duty 6]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[call of duty 6 modern warfare]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[call of duty 6 modern warfare 2]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[call of duty modern warfare]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[call of duty modern warfare 2]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cod]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cod 6]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Infinity Ward]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[modern warfare 2]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.seanpaune.com/?p=4294</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[What exactly is there to name?  When you&#8217;re one of the most popular video game franchises on the market, quite a lot apparently.
In a recent survey conducted by GamePlan Insights, it was discovered that a name can mean quite a lot.  When people were asked if they recognized the brand name &#8220;Modern Warfare&#8220;, they [...]<script type="text/javascript">SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Modern Warfare 2 To Keep Call Of Duty Name?", url: "http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/09/modern-warfare-2-to-keep-call-of-duty-name/" });</script><p>Post from: <a href="http://www.seanpaune.com">SeanPAune.com</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/09/modern-warfare-2-to-keep-call-of-duty-name/">Modern Warfare 2 To Keep Call Of Duty Name?</a></p>
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-4295" style="float: right; margin: 10px;" title="modern warfare box art" src="http://www.seanpaune.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/modernwarfarefullbox.jpg" alt="modern warfare box art" width="300" height="425" />What exactly is there to name?  When you&#8217;re one of the most popular video game franchises on the market, quite a lot apparently.</p>
<p>In a recent survey conducted by GamePlan Insights, it was discovered that a name can mean quite a lot.  When people were asked if they recognized the brand name &#8220;<em>Modern Warfare</em>&#8220;, they did, but not in the numbers one suspect.  Nick Williams, head of GamePlan Insights division for OTX, told <a href="http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24164" target="_blank">Gamasutra</a> on June 24th that the results were pretty surprising:</p>
<blockquote><p>Up until the beginning of May, OTX had been tracking the title as <em>Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2</em>. More specifically, we asked a representative group of gamers in the U.S. whether or not they had heard of <em>Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2</em>. At that time, approximately 40 percent of all gamers in the U.S. claimed that they had heard of this title.</p>
<p>However, once it became clear that Activision was positioning the title as <em>Modern Warfare 2</em>, OTX removed &#8216;<em>Call of Duty</em>&#8216; from the consumer survey, and the awareness levels dropped to 20 percent. In other words, the <em>Call of Duty</em> brand association essentially doubles the awareness for the game. That is quite a remarkable statistic.</p></blockquote>
<p>He also went on to tell the web site that purchase intent was quite high for the game even without <em>Call of Duty</em> being in the title.</p>
<p>So, this leaves the question if it would be worth spinning off <em>Modern Warfare</em> into its own franchise, or is it too risky to remove the <em>Call of Duty</em> name?  Well, it seems the name debate has been resolved in the form of a picture.  Robert Bowling, a spokesman for game company Infinity Ward, posted a picture of the box art on <a href="http://twitter.com/fourzerotwo">his Twitter account</a> today that you can see in this post.  If this is the final art, which would make sense since the game is now four months from release, then the name is going to be <em>Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2</em>.</p>
<p>Is this Earth shattering news?  No, but it certainly is an interesting case study in brand management and marketing.  What was it that was going to sell this game?  Which name was more important?  Who would have suspected that gamers would be so fickle over something as simple as a name?  All intriguing, but&#8230; is it release day, 11/10/09, yet?</p>
<p>Post from: <a href="http://www.seanpaune.com">SeanPAune.com</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/09/modern-warfare-2-to-keep-call-of-duty-name/">Modern Warfare 2 To Keep Call Of Duty Name?</a></p>
<p><a href="http://sharethis.com/item?&wp=2.8&amp;publisher=58be3b8b-57d7-49b1-bd26-0cc1425097f2&amp;title=Modern+Warfare+2+To+Keep+Call+Of+Duty+Name%3F&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.seanpaune.com%2F2009%2F07%2F09%2Fmodern-warfare-2-to-keep-call-of-duty-name%2F">ShareThis</a></p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=Un8kQutqcSw:xbOvHSbGFJI:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=Un8kQutqcSw:xbOvHSbGFJI:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=Un8kQutqcSw:xbOvHSbGFJI:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=Un8kQutqcSw:xbOvHSbGFJI:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=Un8kQutqcSw:xbOvHSbGFJI:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=Un8kQutqcSw:xbOvHSbGFJI:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=Un8kQutqcSw:xbOvHSbGFJI:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=Un8kQutqcSw:xbOvHSbGFJI:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=Un8kQutqcSw:xbOvHSbGFJI:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Seanpaunecom/~4/Un8kQutqcSw" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/09/modern-warfare-2-to-keep-call-of-duty-name/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		<feedburner:origLink>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/09/modern-warfare-2-to-keep-call-of-duty-name/</feedburner:origLink></item>
		<item>
		<title>Ken Block Takes On Top Gear</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Seanpaunecom/~3/vil8aShIAgE/</link>
		<comments>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/08/ken-block-takes-on-top-gear/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:49:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sean P Aune</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[TV]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[James May]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jeremy Clarkson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ken Block]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ken Block on Top Gear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Richard Hammond]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[top gear]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.seanpaune.com/?p=4290</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<script type="text/javascript">SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Ken Block Takes On Top Gear", url: "http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/08/ken-block-takes-on-top-gear/" });</script><p>Post from: <a href="http://www.seanpaune.com">SeanPAune.com</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/08/ken-block-takes-on-top-gear/">Ken Block Takes On Top Gear</a></p>
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-4291" style="float: right; margin: 10px;" title=" src="http://www.seanpaune.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/top_gear_logo.gif" alt="top gear logo" width="299" height="158" />Top Gear is the only thing I can ever remember getting me actually caring about cars as more than just a way to get from point A to point B.</p>
<p>Anyone who knows me knows that my extent of car knowledge is pretty much limited to where to put the gas.  That&#8217;s it&#8230; it just isn&#8217;t my thing.  Then a couple years ago I came across a show on BBC America called <em><a href="http://www.topgear.com/us/" target="_blank">Top Gear</a></em>&#8230; and I suddenly found myself caring about cars.</p>
<p>Okay, maybe &#8220;caring&#8221; is too strong of a word&#8230; I enjoy watching the hosts,Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, caring about cars.  I still can&#8217;t do anything past putting gas in them.</p>
<p>Well, Duncan Riley over at <a href="http://www.inquisitr.com/28565/top-gear-meets-ken-block/" target="_blank">The Inquisitr</a> posted a video from the shows current 12th season which has yet to air in America that gives you an excellent taste as to why it is so easy to get hooked on a show about cars when you have no interest in them.  In this particular clip, James May, known as &#8220;Captain Slow&#8221; to fans of the show as he doesn&#8217;t drive with the insane passion of Hammond and Clarkson, takes a ride with world rally driver Ken Block.  I mark a lot of this shows popularity up to its amazing cinematography: it is on par with a lot of movies, and far above anything else on television.</p>
<div style="text-align:center"><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="480" height="295" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/lGdpI5Mms-U&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x234900&amp;color2=0x4e9e00" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="295" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/lGdpI5Mms-U&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x234900&amp;color2=0x4e9e00" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>
<p>I think it&#8217;s easy to see how this show gets the blood pumping even in a non-car person.  Mix in their whip smart humor and you have a highly enjoyable show.  If you ever have a chance to check it out, make sure to do so.</p>
<p>Post from: <a href="http://www.seanpaune.com">SeanPAune.com</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/08/ken-block-takes-on-top-gear/">Ken Block Takes On Top Gear</a></p>
<p><a href="http://sharethis.com/item?&wp=2.8&amp;publisher=58be3b8b-57d7-49b1-bd26-0cc1425097f2&amp;title=Ken+Block+Takes+On+Top+Gear&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.seanpaune.com%2F2009%2F07%2F08%2Fken-block-takes-on-top-gear%2F">ShareThis</a></p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=vil8aShIAgE:DDi4C4Wg0U0:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=vil8aShIAgE:DDi4C4Wg0U0:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=vil8aShIAgE:DDi4C4Wg0U0:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=vil8aShIAgE:DDi4C4Wg0U0:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=vil8aShIAgE:DDi4C4Wg0U0:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=vil8aShIAgE:DDi4C4Wg0U0:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=vil8aShIAgE:DDi4C4Wg0U0:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=vil8aShIAgE:DDi4C4Wg0U0:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=vil8aShIAgE:DDi4C4Wg0U0:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Seanpaunecom/~4/vil8aShIAgE" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/08/ken-block-takes-on-top-gear/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		<feedburner:origLink>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/08/ken-block-takes-on-top-gear/</feedburner:origLink></item>
		<item>
		<title>Are We All Done Now?</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Seanpaunecom/~3/My-uBsNPcNc/</link>
		<comments>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/07/michael-jackson/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 02:58:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sean P Aune</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General Rants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[how much did michael jackson s casket cost]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michael Jackson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michael Jackson's funeral]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.seanpaune.com/?p=4284</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Are we all done now?
Can we stop throwing ourselves in to hysterics over some singer?  Can we stop with the wall-to-wall coverage?  The live updates?  No more &#8216;chimpclusives&#8216;?  In short, can we just get past the embarrassment that has been this grotesque spectacle that was the Michael Jackson funeral?  The man&#8217;s casket cost $25,000 for [...]<script type="text/javascript">SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Are We All Done Now?", url: "http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/07/michael-jackson/" });</script><p>Post from: <a href="http://www.seanpaune.com">SeanPAune.com</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/07/michael-jackson/">Are We All Done Now?</a></p>
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-4285" style="float: right; margin: 10px;" title="jackson casket" src="http://www.seanpaune.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/jacksoncasket.gif" alt="jackson casket" width="355" height="350" />Are we all done now?</p>
<p>Can we stop throwing ourselves in to hysterics over some singer?  Can we stop with the wall-to-wall coverage?  The live updates?  No more &#8216;<a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/04/michael-jackson-funeral/" target="_blank">chimpclusives</a>&#8216;?  In short, can we just get past the embarrassment that has been this grotesque spectacle that was the Michael Jackson funeral?  The man&#8217;s casket cost $25,000 for crying out loud, how is that even remotely normal?  It was gold plated!</p>
<p>I understand marking the passing of an entertainer you&#8217;ve enjoyed, heck, I do it all the time around here with people like <a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2008/06/23/rip-george-carlin/" target="_blank">George Carlin</a>, <a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2008/09/27/rip-paul-newman/" target="_blank">Paul Newman</a>, <a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/02/05/rip-lux-interior/" target="_blank">Lux Interior</a> and so on.  The difference is that I make that post, mark their passing&#8230; and get on with my life.  This has been 12 days of non-stop coverage that has been sickening.</p>
<p>I know I already asked you all to stop, but instead it just got worse.  For the first time I can ever remember, I turned off Twitter for several hours today as I was getting multiple play-by-play reports from people I follow.  One was bad enough, but ten of them was just over my breaking point, and off Twitter went.</p>
<p>He was a singer, a talented one, but still just a singer.  He made music you enjoyed, fine, but what did he ever do besides live his life to obscene excess and be vilified by the media?  Oh, you do all remember that don&#8217;t you?  The media spent years making this man out to be a monster, but the day he died we get soft focus images of him with heartfelt music about &#8220;the king of pop&#8221;, and what a wonderful person he was.  Thanks media for being a complete and utter sell out.</p>
<p>There are soldiers dying in wars across the planet.</p>
<p>Unemployment is approaching a 26 year high in the United States.</p>
<p>There are children starving to death in third-world countries.</p>
<p>The police in <a style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #7fb626; text-decoration: underline; outline-style: none;" href="http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-vigil_02met.ART.State.Edition2.4c122ca.html" target="_blank">Ft. Worth</a> are beating bar patrons apparently for their sexual orientation.</p>
<p>Iran is still in civil unrest.</p>
<p>China is cutting off the Internet to keep news from getting out of ethnic cleaning going on.</p>
<p>But, you know, really, lets spend 12 days doing nothing but talking about a man who is as well known for his mental issues as he was for his ability to sing.  Fine, you&#8217;ve had your little crying jag, you had your giant spectacle today in the form of his memorial service., can we just get back to paying attention to the things in this world that actually matter to people?  Can me move on to subjects in the news that actually impact your lives?</p>
<p>Twelve days&#8230; twelve freakin&#8217; days&#8230; enough already folks, it&#8217;s over.</p>
<p>Post from: <a href="http://www.seanpaune.com">SeanPAune.com</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/07/michael-jackson/">Are We All Done Now?</a></p>
<p><a href="http://sharethis.com/item?&wp=2.8&amp;publisher=58be3b8b-57d7-49b1-bd26-0cc1425097f2&amp;title=Are+We+All+Done+Now%3F&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.seanpaune.com%2F2009%2F07%2F07%2Fmichael-jackson%2F">ShareThis</a></p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=My-uBsNPcNc:XI7y7nImCTY:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=My-uBsNPcNc:XI7y7nImCTY:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=My-uBsNPcNc:XI7y7nImCTY:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=My-uBsNPcNc:XI7y7nImCTY:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=My-uBsNPcNc:XI7y7nImCTY:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=My-uBsNPcNc:XI7y7nImCTY:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=My-uBsNPcNc:XI7y7nImCTY:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=My-uBsNPcNc:XI7y7nImCTY:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=My-uBsNPcNc:XI7y7nImCTY:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Seanpaunecom/~4/My-uBsNPcNc" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/07/michael-jackson/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		<feedburner:origLink>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/07/michael-jackson/</feedburner:origLink></item>
		<item>
		<title>CobWEBs Episode 10 – How Not To Do A Segue</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Seanpaunecom/~3/FxxEAvJ8KLQ/</link>
		<comments>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/06/cobwebs-episode-10/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:44:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sean P Aune</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Podcasting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cobwebs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CobWEBs Episode 9]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cynical bastards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Podcast]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the cynical]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the cynical bastards]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.seanpaune.com/?p=4282</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
This week Steven Hodson, Mark &#8216;Rizzn&#8217; Hopkins and myself took on, a full load of subjects, and got in a good amount of Gillmor’ing.
- Steven introduces us to &#8220;the man wall&#8220;.
- Good-bye Joost.
- More on the real time web&#8230; Mark likes it&#8230; Steven and I not so much.
- Judge Posner is an idiot.
- We all [...]<script type="text/javascript">SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "CobWEBs Episode 10 – How Not To Do A Segue", url: "http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/06/cobwebs-episode-10/" });</script><p>Post from: <a href="http://www.seanpaune.com">SeanPAune.com</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/06/cobwebs-episode-10/">CobWEBs Episode 10 – How Not To Do A Segue</a></p>
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-3981" style="float: right; margin: 10px;" title="cbslogosmall" src="http://www.seanpaune.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/cbslogosmall.jpg" alt="cbslogosmall" width="125" height="192" /></p>
<p>This week <a href="http://www.shootingatbubbles.com/" target="_blank">Steven Hodson</a>, <a href="http://www.rizzn.com" target="_blank">Mark &#8216;Rizzn&#8217; Hopkins</a> and myself took on, a full load of subjects, and got in a good amount of Gillmor’ing.</p>
<p>- Steven introduces us to &#8220;<a href="http://www.inquisitr.com/27950/warning-all-men-should-get-their-drool-towels-now/" target="_blank">the man wall</a>&#8220;.</p>
<p>- <a href="http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2009/07/01/joost-becomes-a-white-label-video-service-ensuring-its-death/" target="_blank">Good-bye Joost</a>.</p>
<p>- More on the real time web&#8230; Mark likes it&#8230; Steven and I not so much.</p>
<p>- <a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/01/is-outlawing-links-a-way-to-save-newspapers/" target="_blank">Judge Posner</a> is an idiot.</p>
<p>- We all actually enjoyed some new <a href="http://www.inquisitr.com/27679/warped-and-funny-ie8-ads-im-still-chuckling/" target="_blank">Microsoft ads</a>&#8230; did Hell freeze over?</p>
<p>- <a href="http://www.inquisitr.com/27929/a-look-inside-perezhiltoncom-staggering-traffic-numbers-for-june-2008/" target="_blank">Perez Hilton gets a scary, scary amount of traffic</a>.</p>
<p>- <a href="http://www.siliconangle.com/ver2/?p=6286" target="_blank">What exactly is Mahalo for</a>?</p>
<p>- Possibly <a href="http://www.inquisitr.com/27955/robogeisha-i-am-at-a-loss-for-words-seriously/" target="_blank">the most disturbing movie trailer ever</a>&#8230;</p>
<p>Push the big green button and have a listen.</p>
<p><object id="LastFramePlayer" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="173" height="60" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="align" value="top" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="false" /><param name="quality" value="high" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#EEF9C1" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="src" value="http://www.talkshoe.com/resources/talkshoe/images/swf/lastEpisodePlayer.swf?fileUrl=http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-49045/TS-240934.mp3" /><param name="name" value="LastFramePlayer" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="false" /><embed id="LastFramePlayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="173" height="60" src="http://www.talkshoe.com/resources/talkshoe/images/swf/lastEpisodePlayer.swf?fileUrl=http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-49045/TS-240934.mp3" name="LastFramePlayer" wmode="transparent" bgcolor="#EEF9C1" quality="high" allowfullscreen="false" allowscriptaccess="always" align="top"></embed></object></p>
<p>Post from: <a href="http://www.seanpaune.com">SeanPAune.com</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/06/cobwebs-episode-10/">CobWEBs Episode 10 – How Not To Do A Segue</a></p>
<p><a href="http://sharethis.com/item?&wp=2.8&amp;publisher=58be3b8b-57d7-49b1-bd26-0cc1425097f2&amp;title=CobWEBs+Episode+10+%E2%80%93+How+Not+To+Do+A+Segue&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.seanpaune.com%2F2009%2F07%2F06%2Fcobwebs-episode-10%2F">ShareThis</a></p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=FxxEAvJ8KLQ:WRERQwA-IMQ:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=FxxEAvJ8KLQ:WRERQwA-IMQ:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=FxxEAvJ8KLQ:WRERQwA-IMQ:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=FxxEAvJ8KLQ:WRERQwA-IMQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=FxxEAvJ8KLQ:WRERQwA-IMQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=FxxEAvJ8KLQ:WRERQwA-IMQ:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=FxxEAvJ8KLQ:WRERQwA-IMQ:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=FxxEAvJ8KLQ:WRERQwA-IMQ:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=FxxEAvJ8KLQ:WRERQwA-IMQ:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Seanpaunecom/~4/FxxEAvJ8KLQ" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/06/cobwebs-episode-10/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		<feedburner:origLink>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/06/cobwebs-episode-10/</feedburner:origLink></item>
		<item>
		<title>Asteroids And View-Master Coming To Your Theater</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Seanpaunecom/~3/C8t4S8Wy3yE/</link>
		<comments>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/05/asteroids-and-view-master-coming-to-your-theater/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 05 Jul 2009 18:09:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sean P Aune</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Movies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Asteroids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Asteroids game]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Asteroids movie]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Asterouds arcade game]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Atari]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Brad Caleb Kane]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Centipede]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[classic arcade games]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fringe]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Frogger]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pong]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[transformers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[View-Master]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[View-Master movie]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.seanpaune.com/?p=4272</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m not sure what get put in the Hollywood water system, but it seems to be some really, really good drugs.
Just when I think Hollywood can&#8217;t get any more desperate for movie plots, they go one step further to a point that reaches such absurdity that it boggles the mind.  It was announced earlier this [...]<script type="text/javascript">SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Asteroids And View-Master Coming To Your Theater", url: "http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/05/asteroids-and-view-master-coming-to-your-theater/" });</script><p>Post from: <a href="http://www.seanpaune.com">SeanPAune.com</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/05/asteroids-and-view-master-coming-to-your-theater/">Asteroids And View-Master Coming To Your Theater</a></p>
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-4274" style="float: right; margin: 10px;" title="hollywood sign" src="http://www.seanpaune.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/hollywood-sign1.gif" alt="hollywood sign" width="350" height="264" />I&#8217;m not sure what get put in the Hollywood water system, but it seems to be some really, really good drugs.</p>
<p>Just when I think Hollywood can&#8217;t get any more desperate for movie plots, they go one step further to a point that reaches such absurdity that it boggles the mind.  It was announced earlier this week that the 1979 Atari video game <a href="http://io9.com/5306576/movie-based-on-asteroids-game-will-boggle-your-mind" target="_blank">Asteroids would be made into a movie</a>.  This was followed up by a possible joke, but no one is yet sure, that the <a href="http://io9.com/5306672/already-a-toy+based-movie-even-weirder-than-asteroids" target="_blank">View-Master picture viewer would also be getting a movie</a>.</p>
<p>&#8230; are you kidding me?</p>
<p>Asteroids was a vector-based video game where you flew a triangular ship around, shooting at incoming asteroids.  Occasionally a UFO would fly through and shoot at you to spice things up a bit.  That was the entire &#8220;plot&#8221; of the game?  Don&#8217;t believe me?  <a href="http://games.atari.com/arcade.php?game=asteroids" target="_blank">Play the official Asteroids online game</a> to see if I&#8217;m lying to you.  There was absolutely no story behind this game, but yet someone in Hollywood thought it was worth to buy the licensing rights to it.</p>
<p>View-Master was a device that came about in 1939 as a way to view stereoscopic images.  It wasn&#8217;t until the 1960&#8217;s that it became a child&#8217;s toy when they started manufacturing picture discs for things like <em>Star Trek</em> and Disney.  This movie came to light thanks to Brad Caleb Kane, a write on the TV series <em>Fringe</em>.  It is thought it may be a joke as he works with the writers behind the two <em>Transformers</em> movies, but I wouldn&#8217;t put it past Hollywood.  I can actually envision this movie being, &#8220;Kids find a magic View-Master that transports them to another world where they learn to love one another and appreciate their parents&#8221; type of film you see typically in the summer movie season.  Doesn&#8217;t mean I hope it doesn&#8217;t happen, but I can see it.</p>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-4278" style="float: right; margin: 10px;" title="asteroids" src="http://www.seanpaune.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/asteroids1.gif" alt="asteroids" width="350" height="357" />Asteroids on the other hand just totally blows me away.  This was way back in the infancy of video games, before they went through the trouble of giving them characters, a plot or anything more than &#8220;shoot this&#8221; type of concept.  Is it going to be 90 to 120 minutes of a spaceship just flying around shooting rocks?  Maybe they will try saying the UFOs control the asteroids?  I don&#8217;t know, it just screams stupidity to me, but what else do you expect from Hollywood these days?</p>
<p>It seems every movie has to have a product tie-in any more.  Where are the movies like <em>Die Hard</em> these days?  A great action movie made just to be an action movie.  No products to be sold, no big name actors (at that time), just plain fun.  Sure it was improbable, but who cared?  It was engaging and a good time!</p>
<p>So, in order to help Hollywood down this new path of theirs, let me suggest some other possible arcade game based films they can start looking in to:</p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centipede_%28arcade_game%29" target="_blank"><strong>Centipede</strong></a> &#8211; A movie about giant bugs?  Come on, Hollywood, how have you not already optioned this?!?</p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frogger" target="_blank"><strong>Frogger</strong></a> &#8211; He&#8217;s a rural frog that&#8217;s come to the city, but he learns his momma is sick and has to get back to the lily pad to help her save their family home.</p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-man" target="_blank"><strong>Pac-Man</strong></a> &#8211; Totally a stoner film.  Come on, he eats pills!</p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pong" target="_blank"><strong>Pong</strong></a> &#8211; Kind of like <em>The Karate Kid</em> where a young boy learns from a Pong master after he has been beaten up by Pong bullies.  In the end he becomes the Pong champion and they go on to make some mediocre sequels.</p>
<p>See?  Any old video game could be made into a movie with little to no imagination!  Get to work, Hollywood execs!  You can have these ideas gratis!</p>
<p>Post from: <a href="http://www.seanpaune.com">SeanPAune.com</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/05/asteroids-and-view-master-coming-to-your-theater/">Asteroids And View-Master Coming To Your Theater</a></p>
<p><a href="http://sharethis.com/item?&wp=2.8&amp;publisher=58be3b8b-57d7-49b1-bd26-0cc1425097f2&amp;title=Asteroids+And+View-Master+Coming+To+Your+Theater&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.seanpaune.com%2F2009%2F07%2F05%2Fasteroids-and-view-master-coming-to-your-theater%2F">ShareThis</a></p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=C8t4S8Wy3yE:3AgMX5X6tAY:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=C8t4S8Wy3yE:3AgMX5X6tAY:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=C8t4S8Wy3yE:3AgMX5X6tAY:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=C8t4S8Wy3yE:3AgMX5X6tAY:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=C8t4S8Wy3yE:3AgMX5X6tAY:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=C8t4S8Wy3yE:3AgMX5X6tAY:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=C8t4S8Wy3yE:3AgMX5X6tAY:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=C8t4S8Wy3yE:3AgMX5X6tAY:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=C8t4S8Wy3yE:3AgMX5X6tAY:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Seanpaunecom/~4/C8t4S8Wy3yE" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/05/asteroids-and-view-master-coming-to-your-theater/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		<feedburner:origLink>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/05/asteroids-and-view-master-coming-to-your-theater/</feedburner:origLink></item>
		<item>
		<title>For Crying Out Loud, Just STOP!</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Seanpaunecom/~3/Gr1lY2ofbqI/</link>
		<comments>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/04/michael-jackson-funeral/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 05 Jul 2009 02:53:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sean P Aune</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Journalism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Music]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[anderson cooper 360]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bubbles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michael Jackson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[michael jackson funeral]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[michael jackson's chimp]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[what happened to bubble the chimp]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[what happened to bubbles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[what happened to michael jackson's chimp]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.seanpaune.com/?p=4263</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
// < ![CDATA[
tweetmeme_url = 'http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/04/michael-jackson-funeral/';
// ]]&#62;

Folks, please, just&#8230; stop.
I have really tried refraining from even touching on the subject of Michael Jackson, but this has now reached absurd proportions.  I can understand fans being sad at his passing, but the idea that the website set up to award tickets to his memorial service (which the [...]<script type="text/javascript">SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "For Crying Out Loud, Just STOP!", url: "http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/04/michael-jackson-funeral/" });</script><p>Post from: <a href="http://www.seanpaune.com">SeanPAune.com</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/04/michael-jackson-funeral/">For Crying Out Loud, Just STOP!</a></p>
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-4264" style="float: right; margin: 10px;" title="michael jackson" src="http://www.seanpaune.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/michaeljackson.gif" alt="michael jackson" width="359" height="425" />
<div style="float: left; margin: 10px;"><script type="text/javascript">// < ![CDATA[
tweetmeme_url = 'http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/04/michael-jackson-funeral/';
// ]]&gt;</script><br />
<script src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>
<p>Folks, please, just&#8230; stop.</p>
<p>I have really tried refraining from even touching on the subject of Michael Jackson, but this has now reached absurd proportions.  I can understand fans being sad at his passing, but the idea that the website set up to award tickets to his memorial service (which the fact they are giving out tickets to this is disturbing in its own right) <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Mad-rush-for-Jacksons-funeral/articleshow/4739146.cms" target="_blank">received 500 million hits</a> in the first hour of operation.  While it is safe to say many of those were multiple visits from the same people, that is still insane.</p>
<p>Even though only 8,750 people will be issued a pair of tickets, 1.2 million officially applied for tickets.  The city of Los Angeles is expecting around 500,000 to 750,000 to descend upon the Staples Center to stand around outside the center during the ceremony.</p>
<p>Now comes the news that the networks are going to make this in to even more of a circus</p>
<ul>
<li>CBS is handing over the majority of its programming for the day to coverage of the event.  <em>The Early Show</em>, <em>Evening News with Katie Couric</em> and a special edition of <em>48 Hours</em> anchored by Katie Couric will all originate from the Staples Center in Los Angeles where the event is being held.</li>
<li>ABC will be doing live coverage of the event starting at 10 AM PDT and will pre-empt their normal daytime programming.  They are sending Charles Gibson to do the coverage.</li>
<li>NBC will not do live coverage, but instead will do a one-hour highlights show Tuesday night.</li>
<li>CNN will be live.</li>
<li>MSNBC will be live.</li>
<li>E! will be live.</li>
</ul>
<p>Stop&#8230; please, for the love of the deity of your choice, just stop.</p>
<p>Michael Jackson was indeed a talented singer, but he was just that&#8230; a singer.  He didn&#8217;t cure diseases.  He didn&#8217;t serve his country.  He did nothing heroic.  He was a cute child singer, and he grew in to a very disturbed adult man due to any number of reasons that became better known for his eccentricities than his talents.  If you want to mourn him, fine, but does anyone really need to stand outside of an arena in the summer heat to mark his passing?  (hope you all remember to bring water)  Does every network need to have a crew on hand for this?  No.</p>
<p>This is all part of an idolism of celebrities that makes no real sense.  Anyone remember the insanity surrounding the death of Princess Diana?  At least she went out and tried to change people&#8217;s lives, while Michael&#8230; spent money on amusement park rides?  The fervor over Diana&#8217;s death didn&#8217;t make any sense either, as I said in <a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/03/scattercast-episode-50/" target="_blank">Scattercast Episode 50</a>, I&#8217;m not sure a terrorist attack by Osama Bin Laden would have gotten media coverage during that week in 1997, and that&#8217;s how I&#8217;m feeling about this insanity swirling around everything involving Michael Jackson.</p>
<p>You don&#8217;t think it has spun horribly out of control?  Did you know that <em>Anderson Cooper 360</em> actually went through the trouble to track down Michael Jackson&#8217;s pet chimp, Bubbles?  Thanks to <em>The Colbert Report</em>, you can see this news handled in the manner it was most deserving of.</p>
<div style="text-align:center">
<table style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal arial; color: #333333; background-color: #f5f5f5; height: 353px;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="360">
<tbody>
<tr style="background-color:#e5e5e5" valign="middle">
<td style="padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;"><a style="color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;" href="http://www.colbertnation.com/" target="_blank">The Colbert Report</a></td>
<td style="padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; text-align:right; font-weight:bold;">Mon &#8211; Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14px;" valign="middle">
<td style="padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;" colspan="2"><a style="color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;" href="http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/232653/july-02-2009/cnn-finds-bubbles-the-chimp" target="_blank">CNN Finds Bubbles the Chimp</a></td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 14px; background-color: #353535;" valign="middle">
<td style="padding: 2px 5px 0px 5px; width: 360px; overflow: hidden; text-align: right;" colspan="2"><a style="color:#96deff; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;" href="http://www.colbertnation.com/" target="_blank">www.colbertnation.com</a></td>
</tr>
<tr valign="middle">
<td style="padding:0px;" colspan="2"><object style="display:block" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="360" height="301" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000" /><param name="flashvars" value="autoPlay=false" /><param name="src" value="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:232653" /><param name="wmode" value="window" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed style="display:block" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="360" height="301" src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:232653" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="window" flashvars="autoPlay=false" bgcolor="#000000"></embed></object></td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 18px;" valign="middle">
<td style="padding:0px;" colspan="2">
<table style="text-align: center; height: 100%; margin: 0px;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr valign="middle">
<td style="padding: 3px; width: 33%;"><a style="font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/full-episodes" target="_blank">Colbert Report Full Episodes</a></td>
<td style="padding: 3px; width: 33%;"><a style="font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.indecisionforever.com" target="_blank">Political Humor</a></td>
<td style="padding: 3px; width: 33%;"><a style="font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;" href="http://www.colbertnation.com/video/tag/Jeff+Goldblum" target="_blank">Jeff Goldblum</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p>When you start hunting down a chimp as &#8216;news&#8217;, you know this story has been beat to within an inch of its life.</p>
<p>Up until the day he died, Michael Jackson was vilified by the media for close to 20 years, but come the day he died, he turned into something close to being a saint in the eyes of the media, and that is just sickening to me.  Not only have you obviously used this man&#8217;s death to improve your ratings, but you have betrayed your previous stance on him with your sickeningly saccharine-laced new version of the events of what and who Michael Jackson was.  Shame on the media.  How about you take that energy you spent on finding Bubbles and look in to what happened in <a style="color: #7fb626; text-decoration: underline; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" href="http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-vigil_02met.ART.State.Edition2.4c122ca.html" target="_blank">Ft. Worth</a>?  What is the latest on the civil unrest in Iran?  How is the world reacting to the seven ballistic missles North Korea fired in to the Sea of Japan today?  No no, that&#8217;s okay, please go do a hard hitting interview with Bubbles&#8230; really, that&#8217;s what we need more of in this world, not real news.</p>
<p>As for the public&#8230; well&#8230; I won&#8217;t say &#8220;shame on you&#8221; because I don&#8217;t know what each person&#8217;s individual motivation is for caring about this man so much about him, but it sure doesn&#8217;t make any sense to me to get this worked up over a celeberities death.</p>
<p>Post from: <a href="http://www.seanpaune.com">SeanPAune.com</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/04/michael-jackson-funeral/">For Crying Out Loud, Just STOP!</a></p>
<p><a href="http://sharethis.com/item?&wp=2.8&amp;publisher=58be3b8b-57d7-49b1-bd26-0cc1425097f2&amp;title=For+Crying+Out+Loud%2C+Just+STOP%21&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.seanpaune.com%2F2009%2F07%2F04%2Fmichael-jackson-funeral%2F">ShareThis</a></p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=Gr1lY2ofbqI:5eckfkhqx38:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=Gr1lY2ofbqI:5eckfkhqx38:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=Gr1lY2ofbqI:5eckfkhqx38:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=Gr1lY2ofbqI:5eckfkhqx38:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=Gr1lY2ofbqI:5eckfkhqx38:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=Gr1lY2ofbqI:5eckfkhqx38:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=Gr1lY2ofbqI:5eckfkhqx38:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=Gr1lY2ofbqI:5eckfkhqx38:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=Gr1lY2ofbqI:5eckfkhqx38:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Seanpaunecom/~4/Gr1lY2ofbqI" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/04/michael-jackson-funeral/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
		<feedburner:origLink>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/04/michael-jackson-funeral/</feedburner:origLink></item>
		<item>
		<title>Scattercast Episode 50 – Hello, Evil Doer…</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Seanpaunecom/~3/hXz81I2qd-Y/</link>
		<comments>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/03/scattercast-episode-50/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:39:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sean P Aune</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Podcasting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ft Worth Gay Bar]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Helen Thomas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Journalism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[M]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Perez Hilton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Podcast]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scattercast]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Scattercast episode 50]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.seanpaune.com/?p=4260</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Scattercast is 50&#8230; whoa.
I can&#8217;t believe this is episode 50, and also technically my one year anniversary since I skipped two episodes due to voice problems.  Since it is such a special occasion I decided to bring in&#8230; you guessed it&#8230; M.  The ever mysterious female known simply as M to my readers [...]<script type="text/javascript">SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Scattercast Episode 50 – Hello, Evil Doer&#8230;", url: "http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/03/scattercast-episode-50/" });</script><p>Post from: <a href="http://www.seanpaune.com">SeanPAune.com</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/03/scattercast-episode-50/">Scattercast Episode 50 – Hello, Evil Doer&#8230;</a></p>
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-2309" style="float: right; margin: 10px;" title="Scattercast" src="http://www.seanpaune.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/scattercast1.jpg" alt="" width="301" height="301" />Scattercast is 50&#8230; whoa.</p>
<p>I can&#8217;t believe this is episode 50, and also technically my one year anniversary since I skipped two episodes due to voice problems.  Since it is such a special occasion I decided to bring in&#8230; you guessed it&#8230; M.  The ever mysterious female known simply as M to my readers and listeners is back for her third episode of Scattercast.  So not only do you get a longer than usual episode&#8230; and not only do you get M&#8230; but you also get the introduction of my new theme song!  I actually bought the rights to use this music, so&#8230; you&#8217;re stuck with it!</p>
<p>- Michael Jackson died&#8230; and the media will NOT let us forget it.</p>
<p>- <a href="http://www.inquisitr.com/28013/helen-thomas-calls-obama-administration-out-on-social-media-smokescreen/" target="_blank">Helen Thomas calls Obama administration out on social media smokescreen</a>.</p>
<p>- What does <a href="http://www.inquisitr.com/tag/perez-hilton-traffic/" target="_blank">Perez Hilton&#8217;s traffic numbers</a> say about America?</p>
<p>- Are you even aware of what is going on in <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-vigil_02met.ART.State.Edition2.4c122ca.html" target="_blank">Ft. Worth</a>?  Probably not.</p>
<p>- M makes fun of me&#8230; big surprise.</p>
<p>Here is to another 50 episodes!  Thanks to everyone who tunes in each week!</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s <a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/seanpaune/scattercast50.mp3">a link to the MP3</a> for those who wish to download it, <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=286184503" target="_blank">subscribe to Scattercast via iTunes</a>.</p>
<p><iframe src="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3247397568-audio-player.swf?audioUrl=http://media.libsyn.com/media/seanpaune/scattercast50.mp3" style="border: 1px solid #aaaaaa; width: 400px; height: 27px" id="musicPlayer"></iframe></p>
<p>Post from: <a href="http://www.seanpaune.com">SeanPAune.com</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/03/scattercast-episode-50/">Scattercast Episode 50 – Hello, Evil Doer&#8230;</a></p>
<p><a href="http://sharethis.com/item?&wp=2.8&amp;publisher=58be3b8b-57d7-49b1-bd26-0cc1425097f2&amp;title=Scattercast+Episode+50+%E2%80%93+Hello%2C+Evil+Doer%26%238230%3B&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.seanpaune.com%2F2009%2F07%2F03%2Fscattercast-episode-50%2F">ShareThis</a></p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=hXz81I2qd-Y:mR3DGTKt9Mg:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=hXz81I2qd-Y:mR3DGTKt9Mg:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=hXz81I2qd-Y:mR3DGTKt9Mg:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=hXz81I2qd-Y:mR3DGTKt9Mg:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=hXz81I2qd-Y:mR3DGTKt9Mg:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=hXz81I2qd-Y:mR3DGTKt9Mg:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=hXz81I2qd-Y:mR3DGTKt9Mg:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=hXz81I2qd-Y:mR3DGTKt9Mg:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=hXz81I2qd-Y:mR3DGTKt9Mg:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Seanpaunecom/~4/hXz81I2qd-Y" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/03/scattercast-episode-50/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>7</slash:comments>

		<feedburner:origLink>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/03/scattercast-episode-50/</feedburner:origLink><enclosure url="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Seanpaunecom/~5/VRqen120P1A/scattercast50.mp3" length="28557491" type="audio/mpeg" /><feedburner:origEnclosureLink>http://media.libsyn.com/media/seanpaune/scattercast50.mp3</feedburner:origEnclosureLink></item>
		<item>
		<title>Buffy Season 8, Issue 26</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Seanpaunecom/~3/opjKstpqgZg/</link>
		<comments>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/02/buffy-season-8-issue-26/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:58:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sean P Aune</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Buffy season 8]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Comic Books]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TV]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[andrew]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[buffy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[buffy issue 25]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[faith]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[giles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kennedy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oz]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[satsu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[willow]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[xander]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.seanpaune.com/?p=4252</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[***MAJOR SPOILERS***

Characters Seen:
Amy (mentioned/off screen)
Andrew
Buffy
Dawn
Faith
Giles
Kennedy
Oz
Warren
Willow
Xander
We open on a sea gull carrying a fish, and the fish is complaining about how it liked the other way they did, but the seagull says they are all about sneaky now.
(No&#8230; I did not imagine all of that&#8230; stop looking at me funny! &#8211; Sean)
The seagull (who is obviously [...]<script type="text/javascript">SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Buffy Season 8, Issue 26", url: "http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/02/buffy-season-8-issue-26/" });</script><p>Post from: <a href="http://www.seanpaune.com">SeanPAune.com</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/02/buffy-season-8-issue-26/">Buffy Season 8, Issue 26</a></p>
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p align="center">***MAJOR SPOILERS***</p>
<p align="left"><span id="more-4252"></span></p>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-4251" style="float: right; margin: 10px;" title="buffys8e26" src="http://www.seanpaune.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/buffys8e26.jpg" alt="buffys8e26" width="400" height="615" />Characters Seen:<br />
Amy (mentioned/off screen)<br />
Andrew<br />
Buffy<br />
Dawn<br />
Faith<br />
Giles<br />
Kennedy<br />
Oz<br />
Warren<br />
Willow<br />
Xander</p>
<p>We open on a sea gull carrying a fish, and the fish is complaining about how it liked the other way they did, but the seagull says they are all about sneaky now.</p>
<p>(<em>No&#8230; I did not imagine all of that&#8230; stop looking at me funny!</em> &#8211; Sean)</p>
<p>The seagull (who is obviously Willow) says to the fish (Buffy), that people now report when they see a witch and a Slayer flying, leading Buffy to concede it&#8217;s for the best.  Buffy asks Willow to turn her so she can look down and they discuss how their new base if fully concealed on an island, and it appears to be totally uninhabited.</p>
<p>After landing on the ground, and turning back to their normal forms, the pair walk in to a new castle discussing how they just need to keep from being found, and that Willow has an army of witches going day &amp; night to keep the magicks powered.  They are using so much power now that Willow says they are beginning to warp the grid.  Buffy immediately turns to ask her if she&#8217;s alright or if she&#8217;s being pushed too far, to which Willow says she is fine, but is confused why Buffy is so concerned all of a sudden.  (<em>Remember, Buffy encountered Dark Willow in the future a few issues back</em> &#8211; Sean)</p>
<p>Buffy says she&#8217;s just being vigilant and that the best thing for them to do right now is to disappear, to which Satsu (<em>huh?  When did she show back up?</em> &#8211; Sean, yet again) questions what they are waiting for, &#8220;The judgment of history?&#8221;</p>
<p>We cut to Berlin where we find Faith and Giles living/hiding in a Nazi bunker from World War II.  Faith isn&#8217;t thrilled with where they are, but Giles assures her it is for the best.  Faith leaps up at the sound of pounding, and Giles says not to worry as the door is ten-inch thick steal.</p>
<p>&#8230; the door blows inwards, and demons pour into the bunker.</p>
<p>Faith says being underground was a bad idea since that is where demons live, but Giles reminds her that above ground humans fear them.  They fight their way to another room and lock themselves in.</p>
<p>In Rome, Andrew leads a group of Slayers through the catacombs under the city.  As they wander through a room filled with human bones in a decorative pattern, they hear a noise in another section that Andrew decides to go check out on his own.  As Andrew shines a light in the room, he sees a bloody foot with no skin on it moving&#8230; it&#8217;s Warren.  While Andrew screams and tries to run, Warren begs him to stay.  He says that Amy is done with him and is removing the spell that replaces his skin a ittle at a time so he is in horrible pain.</p>
<p>Warren says that he wanted to see Andrew one last time before he dies, and that he was misled and wrong.  He really felt that if Andrew killed Jonathan that they could live as gods.  He says he feels like a fool and is ashamed, but he figures Andrew knows how that feel living with the Slayer fascists.</p>
<p>Andrew says it&#8217;s nothing like that, but Warren informs him that Keith Olbermann referred to them as modern day &#8220;black shirts&#8221;.  Andrew is aghast &#8220;Keith&#8221; said that.  Just as Warren says he has a proposal for Andrew, a Slayer screams &#8220;GOATMEN!  GOATMEN!&#8221; and a young Slayer falls dead near Andrew.  He turns to see a large goat creature, and Warren shouts about Amy not giving him enough time to trick Andrew.  A massive fight breaks out with Andrew shouting at the Slayers to use the decorative bones in the room as weapons.  One Slayer finally shouts there is a way out.</p>
<p>Next we see Buffy and Faith riding in a box car across Germany, and that they need to get to Buffy&#8230; Andrew mumbles &#8220;Buffy&#8221; as he rides in the bed of a truck with his remaining Slayers&#8230; Willow and Kennedy are asleep in bed when Willow sits upright and yells out she needs to find Buffy.</p>
<p>Kennedy, Willow, Xander and Dawn stand outside Buffy&#8217;s bedroom door while Willow knocks and asks if she&#8217;s alone and can they come in.  They all agree it&#8217;s a good idea to check&#8230; (<em>remember, they all walked in on Buffy in bed with Satsu</em> &#8211; Sean)  Once they get in, Willow deals out the bad news:</p>
<blockquote><p>Willow: I just got an alert.  They found us.<br />
Buffy: Who found us?<br />
Willow: Everyone.<br />
<em>Buffy pauses</em><br />
Buffy: Which everyone?<br />
Willow: Giles Faith, Andrew, five Slayers from the Italian group and every demon in Scotland.<br />
Willow: &#8230; They&#8217;re not together.<br />
Buffy: Use your magic!  Get them inside!<br />
Dawn: Not the demons.<br />
Buffy: Not the demons.<br />
Dawn: Good call.</p></blockquote>
<p>The command center of the Slayer HQ is filled with hugging reunions as Willow hugs Giles and Andrew hugs Faith.  Satsu tells Buffy they snuck them in under the barricade and that&#8217;s it for people in or out unless they get breached.</p>
<p>Buffy hugs Giles and tells him she&#8217;s glad he&#8217;s back and he agrees.  (<em>Okay, another interjection here&#8230; all &#8220;season&#8221; we&#8217;ve been told they had a falling out and it was ugly, and now they just hug and that&#8217;s it?</em> &#8211; Sean)  After Buffy wipes her tears away she wants a run down of the defenses.  Xander says he has cameras and after that it is all Willow&#8217;s magicks team, and she rattles off a long list of defenses until Satsu calls out that the demons have arrived and another Slayer says the shields are already heating up.</p>
<p>Xander&#8217;s camera are quickly taken out so everyone heads to the roof as Willow has Wicca-Slayers up there alreadyw ith three layers of shielding.  Once they get up there we see just how many demons there are, and there is a bunch.  Xander spots they&#8217;ve brought siege engines with them to take the castle, and as Buffy makes a comment about midevial tech, a tank begins to roll across the bridge to the castle. Willow calls out for the birdge spell to go down and suddenly the land bridge disappears, dropping the tank and numerous demons into the water.</p>
<p>They think they have this won since this only leaves them with catapults, and then they see they are loading those with napalm, impact bombs and more.  A Wiccan-Slayer calls out that another shield has fallen just as napalm comes at them and you see numerous Slayers on the ground fly away from the explosion.  A Wiccan-Slayer falls over in a look of shock, Willow says she&#8217;s got brain-fry and is dead.</p>
<p>Satsu bring up a demon prisoner and Willow leaps at him saying she&#8217;s take him and both of them disappear in a crackle of pink energy.  Giles wonders where they went while Faith is ready to jump into the fray and Buffy says something has to be done as girls are dying.  Willow returns and says that a certain skinless demon just told her that they are all using the magicks as a beacon.  Just then the Wiccan-Slayers call out that the final shield is down and Buffy calls for everyone to head to the submarine.</p>
<p>We cut to Buffy and Giles talking on the sub where Buffy is defending Willow&#8217;s methods of getting the information, but Giles interjects that Buffy is going to lose Willow again, to which Buffy replies that he doesn&#8217;t know the half of it.  Buffy fills him on her trip to the future and how she had to kill Future Dark Willow.  Giles says normally he would be asked to be convinced, but he figured they don&#8217;t have the time to discuss it.  They move on to how the magicks are acting like a beacon to Twilight, and Buffy begins to wonder if maybe people are right about them being evil, and as she ponders it, Faith walks in asking if they know where they&#8217;re heading.  Giles says &#8220;no&#8221;, but Buffy says &#8220;yes&#8221; and says they need Willow to cast one last big spell, but they are going somewhere to be with a person who is about the most non-magic person around.</p>
<p>A shrine in the mountains, calm, peaceful, a man sits on the porch meditating until a wind chime tings, and his eye pops open.  In front of the shrine, on dry land, sits a submarine.</p>
<p>Oz says &#8220;huh&#8221;.</p>
<p>Okay&#8230; you know, I&#8217;ve complained about the stand-alone issues, but this issue is the first of a new story arc and I feel like I have been raced through a ton of events here.  What is the story behind Giles and Buffy now?  When did Twilight discover their hiding spot?  After two years of this series, it&#8217;s nice to see us finally getting back to the original story.</p>
<p>On a side note&#8230; I despise Georges Jeanty&#8217;s artwork.  Half the time I have to piece together who&#8217;s talking, or judge it strictly on hair color.  He is not a good artist, sorry, but it&#8217;s true.</p>
<p>See you back here for issue #27.</p>
<p>Post from: <a href="http://www.seanpaune.com">SeanPAune.com</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/02/buffy-season-8-issue-26/">Buffy Season 8, Issue 26</a></p>
<p><a href="http://sharethis.com/item?&wp=2.8&amp;publisher=58be3b8b-57d7-49b1-bd26-0cc1425097f2&amp;title=Buffy+Season+8%2C+Issue+26&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.seanpaune.com%2F2009%2F07%2F02%2Fbuffy-season-8-issue-26%2F">ShareThis</a></p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=opjKstpqgZg:6s3UqKcAr0E:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=opjKstpqgZg:6s3UqKcAr0E:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=opjKstpqgZg:6s3UqKcAr0E:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=opjKstpqgZg:6s3UqKcAr0E:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=opjKstpqgZg:6s3UqKcAr0E:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=opjKstpqgZg:6s3UqKcAr0E:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=opjKstpqgZg:6s3UqKcAr0E:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=opjKstpqgZg:6s3UqKcAr0E:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=opjKstpqgZg:6s3UqKcAr0E:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Seanpaunecom/~4/opjKstpqgZg" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/02/buffy-season-8-issue-26/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		<feedburner:origLink>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/02/buffy-season-8-issue-26/</feedburner:origLink></item>
		<item>
		<title>Thank You To My Readers</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Seanpaunecom/~3/TsW1jIXIuNw/</link>
		<comments>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/02/thank-you-to-my-readers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:03:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sean P Aune</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Site News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.seanpaune.com/?p=4244</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[With only 6 months down, and 6 to go, I already have to take a moment to thank my readers for the amazing success this site is enjoying this year.
Normally I do a round up of how things have gone on this blog at the end of each year, but considering the growth I&#8217;ve seen [...]<script type="text/javascript">SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Thank You To My Readers", url: "http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/02/thank-you-to-my-readers/" });</script><p>Post from: <a href="http://www.seanpaune.com">SeanPAune.com</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/02/thank-you-to-my-readers/">Thank You To My Readers</a></p>
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-4249" style="float: right; margin: 10px;" title="thank you" src="http://www.seanpaune.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/thankyou.jpg" alt="thank you" width="347" height="327" />With only 6 months down, and 6 to go, I already have to take a moment to thank my readers for the amazing success this site is enjoying this year.</p>
<p>Normally I do a round up of how things have gone on this blog at the end of each year, but considering the growth I&#8217;ve seen this year, I felt compelled to take a moment out of the day now to say &#8220;thank you&#8221;.  While I originally started this blog more for myself than anything else, I have been amazed to discover that people actually seem to enjoy reading my ramblings.  Why they do I have no clue, but I must admit I find it gratifying.</p>
<p>Measuring January 1st, 2008 &#8211; June 30th, 2008 against January 1st, 2009 &#8211; June 30th, 2009 finds that my unique visitors have grown by 1,075.47%, and total page views has grown by 897.83%.  Even more stunning is if I compare all of 2008 against the first six months of 2009, unique visitors has already grown by 175.31% and total page views are up 149.51%.  I am stunned by this growth, and I am at a total loss as to what has caused this to happen.  I haven&#8217;t changed the stories I cover very much, and it&#8217;s still just me sitting here plugging away day in, day out, but obviously something has changed somewhere in the mix, and, well, I&#8217;m surely not going to argue with it.</p>
<p>Mind you my numbers are still very much in line with a personal blog, as in I am not getting anywhere near the number of visitors some of the blogs I work for get, but for a blog of my type, the numbers have become very respectable.</p>
<p>So, again, thank you for coming here and reading my extremely random commentaries on the world around us.  I know not every post is going to be for every reader&#8217;s taste, but I hope you are willing to wade through the ones that may not seem like a natural fit for you.</p>
<p>Post from: <a href="http://www.seanpaune.com">SeanPAune.com</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/02/thank-you-to-my-readers/">Thank You To My Readers</a></p>
<p><a href="http://sharethis.com/item?&wp=2.8&amp;publisher=58be3b8b-57d7-49b1-bd26-0cc1425097f2&amp;title=Thank+You+To+My+Readers&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.seanpaune.com%2F2009%2F07%2F02%2Fthank-you-to-my-readers%2F">ShareThis</a></p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=TsW1jIXIuNw:pErOVyxvRe8:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=TsW1jIXIuNw:pErOVyxvRe8:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=TsW1jIXIuNw:pErOVyxvRe8:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=TsW1jIXIuNw:pErOVyxvRe8:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=TsW1jIXIuNw:pErOVyxvRe8:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=TsW1jIXIuNw:pErOVyxvRe8:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=TsW1jIXIuNw:pErOVyxvRe8:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=TsW1jIXIuNw:pErOVyxvRe8:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=TsW1jIXIuNw:pErOVyxvRe8:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Seanpaunecom/~4/TsW1jIXIuNw" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/02/thank-you-to-my-readers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		<feedburner:origLink>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/02/thank-you-to-my-readers/</feedburner:origLink></item>
		<item>
		<title>Is Outlawing Links A Way To Save Newspapers?</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Seanpaunecom/~3/WzfF9wJ3rdw/</link>
		<comments>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/01/is-outlawing-links-a-way-to-save-newspapers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:04:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sean P Aune</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[General Rants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Journalism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Judge Richard Posner]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.seanpaune.com/?p=4231</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sometimes I read something online that is so mind numbingly stupid that I can&#8217;t even conceive how someone reached that conclusion.  Yep&#8230; this is one of those times.
Over the weekend, Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch wrote up a post about how Judge Richard Posner wrote up a blog about the death of newspapers, and he [...]<script type="text/javascript">SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Is Outlawing Links A Way To Save Newspapers?", url: "http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/01/is-outlawing-links-a-way-to-save-newspapers/" });</script><p>Post from: <a href="http://www.seanpaune.com">SeanPAune.com</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/01/is-outlawing-links-a-way-to-save-newspapers/">Is Outlawing Links A Way To Save Newspapers?</a></p>
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-4230" style="float: right; margin: 10px;" title="link arrest" src="http://www.seanpaune.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/linkarrest.gif" alt="link arrest" width="425" height="350" />Sometimes I read something online that is so mind numbingly stupid that I can&#8217;t even conceive how someone reached that conclusion.  Yep&#8230; this is one of those times.</p>
<p>Over the weekend, Erick Schonfeld of <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/28/how-to-save-the-newspapers-vol-xii-outlaw-linking/" target="_blank">TechCrunch</a> wrote up a post about how Judge Richard Posner wrote up a <a href="http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/archives/2009/06/the_future_of_n.html" target="_blank">blog</a> about the death of newspapers, and he had one of the craziest ideas I&#8217;ve ever heard of for saving them from the worsening economy:</p>
<blockquote><p>Imagine if the <em>New York Times </em>migrated entirely to the World Wide Web. Could it support, out of advertising and subscriber revenues, as large a news-gathering apparatus as it does today? This seems unlikely, because it is much easier to create a web site and free ride on other sites than to create a print newspaper and free ride on other print newspapers, in part because of the lag in print publication; what is staler than last week&#8217;s news. Expanding copyright law to bar online access to copyrighted materials without the copyright holder&#8217;s consent, or to bar linking to or paraphrasing copyrighted materials without the copyright holder&#8217;s consent, might be necessary to keep free riding on content financed by online newspapers from so impairing the incentive to create costly news-gathering operations that news services like Reuters and the Associated Press would become the only professional, nongovernmental sources of news and opinion.</p></blockquote>
<p>For those of you unfamiliar with the theory of linking and how it works, it&#8217;s a fairly simple concept.  Take me linking the word &#8220;TechCrunch&#8221; above.  I chose to link to the actual story Ms. Schonfeld wrote, so now when this post is published he will receive a notice called a &#8220;trackback&#8221; that allows him to know that I referenced his article in my post.  This will also be used by search engines to see how relevant his post is and how much credence they should give it.  The more links a site or story receives, the more importance a search engine puts on it, and the more chance of people searching on the appropriate terms will see it.</p>
<p>Essentially, links are the life&#8217;s blood of blogging.</p>
<p>Now, what Judge Posner is suggesting that linking to copyrighted material, or using a portion of it as a quote (like I did with his blog post above), should be illegal under copyright law , you have to wonder how he thinks this will save the  the newspaper industry.  I&#8217;m not sure where to even start with just how wrong he has gotten this, but lets give it a go anyway:</p>
<h2>Expanding copyright law to bar online access to copyrighted materials without the copyright holder&#8217;s consent, or to bar linking&#8230;</h2>
<p>Okay, lets say you want to link to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/" target="_blank">NYTimes.com</a>, that would probably be fine, but if you want to link to a specific story, say Karl Malden, Everyman Actor, Dies at 97, the link would look like this:</p>
<p><code>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/movies/02malden.html?_r=1&amp;hp</code></p>
<p>This is known as &#8220;deep linking&#8221;, and I have a feeling this is what Judge Posner is talking about as this is actual copyrighted material.  The problem is that without deep linking you could never share a story with any one.  Are you going to link to the main page and then tell them &#8220;Okay, click here&#8230; and then here&#8230; and then do this&#8230;&#8221;, no, you aren&#8217;t.</p>
<p>Deep linking is also essential to how search engines index the importance of a specific page so that it knows how much priority to gie it when people search on a term.  The more links a page has to it, the more important it is, the higher up in search results it appears.  Deep linking is a very, very good thing in the Internet business.<br />
<img class="alignright size-full wp-image-4242" style="float: right; margin: 10px;" title="posner kitteh" src="http://www.seanpaune.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/posnerkitteh.gif" alt="posner kitteh" width="300" height="440" /></p>
<h2>&#8230;paraphrasing copyrighted materials without the copyright holder&#8217;s consent</h2>
<p>What he is talking about here is block quotes like I did above.  The problem with this is that it would make it impossible for anyone to write a rebuttal to anything as you would have to do a long, drawn out, explanation of what the original article said.  You would have to make sure the wording was different enough so as not to be accused of plagiarism, but then balance making sure you got the original tone of the article.  That is essentially impossible.</p>
<p>Quoting stories is as old as journalism and is essential to editorials as well as stories.  So long as you only quote a small portion of the story it falls under <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use" target="_blank">Fair Use</a>, and I don&#8217;t really see that ever being written out of copyright law.</p>
<h2>It all comes down to &#8220;consent&#8221;</h2>
<p>Judge Posner does stipulate that people could get the copyright holder&#8217;s consent and do the linking and quoting, but due to time constraints, and the timeliness of stories, would any newspaper want a dedicated person sitting around 24/7 just to approve requests?  Of course they wouldn&#8217;t,  so the solution would be giving people carte blanche to link and quote.  Those papars that wouldn&#8217;t do it would quickly see themselves losing popularity due to a lack of links, and&#8230; in short, everyone would have to give blanket permission and we would be back to where we started.  Everyone would have permission, and those that didn&#8217;t grant it would get zero traffic because of how far behind they are.</p>
<p>So, basically I am saying that Judge Posner&#8217;s solution is flawed beyond belief and that he shows a total lack of understanding for how the Internet actually operates.  His &#8217;solutions&#8217; will do nothing but create grief for bloggers and newspapers alike  It would take no time for workarounds to be found, and in the meantime it would end up costing those papers money as they try to handle all of the increased number of requests for permission.</p>
<p>Try to save old media if you want, but at least have a working knowledge of your &#8220;solution&#8221; before you suggest it.</p>
<p>Post from: <a href="http://www.seanpaune.com">SeanPAune.com</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/01/is-outlawing-links-a-way-to-save-newspapers/">Is Outlawing Links A Way To Save Newspapers?</a></p>
<p><a href="http://sharethis.com/item?&wp=2.8&amp;publisher=58be3b8b-57d7-49b1-bd26-0cc1425097f2&amp;title=Is+Outlawing+Links+A+Way+To+Save+Newspapers%3F&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.seanpaune.com%2F2009%2F07%2F01%2Fis-outlawing-links-a-way-to-save-newspapers%2F">ShareThis</a></p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=WzfF9wJ3rdw:DQGC4NWUdX4:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=WzfF9wJ3rdw:DQGC4NWUdX4:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=WzfF9wJ3rdw:DQGC4NWUdX4:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=WzfF9wJ3rdw:DQGC4NWUdX4:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=WzfF9wJ3rdw:DQGC4NWUdX4:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=WzfF9wJ3rdw:DQGC4NWUdX4:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=WzfF9wJ3rdw:DQGC4NWUdX4:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?a=WzfF9wJ3rdw:DQGC4NWUdX4:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Seanpaunecom?i=WzfF9wJ3rdw:DQGC4NWUdX4:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Seanpaunecom/~4/WzfF9wJ3rdw" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/01/is-outlawing-links-a-way-to-save-newspapers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		<feedburner:origLink>http://www.seanpaune.com/2009/07/01/is-outlawing-links-a-way-to-save-newspapers/</feedburner:origLink></item>
	</channel>
</rss><!-- Dynamic page generated in 1.003 seconds. --><!-- Cached page generated by WP-Super-Cache on 2009-07-09 18:13:08 -->
