The sad and tragic, as well as legally and ethically loaded, story of a 13-year-old who committed suicide after a MySpace prank friendship that was faked by adults, not kids. [Via]

A Bootcamp for youth South Koreans who are “addicted to Cyberspace”.

“…what was uncovered in this study does not clearly support either of the two visions of copyright, suggesting that the Creative Commons may not entirely solve the conflict between the two visions. However, the Creative Commons can alleviate…”

Summer Nights, in blocks. Nifty.

“IBM has released a survey of 2400 consumers, called the End of Advertising Survey, that found that %11 of respondents would pay a small fee to remove advertisements from their online video viewing experience. A YouTube Premium subscription option?”

“Thousands of Facebook users who have asked in recent weeks to be added to the list of Kevin Rudd’s “friends” have instead found themselves moved to a new “fan” page for the Labor leader. The fan page allows Labor an opportunity to email…”

More on young Bill Adama’s first mission and his discoveries about the Cylons. This clip is from the upcoming Razor dbl ep. This is a direct continuation from Flashback 05.

Ze says more about the WGA Strike. Ze funny (but also more serious at moments).

Take photos of your CC Swag and achieve fame and kudos! (Well, a little.) Seriously, though, a great opportunity to get creative and get behind the Creative Commons!

Interesting perspective from Dave Winer. For him, Google launched Open Social because they “were scared because Facebook has a better advertising story than Google does.”

Joss Whedon on the Writer’s Strike in the US: “Compared to what the studios have made off me my share is tiny and cute, but I’m in no position to complain…. This is an era of change, and for the giant conglomo-tainment empires …” (A good read!)

Ze Frank briefly returns to the videoblogging world for a very amusing and insightful look a the US Writer’s Strike.

“… the unhappy saga of Michael Noonan’s PhD project on the disabled at the Queensland University of Technology seemed close to playing itself out with the resignation of John Hookham and Gary MacLennan…”

“The enforcement arm of the Australian music industry has dismissed damaging overseas research that found illegal music sharing actually increased CD sales.” (I’m shocked …)

“More than one-third of teenage girls in Australia have been sexually harassed via the internet, and more than a quarter admit to cyber-bullying other girls, according to a survey released yesterday. A psychologist, Michael Carr-Gregg …”

“Hackers have unlocked violent content that was censored by the publisher of the game Manhunt 2 to give it a marketable rating. The game, initially given an Adults Only rating by the US Entertainment Software Rating Board…”

An interesting look at “subfans”, those international fans of usually English TV shows who produce rapid sub-title translations, often as part of the peer 2 peer sharing of TV shows via Bittorrent.

“Researchers introduced a state-of-the-art social robot into a classroom of 18- to 24-month-olds for five months as a way of studying human-robot interactions. The children not only came to accept the robot but treated it as they would a human buddy…”

Good summary post on the way the WGA strike will impact Battlestar Galactica, and the clear support of Ron Moore and the show’s writers for strike action. (Esp relevant to BSG as it’s been into digital media payment grey areas already with webisodes.)

Funny clip looking at exactly what some of the most notable writers in the US are doing for a crust during the WGA strike! 🙂 (Via Gregg Rossen. Thanks!) Also: WGA Strike Channel.

A good, accessible explanation of the issues at play in the WGA writer’ strike in the US from media scholar Jason Mittell.

“Joss Whedon is heading back to TV– along with his “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel” ingenue, Eliza Dushku. Dushku will star in the Whedon-penned series “Dollhouse,” which has been given a seven-episode order by Fox.”

“Hip British graffiti artist Banksy, whose true identity has long remained a mystery, was thrust into the spotlight on Wednesday after the publication of a snatched picture allegedly of him at work.”

“Video game developers are jubilant after the [Australian] federal Opposition signalled it might extend a 40 per cent tax break to their industry if it takes power in the November election.”

“What amazed me the most was how [Barack] Obama’s 1 Million Strong Group took more than 8 months to get about 380,000 members, but Colbert’s 1 Million Strong Group took less than a week to get 750,000 members,” Mr. Vachhani wrote …

“High-school teachers and college professors receive next to no training on copyright law and fair-use doctrine, a new [US] report argues, and their students are suffering as a result.”

I think Dan Gillmor’s retort is most appropriate: “But his publications and broadcast outlets have done more to poison the public sphere than any other media empire, by far. This is not heroic…”

Young Bill Adama fights one-on-one with an OLD STYLE CYLON CENTURION!
[Better Quality Torrent]

“I wasn’t able to catch the recent CSI:NY / Second Life crossover, but thankfully other bloggers were on the case. Here’s a link-dump from around the blogosphere about this TV / virtual-world mashup…”

“Oh hai. In teh beginnin Ceiling Cat maded the skiez An da Urfs, but he did not eated it. Da Urfs no had shapez An haded dark face, An Ceiling Cat rode invisible bike over teh waterz. …”

Is the Joss Whedon-helmed Buffy Season 8 comic book a harbinger of the shape of comics to come, with TV names embracing corss-media and drawing more readers to comic books than the usual demographic?