Google starts to integrate … everything! It’s totally Epic!

An excellent three-part essay on comic books and the changing shape of the superhero genre(s).

“Doctors can greatly improve their stethoscope skills and therefore their ability to diagnose heart problems by listening repeatedly to heartbeats on their iPods.” (Drs accuracy doubles after 5 minutes with iPod recordings! Hmmm.)

“The arch of an eyebrow or the curve of a lip tells chimps a lot about each other, in a finding that may give scientists new understanding about the evolution of human communication, researchers report.” (Donna Haraway will be pleased!)

I know Ask A Ninja and OKGo … the rest are new to me. No stats on how many votes, though!

UK man Kevin Whitrick logged into a chatroom, stated he was going to hang himself, turned on a webcam – was egged on by some, a few tried to talk him out of it – and then he hanged himself with a live webcam showing the whole thing.

“You’ve heard of iPod – now welcome to iGod. High-tech vicar Reverend Clay Nelson is taking his sermons virtual. The Auckland vicar has been releasing weekly addresses from St Matthew-in-the-city through the internet for almost a year.”

The Children of Húrin will be released worldwide on 17 April, with Tolkien’s son completing the unfinished work begun by his father more than half a century ago.

Rubel notes a new report that suggests 74% of blogspot blogs are spam. That’s pretty huge. I guess Google will have to do something, but as someone who has several inactive blogs I don’t want deleted, I hope it’s a measured response!

The Daily Show’s take on the ViaCom lawsuit against YouTube. Rather silly, but quite funny.

If nothing else the research papers on Second Life have great titles! 🙂

Want to test out real-time voice in Second Life? You can!

Hear Will Wright talking about his new game (in development), SPORE, as well as its inspirations including particular models of teaching and learning!

Jimmy Wales talks the Wikipedia on Australia’s Radio National. Available as streaming audio or a direct download. [MP3 Link]

Get Firefox and IE seach bar plugins for the University of Western Australia (UWA) library.

OurMedia turns two. Happy Birthday! The growth of this social media website and community has been slow but steady. In the long run, using the Internet Archive as its repository will no doubt ensure its longevity.

Mark Glaser asks about the future of audio podcasting in the face of video podcasting’s meteoric rise in popularity. Lots of good questions, but he aruges there will always be a substantial place for the audio-only versions.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has purchased an island in Second Life and is developing it as part of their new online innovations.

“Turmoil in Zimbabwe this week refocused the world’s attention on the 27-year rule of President Robert Mugabe. The world of blogging was no exception as the BBC News website discovered.”

The Chronicle joins most media reporting on a Journal of Experimental Psychology report that suggest Grand Theft Auto players are more aggressive drivers. Thankfully, it also wonders if aggressive drivers are just attracted to the game!

danah boyd’s web3.0: “I believe that geographic-dependent context will be the next key shift. GPS, mesh networks, articulated presence, etc. People want to go mobile and they want to use technology to help them engage in the mobile world…”

Y’know … to search … Twitter.

Lawrence Lessig write a short, pithy, accessible and entirely convincing argument about why the US Supreme Court should not be deciding the Viacom Vs YouTube case … but nevertheless will, costing jobs and extending uncertainty in its wake.

Close to realtime mashp of Google Maps and Twitter, showing the latest Twitter comment on a (moving) Google map … the Twitterati are spread far and wide!