Oscar Countdown: Who Will Win Best Director?

In the final-week countdown to Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony, BlogPulse takes a look at building buzz around the nominess for best actor. For now, the leading contenders seem to be Ang Lee of "Brokeback Mountain" and George Clooney of "Good Night, and Good Luck." But who knows? Only Oscar knows for sure, and he's not telling until Sunday:

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:02 AM | Permalink

Category: Moving Pictures

And the Oscar (Might) Go To...

One week from today, the world will be abuzz (perhaps) about which movies and personalities walked off the Academy Award stage the night before, an Oscar trophy in hand. Which movie will it be? Will "Brokeback Mountain's" sociological impact take it over the top? Will "Crash" unexpected crash the party? A BlogPulse trend graph catches up with week-before buzz about the movies nominated for best film:

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 12:57 PM | Permalink

Category: Moving Pictures

Web Site? Let Google Do That, Too

Who knew it was that easy? Sign into Google with a gmail account, and voila! You can start building your own web site with Google's new Page Creator service (still in testing phases, and the subject of today's most-cited BlogPulse link). The site will be hosted by Google, too. Software and Tools bloggers, despite the headline, finds it more than just another Google service. The BlogHerald tried it out ("geocities, the 2006 version") and came up with a web page in 10 seconds (and frankly, it shows).

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:52 AM | Permalink

Category:

A Picture (OK, an Image) Is Worth A Thousand Words

Sometimes, seeing is believing, and several images from the blogosphere caught our eye today, including this giant Windows error message projected on one of those giant Times Square screens (today's No 6 top blog post). Check out the blog posts that link to the NetWork World image, and you'll note that Windows error messages are definitely an international phenomenon. The other image is just for fun...a Cat Piano( honest!) featured at Gizmodo (today's No. 17 top blog post). I wonder if they can do that with puppies? asks Instapundit. Finally, says Beggars All, a use for cats! (My cat, Squeak, is safe from the contraption...he got his name because he can't meow. He just makes a squeaky, scratchy noise that passes for a meow.)

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 12:23 PM | Permalink

Category: The vast electric lunchroom

He's Not Dead. He's Been Restin'...

It might feel like a flashback to the 1970s, where every Tuesday evening, the college newspaper staff would gather in the photography darkroom to watch the latest weekly episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus...and then re-enact its goofiness for the next week. Now I can revel in its glory in my own living room, thanks to PBS, which is airing a Monty Python's Flying Circus special this week (the subject of today's No. 35 most-shared link). The entire series begins again in April on PBS. Oh joy! Dead parrots. Singing lumberjacks. Fruit-based martial arts. Marauding grannies. Ah, the things of my youth, returned in all their bizarre glory for yet another generation. Glee! reports one LiveJournaler. Now For Something Completely Different is the rip-off comment of another blogger.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 01:38 PM | Permalink

Category: On The Telly

Your Opinions, Sir...Can Get You Locked Up

British Historian David Irving had a few things to say a few years ago about the validity of the Holocaust, and now he knows a thing or two about being held by authorities as well. He's today's bursiest person for pleading guilty and being sentenced to three years in prison by a court in Austria, where he'd been charged with denying that the Holocaust happened. "History is a constantly growing tree - the more you know, the more documents become available, the more you learn, and I have learned a lot since 1989." And he's now willing to concede that, yes, in fact, million of Jews died during World War II at the hands of the Nazis. The Big Pharoah lists the countries that have laws making it a crime to deny the existence of the Holocaust, and feels such laws are an infringement to freedom of speech. Denial, notes The Cafeteria is Closed, can land you in prison.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:54 AM | Permalink

Category: Celebs

Apple News: A Virus? An Amazon Competitor? A Earlier-than-Predicted MacBook Pro?

Could it be? A virus that actually infects a Macintosh/Apple product? The MacRumors blog (today's ninth most-cited link) tells of a virus that can infect iChat. Techies wonder if it could be the first OSX virus? Again? In other Apple-related news, Amazon is hinting its intentions to take on iTunes by offering music downloads as well (today's No. 15 top link), and at AppleInsider, speculation is up about which Intel chips Apple plans to use in its upcoming notebook and desktop computers. Discussion already has an international flair.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 12:54 PM | Permalink

Category: The Gadget Scene

Oscar Buzz: Actors, Actresses

Time for quick check of "buzz" about this year's Oscar nominees for best actor and actress categories. Will Philip Seymour Hoffman win yet another award for his portrayal of Truman Capote, or will Heath Ledger take home the statue for his "Brokeback Mountain" role? And among actresses, will Reese Witherspoon continue her pre-Oscar successes for "Walk the Line," or will Keira Knightley walk off with honors for "Pride and Prejudice"? A BlogPulse trend graph tracks current buzz. First, the women:



And the men...

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:01 AM | Permalink

Category: Moving Pictures

Cue That "Doo-Do" Sound Track

Anyone who's ever jumped into a lake or the ocean knows the soundtrack: that ominous "doo-do....doo-do....doo-do" cadence that signaled the approach of the world's biggest, baddest shark in the movie "Jaws." Credit goes to author Peter Benchley, today's bursiest BlogPulse person. Benchley died this week at age 65, and he wrote the book that led to one of the scariest movies of its time. The year "Jaws" was released, in fact, I had the pleasure of working as a waterfront camp counselor at a girls' camp in Maine, and my colleagues and I spent the first few weeks convincing the kids it was OK to jump in the landlocked, spring-fed lake...REALLY. No sharks. HONEST. The Cinematical blog offers condolences and a bit of Benchley family history. The blogger at NewMexiKen offers a bit of personal history about Benchley's career as a speechwriter for President Lyndon Johnson.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:47 AM | Permalink

Category: Celebs

See Mom? It's NOT Wasting Their Brains

If you're still trying to convince your elders that listening to a music player while surfing the Internet while playing a video game is NOT causing cerebral cells to flake away like dandruff, here's your proof: multi-tasking of the young and the wireless (today's eighth most-popular blog link) can help keep young minds young, especially if the owners of the brains that run those minds are bilingual. That's the gist of a recent study of University of Toronto multi-taskers. Seems that quick-thinking and sharp reflexes -- the very skills demanded by gaming and electronic gadgetry -- make Jack (and Jill) a smarter boy (and girl), not duller. "I am bilingual. I play video games. Fear me!" boasts one blogger. "Games are good for you!" crows Sonic Nonsense. Engadget's Social Software blog calls it what it is: "advantages of ADD in the tech world." Wait, what'd he say? I was paying attention to the invading aliens...

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 05:48 PM | Permalink

Category: The vast electric lunchroom

The OTHER Olympics: Knit One, Purl Two

Go ahead. Drool all you want over the speed of the bobsledders, the grace of the figure skaters, the sheer, brazen nerve of the skiers who look down the steep side of a mountain and decide, "Yeah, I wanna jump off and go down this on on two waxed pieces of lumber." They'll be all the rage at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin/Torino, Italy, but a certain subsegment of bloggers will be doing something completely different: Knitting. For the past few weeks, blogger Stephanie Pearl McPhee at the Yarn Harlot (today's No. 8 blog post) has issued a challenge to fellow weavers of yarn: begin a knitting project starting today (opening ceremonies) and complete it by the time the Olympic flame is extinguished. So far, 3,649 knitters will be busy for the next few weeks, crafting everything from baby overalls to a sailor's watch cap, a hoodie to a Viking chicken hat, "one plain sock" to a "Hardangervidda," whatever that is. Maybe it has something to do with downhill skiing. Or the luge? Regardless, the effort has started quite an online conversation.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 12:22 PM | Permalink

Category: Sport Spectator

Apple: Coming to a Palm Pilot Near You???

Could it be true? Could Apple, king of the iPod everything, be snooping around Palm for a possible acquisition to maintain its dominance in the personal music player marketplace? Today's no. 25 top blog post from Personal Computer World hints at the possiblity, and the resulting blogger discussion has an international flavor. "Stranger things have happened," opines an optimist Ectopic Brain. Tom's Spin on Things isn't so gung-ho.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 01:26 PM | Permalink

Category: The Gadget Scene

Hello, Kitty. Wanna Do Some Carpentry?

Maybe it's something that Construction Barbie would play with. Maybe it's the creative output of someone with waaaaaay too much time on their hands. But if it's Miss Kitty, it's gotta be cute, right? Today's No. 23 top blog post from Boing Boing presents the Hello Kitty Belt Sander..."color coordinated, cute, and truly decorated," according to its inventors. (Click on the link to find other entries, including an Elvis sander and what looks like an Energizer bunny with a derriere in its mouth?). Gizmodo provides more details on the New England Belt Sander Racing Association Nationals (they actually HAVE an event like that?). Miss Kitty, by the way, went home with the Rookie of the Year trophy. Meow.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 12:34 PM | Permalink

Category: The Gadget Scene

Surrender To The Cuteness

We paid only cursory attention to The Big Game last night on TV, and used every available opportunity to get away from John Madden's thunderously inane prattle -- we got more unhealthful snacks, cracked open another cole burr, or switched over to the Puppy Bowl, today's no. 33 top link. The geniuses at Animal Planet built a little football field, scattered some chewy and squeaky toys on the Astroturf, and let about a dozen puppies run loose on the field. The program was criminally adorable; only the coldest hearted of robots could resist melting at the sight of the canine craziness. (The best was the camera they put in the bottom of the dogs' water dish, which showed a nose-eye-view of the little puppies' lapping up some water!) Let's all say it together: "Awwwww!"

Relatedly, last night marked the debut of the best TV commercial ever shown.

Posted by Philip Ewing at 11:26 AM | Permalink

Category: On The Telly

Stephanie, No!

Everybody remembers Stephanie from "Full House," the snaggle-toothed young scamp who always was trying to hang out with older sister DJ and doing her best to be a good big sister to baby Michelle (both of them). Well, when she finally could escape that cloying, sacharine facade, actress Jodi Sweetin grew up fast -- two years ago she got hooked on methamphetamine, or as Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan calls it, "speed," "crank," "chalk," "crystal," "ice," "glass," "shabu," "zip," "pep-pills," and "go-fast." Our no. 25 top link today details Sweetin's battle with shabu, a habit she ultimately kicked, thank goodness. It just goes to show you that methamphetamine doesn't care how rich and famous you are -- it will come to your house, smash itself into little rocks, break open a lightbulb for you to use as a makeshift pipe, and force you to smoke it to achieve a fleeting euphoria. Oh, and do you think bloggers are talking about this? Naw, wouldn't interest them at all...

Posted by Philip Ewing at 11:45 AM | Permalink

Category: Celebs

Three-Six Mafia Up For An Oscar? What's Next?

Our no. 12 top link this morning needs no introduction -- it's Academy Award time, and the talents behind this year's top movies are getting ready for their magical night in Hollywood. Nominated flicks include Brokeback Mountain, of course, as well as Wallace & Gromit, and The Constant Gardener. And y'know who else is up for an Oscar? Memphis rap coterie Three-Six Mafia, one of our favorite recording groups, which heretofore had been known for its, shall we say, colorfully phrased odes to drug dealin', interactions with women, and, most recently, ridin' spinners. (In their song "Sippin' on some sizzurp," the boys boast: "We eat so many shrimp/ we got iodine poisoning.") This extraordinary nomination was made for a song they contributed to the flick " Hustle & Flow," which starred Terrence Howard as a small-time hustler who, like so many of our rap stars, saw the music of the streets as a way out of his dead-end life. The significance of the nomination was lost on many bloggers, but at least one, ProHipHop, mentioned it in a rap-related recap of the nominations. Not that they needed it, but this Oscar would help Three-Six stay fly-y-y-y-y-y until they die-ie-ie-ie-ie-ie.

Posted by Philip Ewing at 11:44 AM | Permalink

Category: Moving Pictures