Shaycarl - Wikipedia article

(Deleted today by Wikipedia)

Shaycarl (birth name: Shay Butler) is a comedian and YouTuber,[1] producing videos for his three YouTube channels, ShayCarl, Shaytards and ShayLoss.

As of 21 December 2009 Shaycarl has two places in the 25 most subscribed entertainment channels on YouTube: Shaycarl is 13th, with Shaytards also in the top 25. He has over 550,000 subscribers between all three of his YouTube channels. In 2009, Shaytards won the "Best YouTube Channel or Personality" category of Mashable's Open Web Awards.[2]

Career

Shaycarl was an evening DJ for radio station KFTZ in Idaho when video blogger Philip DeFranco held a contest for which Shaycarl posted a video response. DeFranco saw the video and decided to promote Shaycarl's content, boosting the number of views for the Shaycarl channel.

He left KFTZ during the summer of 2009 to move to Los Angeles, to enter into business with other YouTubers in a video platform known as TheStation.

Shaycarl is a YouTube partner with Shaycarl and Shaytards. Since March 5, 2009, he has posted a video each day to Shaytards documenting everyday occurrences in his life. As of 26 December 2009 he has created 297 of these videos.

He also created a ShayLoss channel where he vlogs occasionally about his efforts to lose weight. He discusses his raw food diet and invites others to discuss their own diets via video response.

Besides making videos for his own channels, Shaycarl can be seen on the live broadcasting site BlogTV, where as of 21 December 2009 he had 193 live shows and 234 recordings. In November 2009, Shaycarl appeared in a flash mob which used Midi Mafia's PHamous as a backing track. Shaycarl has three children with colette his wife, "sontard","princesstard" and "babytard". Colette anounced on shays Vlog that she is pregnent with a Child"tard" number four!. the kids names are Gavin,Avia and Emmi.

References

1. ^ Munio, Adam (September 27, 2008). "YouTubers can offer something to fit all". The Daily Star. http://www.thedailystar.com/lifestyles/local_story_271041505.html?keyword=secondarystory. Retrieved December 21, 2009.
2. ^ Cashmore, Pete (December 16, 2009). "Open Web Awards 2009: The Winners". Mashable. http://mashable.com/2009/12/16/open-web-awards-2009-50-winners/. Retrieved December 21, 2009.

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Wikipedia's deletion rationale: paraphrase: he sorta meets our rules, but the new york times (or whoever) has not sucked shaycarl's dick yet and done a profile on him yet.

Rachel Uchitel - Wikipedia article

Here is the exact text of the Rachel Uchitel article on Wikipedia as it read at 6:33am GMT on December 8, 2009. (Below that is an explanation for why I posted it here).

Rachel Uchitel

Rachel Uchitel (born 1975)[1] is a nightclub manager who has managed the VIP section of "some of the most successful clubs in New York".[2] In 2005-06, she was the VIP hostess at Tao in Las Vegas.[3][4][5]

Uchitel graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1996 with a degree in psychology.[6] She spent five years after college as a news producer in New York for Bloomberg television.[7]

Family

Her fiance, investment banker James Andrew O'Grady, was killed in the September 11 attacks of the World Trade Center.[8] A few days later, she appeared on the front page of the New York Post holding a picture of O'Grady.[9][7] [10][11] Uchitel and her fiance's family subsequently debated the disposition of his estate.[12][8]

In 2004, she married Wall Street trader and childhood friend Steven Ehrenkranz.[13] Their marriage lasted four months.[14]

Uchitel is the granddaughter of Maurice Uchitel, who was a restaurant and nightclub owner in the 1950s and 1960s, including the El Morocco club.[15][16]

Tiger Woods

In late 2009, The National Enquirer published a story that alleged that Uchitel had had an affair with Tiger Woods, which she denied.[17] She later scheduled a news conference to discuss Woods' alleged affairs, but she and her attorney Gloria Allred cancelled due to "unforeseen circumstances".[18]

References

1. Tiger Doesn't Owe Us An Explanation, Fox Sports, November 30, 2009.
2. Industry Insiders: Rachel Uchitel, VIP Diva, Black Book, November 30, 2009.
3. Strip hot spots reap harvest from bottle-service tables. Las Vegas Review-Journal, January 8, 2006.
4. Xazmin Garza (December 22, 2005). A How-to Manual On What To Wear, Getting In And Getting Noticed (Or Not). Las Vegas Review-Journal. . Retrieved December 7, 2009.
5. Stefanie Cohen (September 10, 2006). Face of Loss Bets On Love In Vegas. New York Post. Retrieved December 7, 2009. ("Once a planning editor at Bloomberg Television, Uchitel has now transformed herself into the VIP door hostess at the see-and-be- seen nightclub Tao.")
6. Clynton Namuo (December 5, 2009). UNH grad is twist in Tiger's tale. New Hampshire Union Leader. . Retrieved December 7, 2009. ("Rachel Uchitel, who graduated from UNH in December 1996 with a degree in psychology ...")
7. a b Rachel Uchitel: Tiger Woods' Alleged Mistress, Time, December 2, 2009.
8. a b Shaila K. Dewan (January 22, 2002). No Dress, No Vows, and Less Status in Grief. The New York Times. . Retrieved December 7, 2009.
9. Rachel Uchitel and Steven Ehrenkranz, New York Times, December 12, 2004.
10. 9/11 - the terror attacks that changed the world. Bild. September 11, 2009. . Retrieved December 2, 2009.
11. Leslie Vryenhoek (June 6, 2003). The danger of mourning strangers. Toronto Star. . Retrieved December 7, 2009. ("The image of Rachel Uchitel making an emotional plea as she searches for her fiance in Manhattan was used in newspapers worldwide.")
12. Who is Rachel Uchitel?: A brief biographical timeline of Tiger Woods' alleged mistress". The Week. November 30, 2009. . Retrieved December 7, 2009.
13. Russell Goldman (December 1, 2009). Rachel Uchitel, Tiger Woods' Rumored Girlfriend, 'Felt Very Lost' After 9/11". ABC News. . Retrieved December 7, 2009.
14. Bill Zwecker (December 1, 2009). 'Man-crazy' Uchitel. Chicago Sun-Times. . Retrieved December 7, 2009.
15. (May 7, 2000). Maurice Uchitel, 88, Owner of El Morocco. The New York Times. . Retrieved December 7, 2009.
16. Stephanie Cohen et al. (December 5, 2009). Dad of slain WTC beau says Rachel's not girl he knew. New York Post. . Retrieved December 7, 2009.
17. Image gurus to Woods: Go public like Letterman, AP (via Google News), December 1, 2009.
18. "Thursday's Sports in Brief: Golf". Associated Press, by Sports Illustrated. December 4, 2009. . Retrieved 07 December 2009.
(this reposting is intended to be in accordance with wikipedia's licensing policies. this is a copy of a now-deleted wikipedia article and all credit goes to authors of article and wikipedia)

Deletion Status (for those with an interest in wiki geekdom)

On December 8, 2009, the Rachel Uchitel page was deleted from Wikipedia following a "deletion discussion." If you don't follow wikipedia, the process here is that any editor can nominate pages for deletion that they believe shouldn't exist. (You can see that discussion here.) The deletion decision is now up for what's called a "deletion review" (think of this as like an appeal of a prisoner on death row, except the prisoner is already dead subject to resurrection by the wikigods), where people will hem and haw over whether the deletion was appropriate. You can see that here. A lot of this, in this case, has to do with protecting the reputation of a "living person" (BLP = biography of living person in wikispeak). However, it is impossible to surf the internet without running into stories about Ms. Uchitel, many of which are drama-fests and probably more damaging than the fairly neutral article that many wikipedia editors had jointly created. Not having a page on wikipedia is not going to help Ms. Uchitel.

In the meantime (the deletion review will likely run for 7 days, through December 15), this source of information that was likely to be the least biased and best summary piece about the subject will be gone from the internets. And people are looking for this information. In fact, over 180,000 viewers in the past week (not counting mirrors that copy the page):

Stats via http://stats.grok.se/

The wikieditor who originally created the Rachel Uchitel page blogged last week about the difficulties he faced trying to get an accurate article about Ms. Uchitel on wikipedia. His original attempt was deleted without any discussion, then reinstated before further deletion drama began.Ass Clown "Editors" Killing Wikipedia (Bonzerwolf, Nov. 29, 2009).

Article chronology:
*Nov. 28 - Creation
*Nov. 29 - Deleted. Re-created and re-deleted.
*~Nov. 30 - Recreated
*Dec. 1 - nominated for deletion
*Dec. 8 - deleted
*Dec. 8 - deletion review begins

I'm not going to engage in a huge discussion on Wikipedia deletionism here, I mostly wanted to preserve the article and document the debate to date.

ETA 12/10 2am GMT: Just FYI, a blogpost from the wikipedia admin who deleted the article: Coffee's Thoughts: Politics at Deletion Review. It would be uber-inside-wiki-baseball to explain my problems with this, its just interesting to see he seems pretty miffed that people are questioning his outcome. wiki editors, for the most part, are pretty serious about their work, which is one of the reasons the project has prospered.

ETA 12/10 5am GMT: noticed a forum thread discussing this deletion: " 'The result was no consensus to keep, default to delete.' " That's so retarded. The default should be keep. Onus should be on the deletionists to make a solid case for deletion. So fucking retarded."

ETA June 14, 2010: Someone recreated Ms. Uchitel's article on June 12, 2010, it was very soon renominated for deletion. So far, its looking like it will be deleted again.

ETA June 21, 2010: The article was kept as there being "no consensus" to delete! Oh well, there go all the hits my blog was getting. :-)

Drudge, Beck, Limbaugh Hate America, Want It To Fail

What the fuck are these stories about Drudge, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh savoring the elimination of Chicago from the selection of the 2016 Summer Olympics site? Just because Obama tried to lend some support to it?

Its pathetic.

Obama is not America, yet these clowns apparently think it to be the case, so they want to destroy it. America, that is.

You can debate the extent of economic benefit or detriment caused by hosting an Olympics, but its an honor for any city that is chosen to showcase itself to the world. Was Limbaugh pulling his hair out in distress when Atlanta and Salt Lake City, those well-known liberal cities, were awarded an Olympics? (Atlanta's win was announced in September 1990, when elder Bush was prez, and Salt Lake City during Clinton's first term).

Obama didn't lose; America lost. Is it a big deal that we lost the 2016 Olympics bid? No. Personally, I assumed Rio was going to win since South America has been snubbed so long. But rooting for America to lose is pathetic.

-----------

Weekly Standard (they edited it out the !! and cheers part, but other sites got screenshots):



Drudge. Nice little Obama-as-Messiah reference, no? (That's the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio.)



Hot Air. Calls it comedy gold that the CNN anchor is suprised when Chicago gets voted out. Apparently, he should have exclaimed "America is pwned motherfuckers!"



Not everyone on the right is an idiot however; they just don't have much influence:


Joe Scarborough: "what we saw from some conservative corners regarding the President's failed Olympics bid was just plain stupid."


See also Conservatives Revel In America's Olympic Defeat (Talking Points Memo)

Like minded thought from MSNBC's David Shuster:

Evan Ratliff Is Alive and Well And Living In ...

Argentina. OK, maybe not. But an interesting story and game, nonetheless.
>Author Evan Ratliff Is on the Lam. Locate Him and Win $5,000.

World Hungers For Maria Belen Shapur Pictures

As Allahpundit notes via twitter, "Maria now number two search on all of Google, "mark sanford mistress photo" number three http://is.gd/1dacF

NOTE: As of 9:50am PT, 12:50pm ET, (ETA: 11:30am PT, 2:30pm ET - still nothing) no credible (or even possibly credible) pictures have emerged of Maria Belen Shapur. Do some work and check again later people! I do promise to update this blogpost with a link when the pics inevitably emerge.

ETA 6pm PT 9pm ET: was suspected, but not her: http://newsbizarre.com/2009/06/maria-belen-chapur-photo-mark-stanford.html

This now claimed to be her: http://gawker.com/5302724/this-is-actually-mark-sanfords-lover-according-to-the-folks-down-in-argentina

(See also No photo found yet, news report (12:48pm ET))

It amazes me how many spam website links already pop up for those searches. Trust me, the first pics won't show up on do-me-dentalwork.cz. or xxxargentineporn.com, despite your wildest dreams. These sites which all append "PHOTO" to their titles to make you click on them are not legitimate.

This is a picture that is not of Maria Belen Shapur:

The Revolution Will Be Devoid of Comments

Sunday's NY times has a silly article about how .. gasp .. most blogs don't bring fame and fortune.

Blogs Falling in an Empty Forest (kudos to whoever titled that).

According to a 2008 survey by Technorati, which runs a search engine for blogs, only 7.4 million out of the 133 million blogs the company tracks had been updated in the past 120 days. That translates to 95 percent of blogs being essentially abandoned, left to lie fallow on the Web, where they become public remnants of a dream — or at least an ambition — unfulfilled.

Talk about random comments being portrayed as unrealistic expectations:

"To be honest, I would love a book deal to come out of my blog,” she wrote. “Or I would love for [my blog] to give me a means to be financially independent to continue pursuing and sharing what I love with the world.”

But the greatest sin of the article is its failure to quote from the Sprites fantastic song "I started a blog that nobody read"

.. I started a blog which nobody viewed
It might be in cache
The topics include:

"George Bush is an evil moron"
"What's the story with revolving doors?"
"I'm in love with a girl who doesn't notice me"
"Nobody hates preppies anymore"

And silly NY Times articles like this (though this is chump stuff, its no classic like the Man Date) are guaranteed to elicit lots of commentary from the unpaid blogger horde!

From the "blog herald", Blog Bashing: New York Times On Orphaned Blogs

It is an inane article bordering to sensational journalism, masking itself in NYT’s legacy. I’m sorry, but this is just stupid... Want to start blogging? Consider this first:
* Blogging does not equal financial freedom by itself, although you can make money.
* You will likely not make money.
* The money you might in fact make will probably not cover your Starbucks bill.

This is why I do not patronize Starbucks. That free wi-fi is a scam!!!

Carrie Prejean Probably Was Jailbait (17) In Sideboob Picture

the one sentence summary: Confirmed pic of Carrie Prejean at age 17 suggests that she really is jailbait in the reported noodz.

ETA 5/11: Scroll to the bottom for updated information.

Original Post: One of the biggest meaningless news stories of the week is that topless pictures of Miss "I fear the gayz" California Carrie Prejean have emerged. Carrie, however, has stated that she was 17 when these pictures were taken, as TMZ and other sources are citing. So only one partially nude sideboob pic has emerged to date, as first posted by gossip site The Dirty. (And I'm already feeling a bit dirty writing about this subject...)

Many others, however, doubt the underage claim, and think it may be a ploy to prevent release of the other pics, which are promised to be more revealing. These people cite the eternal defense of statutory rapists ("she told me she was 18 when i picked her up at the middle school"), believing there is no way she was under 18.

Carrie turned 18 on May 13, 2005. Apparently Victoria's Secret first said that the pink undies in the released pic were not made by them before 2006, but then backed down and said they couldn't confirm who manufactured said undergarments. So the debate continues.

It appears that Carrie's first pageant appearance was at the Miss Vista (California) pageant on April 16, 2005 - a month before she became street legal -- where she was 2nd runner up. (Grijalva crowned Miss Vista 2005 - North County Times, April 18, 2005). I am sure pics of that exist somewhere, but I haven't found any. (I mean, if a beauty pageant happens and no one takes pics, did it really happen?)

However, the local Vista, CA paper ran a story on Prejean on December 4, 2004 -- five months before her 18th birthday -- about a food drive she did. With a picture. See the comparison:



While this isn't definitive, I'd say they are a pretty good match. The confirmed pic of 17-year old Carrie does look a lot like Sideboob Carrie, so her claim that these pics are underage could well be true. Plus, her hair is much blonder in recent pics. And I don't think that you can tell from the sideboob pic that it was taken after her recently installed fake boobs, as some have argued. I do wonder if she was really a "model" when the topless pic was taken though, it doesn't look professional at all.

What does all of this have to do with Prejean's ill-fated statement at the Miss USA pageant? Beats me. Its just another example of the modern internet rule that when someone gets famous (conservative or liberal), the dirty laundry is coming right around the corner.

ETA 5/11/09 7am PDT: There is a report on TMZ this morning that questions the under-18 claim made by prejean. It an anonymous tip from one of her "former pageant sponsors" (what's that? a sugar daddy?) that says Carrie sent him one of the topless pics after Jan 6, 2009 asking "if she was in good enough shape for the Miss USA Pageant." Jan 6 is the day Carrie apparently got her boobs done.

The information on TMZ is too sketchy to evaluate. I think the last few days have shown that Prejean and/or her handlers are not afraid to make stupid claims (like that the second sideboob pic released is not really her body but a photoshop job? COME ON!), so her claim that she was 17 when the pics were taken is still up for debate. But how did Prejean "send" this pic to her "former pageant sponsor"? Do kids send pics by any way these days other than email? And if so, where's the email? TMZ hedges on giving out too many details.

Digg link to this post

ETA: Dec 11, 2009: In light of the revelations last month that Carrie Prejean was age 20 when the nude videos about her were made, where she again insisted she was 17, I think that casts great doubt on my suggestion above that she really may have been 17 when the semi-nude photos were snapped. Its still possible, but Prejean cannot be seen as credible on pretty much anything at this point.

Webkinz World: The Next Athens/Seattle?

I am always on the lookout for good new music, and have corrupted (I hope) my youngins with my love of indie pop/rock and good old "college rock". But when my 5 year old asked me to make him a CD with the song "Where Did You Get Those Stripes", and said it came from Webkinz.com, I steeled myself for some horrific abomination of children's music.

But, actually, the song is pretty darn good! Its a sweet little roots rock influenced number, with cute lyrics about the "Alley Cat" Webkin that is being pushed this month on the site.

(If you are already complaining about the blatant commercialism involved here, I would remind you that The Monkees debuted 43 years ago, so this is old hat. At least there is no Miley Cyrus connection.)

Whoever wrote/performed the thing understands how to do a good ol' rock and roll tune that still sounds fresh. Its also, by far, the most viewed video posted by Ganz (the Webkinz people) on YouTube, with over 150,000 views. And the comments are overwhelmingly positive both on youtube and scattered around the internet by pre-tween internet users and surprised stay-at-home moms.

Watch out Williamsburg, here come the Webkinz hipsters!



And for you mp3 and ipod lovers, here you go (right click to download):

Webkin z - Where Did You Get Those Stripes.mp3

(Note: mp3 links are for listening purposes only for a short time. If you’re an artist or label who wants a song taken down, please email at milo_went (at) yahoo.com)

Strangerlove: Omegle.com Wedding Engagement!

I just found this posted on a dating website message board -- apparently the phenomenally popular new internet chat service omegle.com has already produced its first serious love connection - resulting in a wedding engagement!

The Sequel You Never Wanted: Evolution of Dance 2

Evolution of Dance 2 is now UP!

OMG!



If you are a mild follower of YouTube and internet video, you may know that for over two years, Judson Laipply's Evolution of Dance, an "overlong mollycoddle mime dancing sketch", reigned as the most viewed video ever on YouTube. (Until beaten by Avril Lavigne. No comment on that.)

Well, on Monday, the "long awaited" Evolution of Dance 2 appeared, and debuted on The Today Show?!. (See Today show video - witness the crowd of .... 20!?)

WHY OH WHY is this claptrap getting press!?!?!

The video was released to the public late Sunday evening and now has about 1.1 million views, probably mostly curiousity seekers from the press coverage. Its hard to imagine it that could ever rival the 109 million views of its predecessor. The first installment hit YouTube in April 2006, when YouTube was a tiny place with a dearth of good content. It made the most viewed list, which was not a hard feat at the time, considering that one of the top channels was a booty-shaking-all-the-time chick called sexxiebabe23. Then it stayed on the most viewed list by some strange gravitational force. (E.g., NewViewer: "Hmm, I wonder what the most viewed video ever on this youtube thing is?" -click- "OMG! MY EYES! MY EYES!" View counted as viewer fumbles to close browser.)

I'm sorry, but Evolution of Dance 2 is crap.

Its inoffensive crap, but nothing noteworthy. The only positive thing I can say is that Judson Laipply gets credit for squeezing every last drop out of this "phenomenon." More power to him. Evolution of Dance DVDs, t-shirts, fast food franchises, the possibilities are endless.

As the amazingly snarky folks at youtube reviewed say:

...how many times can you go to the well of “goofy white dude in an Orange Crush T-Shirt doing booty-shakin’ moves to retro jams” before it gets old? Turns out the answer is once. You can go to that particular well exactly once. Because after that, it just comes across as tired, uninspired and, frankly, kind of annoying.

So my recommendation: RUN AWAY FROM YOUR KEYBOARD NOW! But like 2girls1cup, many will be unable to resist.

YouTube's Battle For Supremacy, But Youth Wins

So, there is a currently a huge battle underway on YouTube to be the #1 most subscribed channel. Smosh, who has been #1 since April 2007 -- an eternity in Internet time -- is currently just barely ahead of nigahiga and Fred. And checking the actual subscribers counts on the channels themselves (which are usually more up to date than the chart excerpted above), Smosh's lead is down to just over 700 subscribers.

(Smosh fans say: Oh noez!)

Now, it might be noted that this unholy threesome appeal to a lot of teens and kids who are more than able and willing to game subscriber numbers, at least when they are not hacking Sarah Palin's email. But, to their credit, these video creators also consistently get huge viewcounts on their vids, and I haven't seen any evidence of cheating.

When Smosh bypassed lonelygirl15 as the #1 most subscribed channel 17 months ago, it only took just over 91,000 subscribers to edge out Bree. Smosh now has well over five times more subscribers. Yet the lonelygirl15 channel stalled and never exceeded 115,000. YouTube is fickle like that, as its stars of yesteryear (anyone remember Geriatric1927?) are being replaced by more youth-oriented content, which itself is becoming semi-professional as these stars reel in some cash.

See also: YouTubeStars' Top 100 Chart

ETA 9/24/2008 11pm PT: Nigahiga just edged smosh sometime in the last 10 minutes, nigahiga has 531,009 to smosh's 531,006.

Official YouTube chart updated:

Kenny from YouTube stars comments: "Thanks for the links to our blog and the Top 100 Chart! My guess is that Nigahiga will pass Smosh in the next week and then Fred will move to #1 in the next few weeks. Will be interesting to watch and see!"

And over at Smosh.com, the fans brush away the tears:

... I have never seen a Smosh video that didn't make me at least snicker. SMOSH IS BETTER.

The problem is that everyone knows about NigaHiga at schools... And yet when I mention Smosh people are like "who now?" It's like "WTF how'd you find out about NigaHiga then...

i ownz ensurantz compinny?

I feel very unknowledgeable about the true import of what is going on in the US economy this week ... wade in if you dare ...

So the news is telling me that the Fed finally decided to bail out AIG. I assume most people have not heard of AIG until recently, but it is one of the top 25 companies, in size, in the entire world, and the largest insurance company in the U.S. (not sure who is bigger worldwide, but AIG is one of the biggest).

And in return for a line of credit up to $85 billion, the Federal Reserve Bank now owns 79.9% of AIG. The press releases don't say it quite this way -- but we have nationalized this company. what the hell is going on?

Among the questions that occur to me is why Chapter 11 bankruptcy (a reorganization bankruptcy - you keep operating subject to bankruptcy law protections from creditors, like the airlines have done many times) was not acceptable for AIG?

Do we get to fire those in charge of AIG now, and take back their surely huge corporate bonuses, or cut their salaries?

according to one article, one analyst says this "not a nationalization because the Fed does not intend to run AIG. The Fed will get a profit on this, which it should." so, we own 80% of AIG, but don't intend to have any say in how it is run?

Is this like the (much smaller) 1979 bailout of Chrysler, which this conservative org. article from 1983 lambasted?

I am trying to figure out how these recent government decisions from people supposedly dedicated to the free market (including the retaking of Fannie and Freddie) are not socialism. (opinion piece here from unvetted source - "the New American?" - that seems to agree) McCain can say nationalized insurance for health care would be bad, but we just nationalized the largest insurance company we have!

ETA: Even that idiot Jonah Goldberg at The Corner doesn't seem enthused about the buyout.

Update: Andraluvs2sing Has Balls

In my last post, I laid out the evidence that andraluvs2sing (aka Andra Hoelsted) was fictional viral marketing for something. And it was.

After Andra resolved in the last week to do something about this alleged teacher taking advantage of her friend, she dropped the bomb yesterday captured above: "We accidentially cut off our teachers nuts."

Whoa! You gotta laugh at that. Also up is Andra's latest youtube video, a trailer for the movie "On The Doll", which deals with amazing things such as detached nuts, apparently.



In fact, the deballing clip is online, if you dare to learn that testicles can indeed be removed "accidentally":



The movie has a YouTube Channel, with trailers posted. (Some have inflated view counts using the same techniques that Andra used.) According to the wikipedia page for the movie, a surely unbiased article written by the director, On the Doll is:

a very dark and intense dramatic feature film directed and written by acclaimed music video director Thomas Mignone [who has directed a huge ass number of heavy metal type band's videos.] .... The film's title comes from the phrase "Show me on the doll where you were touched" often asked of young children who have been the victims of sexual abuse. "On The Doll" has a limited theatrical release in the United States, as well as a continuously growing popularity upon its DVD and online release due to several unexpected and highly graphic scenes.

Oh, and it was released on DVD yesterday. (Handy link to amazon, only $26.99). What a coincidence!

Presumably facebook, kari sweets, and illumistream were recruited to help promote the movie. Maybe the gal who plays andra is in the movie? I don't know.

So, some kudos are due to Thomas Mignone and his crew for a well-planned hoax. Uh ... I mean viral marketing campaign. It didn't go super-viral like the Wii Fit Girl (which wasn't planned viral marketing anyway), but most of these attempts to go viral don't spread that far anyway, or at least its hard to measure their effect.

Andraluvs2hoax: Another fake viral video thingie

So, I stumbled across Andraluvs2sing today, aka Andra Hoelsted, aka the latest youtube fictional / fake / hoax floating around the internet. Not that I really get riled up about these faux 'next big things.' In fact, I find them fascinating. But I wonder what the purpose of this one is.

Andraluvs2sing started her youtube channel on April 23, 2008. She posted, that same day, a video of her purportedly singing as a youngster. It has 23,000 views and 1 comment, and the functionality to see where external links to youtube are coming from is disabled. Hmmm ....

Andra's next three vids show that she's a very poor guitar player, but a very attractive young woman. Practicing A New Song has already racked up an impressive 292,743 views, but only 26 comments (and again, any external links data is disabled.) But one commenter explains the high view count: "this video is showing automatically on facebook, that's why!"

Although Andra is hawtt, surely this video wasn't featured by facebook on its merit.

Then, a la lonelygirl15, Andra starts some drama. On May 16, she posted a 21 second clip "does your teacher act like this with students?!!". This purports to show some questionable behavior of one of her teachers in a car with a fellow female student. Of course, she wants youtubers advice on what to do. This vid currently has 695,814 views & 121 comments, a suspicious ratio. In the comments, a few people do smell a fake, though most of the others are trying to give Andra advice.

Um, tell the principal? Have a threesome? Which one will get more youtube views?

So, about a week later, Andra posted a vid of advice she received from another young beauty, a Kari Sweets. "Kari Sweets Advice LEAVE COMMENT!". Whaaa? apparently Sweets is a "minor internet porn starlet" of the Maxim type (i.e., not 100% nude). And while its not only odd that some Internet-famous chick would post a video response to this girl's car stalking video, its also very odd that Andra posted it on her own channel, instead of this appearing on some channel claiming to be Kari Sweets' youtube channel (if she has one). (There's also another video of Kari talking about the situation on some other youtube channel.)

Then, yesterday (june 5), youtube channel illumistream, which is a commercially done production that has been having great youtube success lately by posting short videos of "sex advice" with hawtt thumbnails, also posted the same kari sweets video that Andra did, calling it "Not Your Average Sex Celebrity Tape" (except with a lurid thumbnail added).

Illumistream's Video Description: The Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian sex tapes became Internet sensations -- but this isn't THAT kind of sex tape. Kari Sweets takes a break from her on-line modeling career to give some advice to Andra Hoelsted on her unfortunate situation.
The whole story broke when Andra told everything on her blog, http://andraluvs2sing.wordpress.com. Watch the video to get Kari's perspective - and support Andra's friend by visiting the blog:
http://andraluvs2sing.wordpress.com

Surely that's enough for anyone to realize its a hoax.

But, like any good fictive viral story, Andra's faux existence is not confined to youtube. She also has a wordpress blog, which is telling the story of her attempt to become a successful musician. This involves her realizing she can't play guitar for shit, but luckily she has met up with some guitarist ... do i smell a band forming?

And, of course she has a facebook, and a myspace, and even a digg account, where her only submission has been to digg this Amazing New Female Artist ... well, golly gee, its digging herself!

The backstory among these sites gives her full name as Andra Hoelsted, of Charlotte, North Carolina. The pictures you can find on her myspace / blog / digg are all very professional looking (and never have anyone else in them other then her).

So, its another another fictional viral thingie. But why? And who's the girl?

UPDATE - June 18, 2008: See new post, its marketing for a movie called "On the Doll."

Ten Lonely Songs About Chocolate And Girls

Behold the musical video presentation above of "Ten Lonely Words" by Julie Ocean. This song kicks ass. Play it at the beach, in the car, in your prison cell (HI MOM!), or whereever you are.

I had a dream that I heard this on the radio after that 'shawty got low' drivel.

Buy their debut album "Long Gone And Nearly There"! (Julie Ocean's that is, not Flo-Rida's). It's on emusic, among the other usual places.

Star Jones and Tsunamis

Big news today.

Star Jones is getting divorced. OMG! (if people even know who she is). (Defamer.com: No Reason Yet Given In Star Jones's Divorce From Gay Husband.)

Star Jones reminds me very much of the internet pre-YouTube.

On December 26, 2004, you may recall that a large earthquake rocked the Indian Ocean, causing a tsunami responsible for many deaths from flooding in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, etc. It was a terrible tragedy, one for which Indian Ocean countries (as opposed to Pacific Ocean countries) were ill-prepared.

Places struck by the tsunami included Phuket, Thailand, a resort area frequented by many Europeans. A number of vacationers took videos of the event as it happened, and they started to appear online soon in the days following the disaster.

I found watching these riveting for some reason. I knew it was kind of "wrong", but I also wanted to understand in some small way how it happened and the fear people must have felt. People a world away from me in many ways, but still, as John Green would say, there is no them, there are only facets of us.

But there was no YouTube.

It was difficult to locate and stream these videos, and some sites crashed from the traffic. While we take it for granted today that video of any disaster or mishap will be on YouTube, this is the first time I recall such widespread distribution (though straining the internet) of tragedy footage.

Some of those videos I recall now appear on youtube:



Another One. A Third One.

So, back to Star Jones. Star Jones reminds me of all this because a few days after the tragedy, she talked on the View (the morning U.S. talk show) about how she had just been in the area -- like a month before -- for her honeymoon. The wedding had been highly publicized by her, and she was milking that wedding for all it was worth. (Apparently 3 years.)

As The Daily Show reported at the time: "Star Jones is eternally grateful that God chose to spare her life in exchange for those of 160,000 others in Sri Lanka and Indonesia."



And whaddya know. The first video ever posted on youtube arrived on April 23, 2005. Three years ago today. Star Jones probably arranged for it.

That's Impossible!, or, I Can't Believe It Was A Hoax!

The collective inability of the internet to engage in critical thinking was proven true again for the 453,342nd time, with a story that Yale student Aliza Shvarts was all set to debut her "art project" consisting of serially inseminating herself and then inducing abortions over a nine month period. And it only gets worse and more bizarre from there. The untold angle is that the Yale Daily News was completely duped by this young woman, and deserves its fair share of the blame/credit.



Its all over the internet, of course, and I made a long forum post on the controversy at Anchor Cove.

Let's Kill Cats

Since blogs are often the offhand personal observations of their authors, its not surprising to see that any mildly interesting article that shows up in the New York Times on a given day is certain to spawn a few short sentences with a link on random blogs. What you might blurt out while sipping your morning coffee ("hmm, oil is more expensive now than velveeta, volume wise") becomes Blogposts that NEED to be shared with the world.

Just goes to show how many Important Blogger Types read the NY Times. That's really sad, though. I mean, the NY Times is just one of many hundreds of fine world newspapers.

Why don't people go all crazy for today's article in the Rapid City Journal (South Dakota, USA), "Legislator, lion advocate disagree on value of killing cats". Just the title alone should cause snarky and witty commentary across the blogosphere. NY Times-centric bloggers be damned!

Don't Forget Diet Coke

Via Virginia Heffernan's NY Times' Medium Blog, I was led to the amazing research being done at Stuff White People Like.

According to NPR, which is SOOO on the list, the blog (created by white Toronto-to-LA transplant Christian Lander) has created some controversy. Not sure what the controversy is, but some white people are probably dicussing it down at the local Whole Foods while looking over the wine selection.

Self-important white people and many others comment on the story:
Grits&Eggs Blog (Feb.3) (comment says: "I was in an anti-racism training the other day and the white people got really upset when we started talking about "white culture".); Only Baggage You Can Bring Blog (Feb. 13) (sporting the very white titled: "So hilarious you'll wee in your pants"); Wired (Feb. 16) (first major press); Outside The Beltway Blog (Feb. 18) ("Unbearable Whiteness of Blogging"); LAIst (Feb. 19) ("Amazingly, even though the first post went up on January 18th, they're already up to 1,376,177 hits."); Utne Reader (Feb. 20); Kayne West Blog (Feb. 22) ("I am 1 of 2 blacks of the hundred's of white folks in my department. AND THIS SHIT IS SOOOO TRUE."); San Francisco Chronicle (Feb. 23); LA Times (Feb. 25) ("By last week, he was averaging 300,000 daily hits."); The Assimilated Negro (Feb. 25, interview).


Oh, and Mr. Lander's Amazon Reviews page reveals that, apparently, white people like the movie "Pootie Tang."

Just The McFacts

The above picture comes from the bag which comes with a McDonald's Happy Meal. Apparently these bags contains McFacts, without the pesky need for a McFact Checker.

The bag, as you can see, says "Up & Up: You can jump 6 times higher in space!"

WTF? Obviously this refers to the MOON, not space. In space, you could jump forever, and there is no "UP"! How do screwups like this happen? Someone, presumably thought, "oh, space sounds cooler than the moon, let's put that in there! Who cares if that's right!"

Others have noted this problem in the past. ( June 2006 blogpost, Jan 2007 blogpost 1, Jan 2007 blogpost 2 - the comments on this last one say don't make a big deal over a typo! Oh, yeah, I'm sure that's a valid excuse on the AP Physics exam as well.)

OK, so this error has been publicly noticed on the internet for over 18 months. But apparently McDonald's sees no reason to correct blatant errors being presented to children as scientific fact. And don't think kids don't absorb this stuff either. Sometime in the future, they will spout out this McFact, not knowing where it came from, and be very confused to be wrong. They will then question their entire knowledge base. In a few years, some will no longer think they are "college material." But, hey, McDonald's will be hiring!