Things may be sparse here over the next couple days. I’ll be either celebrating the Chicago Bears mauling of the Indianapolis Colts or hunting down Sexy Rexy for blowing the game. (The Bears only get a chance once in a generation.)

(P.S. Welcome to all the new visitors from Washington State University!)

• Big Media Can’t Handle Plain Talk
  Another youth newspaper initiative dies… After only 6 months

• YouTube – Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us
  (Via Digg)

• 33 Reasons Librarians are Still Extremely Important
  Seriously, librarians rule. The Internet has exponentially increased their importance and the craft of information management. Libraries as fixtures of the community are also critically important for many without the luxury of having personal computers and broadband at home.

• Orlando Sentinel morning news crew gets started
  “The paper has essentially rearranged the schedules of some reporters and photographers in order to follow up on overnight happenings and get breaking news content earlier in the day, particularly photos and video.”

• US: newspapers launch $75m campaign to revamp image
  Didn’t they do this already with those old-timey ads?

• Mooninite Tee :: Adult Swim :: Raplica.com
  Awesome and kinda reasonably priced! … Seriously, $17-$20+ t-shirts can go die.

• Print reporters, homeless people and video
  Mr. Waite’s all up on this interesting story.

• What’s worse: dead trees or energy-hungry computers?
  Interesting discussion on environmental impact of electronic news vs. print (focused on CO2 emissions). I think the bigger issue is electronic news’ dependency on computers and their toxic parts and the lack of effective computer recycling programs (or public knowledge about how jacked up with mercury, lead and other bad stuff computers are).

• Old Newsrooms
  Juan Antonio Giner is collecting old-timey newsroom photos. Nostalgic students, eat it up!

• NFL Wants To Remind You That Having People Over To Watch The Super Bowl On A Big Screen Is Copyright Infringement
  Fan’s can’t tailgate. Fan’s without a couple grand to blow can’t attend the game. Now fans with TV’s 55 inches or larger can’t watch the game and the $2.6 million dollar ads. Who says the NFL is a bunch of greedy corporate whores?

• Social Media Invade SuperBowl
  “At least four ads in the upcoming Super Bowl extravaganza are being produced not by ad agencies but through “user generated” contests.”

• Quark sponsors best front design award
  Win $1000 for best print design of the month. Yes, the article announcing this is a Gif image.

• Pew Internet Study: 28% have tagged, 7% do it regularly
  “A December 2006 survey has found that 28% of internet users have tagged or categorized content online such as photos, news stories or blog posts. On a typical day online, 7% of internet users say they tag or categorize online content.” I’m going to tag this with “bummer.” I think for tags to catch on, there’s gotta be a better way to socially tag for relevance, once that’s more effective, quality results and the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ will become more clear. I run into this problem in Delicious all the time–One man’s “photography” is another’s “photo” and another’s “photojournalism” and another’s “pj” and another’s “photos” and another’s “images” etc. etc. etc…

• Google says no to preroll
  They said, “Do no evil” and I’m pretty sure preroll ads (especially 30 seconds ones) are pure evil. Go Google!

• Tribune Co. partners with video start-up for user content
  Come on, everyone’s doing it.

• ban comic sans :: Putting the Sans in Comic Sans
  Friends don’t let friends use bad typography.

• Cool Things You Can Make With a Computer Case
  Note to self: Dew Mod or Thermaltake for Curley’s Chirstmas gift next year.

• Canon Rumormill – The new Canon EOS 1DS Mark III
  They should add a “45-degree angle” button, so the artsy fartsy news and wedding photographers won’t get tennis elbow for excessive camera tilting.

• Some Super Bowl Journalists Like Detroit Better
  …

• Wikipedia as a legit reference? Will Urban Dictionary Be Next?
  “A New York Times article shows Wikipedia being cited in 100 judicial rulings nationwide, all since 2004. Cases that have consulted the Wiki vary from gleaning the definition of ‘booty music’ to a reference for Homeland Security’s threat levels.”

• The Ridiculous Business Jargon Dictionary
  Like urban dictionary, for cubicle dwellers. I can’t wait to bust out “a warm bowl of nothing” at a meeting.

• IndyMoms | Where Moms Connect
  Niche-y site for moms in Super Bowl runner-up town (Via Ryan Sholin)

• Use low-cost cameras to file video reports from the field at The VizEds Blog
  “Stealth multimedia tools” makes it sound cool.

• The performance test of 6 leading frameworks
  Django rules, for the most part.

• Allied Media Conference 2007 Details « Aid & Abet
  Northwest Ohio looses the conference!

• Microsoft Windows Vista Launch Parties
  CompUSA holds Windows Vista launch parties around the country! … I kinda wanted to go just to see who would actually show up. Also to, “Jam out to hot music mash-ups by your local DJ.”

• What’s The Biggest Threat to Newpapers? Maybe the Executives
  So, uh, how do we fix this now?