Happy (pending) Birthday, iPod! Steve Jobs' interview in Newsweek, (today's No. 2 most-cited news story) on the heels of the iPod's upcoming fifth anniversary, indicates not only how ga-ga bloggers can be over technology but how one little device changed the way people listen to music. This BlogPulse Trend graph illustrates how discussion about the iPod remains steady....at least until Apple announces new features/lineups/products (note the Sept. 13 announcement spike):



And the next wave...
Among at No. 19 among today's top blog posts, for technophiles who just can't get enough, is Nick Gonzalez' review of the online movie download services.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 04:13 PM

When I saw what today's most-cited link was (Apple/Mighty Mouse), I had a flashback to the days of "Captain Kangaroo" and the old Mighty Mouse cartoons, and yes, I realize I'm really dating myself with that reference. But today's Mighty Mouse reference is about Apple's new wireless mouse, not the flying cartoon hero who battled Crabby Appleton. Wired for Gadgets has more details, including the $70 price tag.

Random blog findings...
Don't think tension is the Middle East is confined to the Middle East; one of today's top blog posts involves blogger coverage of a rally in Boston where tensions also ran high. Engadget reports that Parker Brothers' popular board game "Monopoly" has gone electronic, and Jay Rosen reports on latest idea-stage efforts to revamp journalism electronically (and monetarily) with the launch of NewAssignment.Net. Taking bets: will it succeed or flounder?

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 04:32 PM

Videos and images are big in the blogosphere today, what with Gawker Media's video clip sites (take your pick) among today's most-cited blogs posts.

Video flashbacks
Over at Pitchfork, they've culled YouTube.com for 100 Awesome Music Videos, which is also today's No. 5 most-cited phrase, so if you've wondered whatever happened to Adam and the Ants, or the Village People, or the Go Go's, knock yourselves out (for an entire day, says Box of Jack blogger, assuming you get addicted).

Suing MySpace
Who's at fault when a 14-year-old and 19-year-old meet online for sex? Read the comments on this Austin American-Statesman article (today's No. 5 most-cited news story) about a Texas lawsuit filed against MySpace...and you'll find opinion overwhelmingly blaming MySpace users (and clueless parents?) for what transpires on the Internet. What would Willie Nelson say? "Mamas, don't let your children grow up to be naive..."

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 03:08 PM

Sometimes, you just gotta love technology. Like today, when BlogPulse's list of the most-discussed personalities in the blogosphere includes the name of "Yay Taylor," who isn't a person at all but rather a very common utterance among bloggers who typed a congratulatory "Yay, Taylor!" (or "yay! Taylor won...") on their blogs after singer Taylor Hicks (today's most-blogged personality) was crowned winner of "American Idol" Wednesday night. Yay, Taylor, indeed.

Hangin' with Harry
Harry Potter fans are in attendance today as well, as actress Helen McCrory appears as the day's burstiest person now that she's being replaced in the Potter movies (because of pregnancy) by Helena Bonham Carter. Carter will now play the role of Bellatrix Lestrange in the upcoming "Order of the Phoenix" flick. Teen frenzy ensues.

A piece of their minds
Offering opinions freely in the blogosphere is CNN's Lou Dobbs, whose editorial about working folks is today's fourth most-cited news story (and causes LiveJournaler punkiejeannien to have a Stephen Stills flashback). Internet inventor Timothy Berners-Lee, speaking at an Ediburgh conference on the Weblogging Ecosystem (where key member sof the BlogPulse team are organizers/presenters), also speaks up to warn against a "dark Web" of tiered access. Discuss.

Happy Memorial Day!
BlogPulse will continue to spit out data over the holiday weekend, and the Newswire blog will return next Tuesday. In the meantime, enjoy the holiday and whatever it brings...

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:23 AM

Mark Twain said death and taxes were two of life's certainties, but so too, apparently is the march of technology, whether we want it to or not. Hence, today's No. 1-2 most-used phrases in blog discussions bring home the point: Google's AdWords program is now incorporating video, and the blogger at European Underachiever Tails has a demo and some questions about the program's impact. Will people click on more ads...or click away more?

When behemoths marry
The other venture of note is iPod and Nike teaming up for the high-tech equivalent of musical shoes that keep track of your workout. Apple's Web site, with complete details as always, is today's No. 4 most-cited link, and Nike's web-site video is No. 7. Not surpsiringly, the resulting discussion is already heavily international in tone. And in a weird position of juxtaposition is today's no. 9 most-cited link from iDont...a campaign to un-do the herd mentality around iPod and its products. Good luck with that.

A BlogPulse trend graph tracks blog "buzz" about the lone iPod against all other MP3 references....

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:21 AM

Gadgets, they're everywhere...beeping, ringing, buzzing, vibrating, working behind the scenes in computers and cell phones and handheld everythings. And as today's No. 5 top blog post from Fosfor Gadgets points out, lots of them used to be a lot BIGGER than they are now. "Makes you feel like you're living the future already to compare them," says the Age of Aquariums LiveJournaler, to which I can only respond (having lived through all of them!), you're right. It IS the future. Appreciate it now, because it used to be a lot heavier AND slower. And baking a potato in the pre-microwave-everywhere 1970s used to take an hour. Honest.

E3 Gadgets
Gadgets are also generating buzz at the E3 show, as evidenced by today's key phrases, which include references to the new Sony PlayStation 3controller, new video games being introduced. The E3 event also has its share of live bloggers, including minute-by-minute updates from Engadget and Joystiq. Gamespot has more info about the PS3 and Microsoft has more info about XBox 360. Which of the three leading game platforms - Nintendo, Microsoft Xbox or Sony PlayStation - leads in buzz?




Miscellany
Meanwhile, today's top links and blog posts feature news from Appleinsider of possible delays for new Macbook notebooks, sneak peaks of Windows live (it's in beta), and TechCrunch news of AOL's AIM Pages, billed as the MySpace.com competitor.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 01:16 PM

Oh sure, there's lots of unrest and frustration with today's political scene, and much of its capturedi n today's No. 2 most-cited blog post from Libercontrarian Nicholas Horianopoulos...about why he's' changing parties (again), this time from Libertarian to Independent. The comments are as insightful as Hornianpoulos' own disappointments.

Speaking of politics, we took a little BlogPulse poll, using the Trend Graph feature to track phrases that discuss the upcoming 2006 mid-term Congressional elections and the 2008 Presidential election. The Prez won.




Blasts from the past
Arthur J. Schlessinger, who served as an adviser to President John F. Kennedy, returns to the spotlight today (No. 3 most-blogged person) for this quote: "There is no more dangerous thing for a democracy than a foreign policy based on presidential preventive war," which is also today's fourth most-cited phrase in the blogosphere. Schlessinger made the statement in a Washington Post essay examining President Bush's final 1,000 days in office, today's 37th-most-cited news story.

Spy-ly speaking
Talking Points Memo has far more questions than "60 Minutes" had (today's No. 5 most-cited news link) for former CIA guy Tyler Drumheller, today's' No. 21 most-blogged personality.

Just for fun
Hey ladies! Always forgetting somtehing important when you grab the purse and run out the door? Thought so, which is why Gizmodo's RFID-enabled pursue is featured in one of today's most-read blog posts. It was developed at Simon Fraser University in Canada (RFID stands for radio frequency identification, a technology that uses tiny transmitters/receivers to track the movement or locations of items (or, what beeps when you walk out of a store with one of those tags that the clerk forgot to deactivate when you bought it. Hopefully). That piece links to another technology-enabled service, the Get out of Date Free card from SecureSingles, which sends you a pre-programmed bow-out message if your date's not going so swell.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 01:40 PM

Washington D.C. seems to be veritably dripping with leaks these days, as five of today's most-cited news stories have the word "leak" in their headlines. Coverage ranges from fired CIA agent Mary McCarthy (today's No. 5 most-blogged personality) to speculation that the Secretary of State has also been the source of leaks. Discuss.

Care to dance, monkey?
Some people are big-picture people, and that obviously applies to the creator of today's No. 10 most-cited link, Ernest Cline's Dance, Monkeys, Dance!" Anyone who attended grade school in the 1960s will remember the "ding!" sound from the film-strip format.

Got your agenda right here...
Other discoveries: The blogger at Angry Biscuit provides a bitey-tongue-in-cheeck (we think?) gay agenda for all of the "family" groups who have longed claimed there actually is such a thing. Dave Weiss' personalized tour of Microsoft's Macintosh lab has been among the most popular blog posts in the past few days, and TPM CAfe notes that no one's paying attention to bipartisan Congressional give-away of the Internet, which has led to a Save the Internet campaign.

Up, up and away...
And oh yeah: the phrase "gas prices" now has 49,701 blog results attached to it (and is the day's No. 24 most-cited phrase). Speaking of up and coming things, we turned to BlogPulse Trend Graphs today to gauge "buzz" about the upcoming 2006 Congressional mid-term elections and the 2008 Presidential election:

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 02:48 PM

The blog universe can be such a fickle place -- early in the week, liberal-leaning blogs were all over Seymour Hersh's New Yorker article about U.S. military plans for attacking Iran (since Sunday, it remains the blogosphere's top new story and most-cited link), while here at mid-week, conservative-leaning bloggers are all over the immigration rallies taking place throughout the U.S. But some of the best language on the debate comes from Hispanic blogger La Queen Sucia (today's No. 18 top blog post), who addresses point by point some of the issues raised in recently snarky e-mails she's received.

Which raises the issue: just what are the issues du jour over the past six months?A BlogPulse Trend Graph takes a look at some of them:




More language...about a boy's hat?
Gawker Media today recounts an e-mail exchange (today's No. 9 top blog post) among a group of New York parents over a lost-and-found post about a boy's hat. Garfield Ridge renames it the Park Slope Hat Spat, while a LiveJournaler might just prefer Amityville.

Phone jamming and other discoveries
The name of James Tobin appears among today's burstiest (No. 3) amid charges that some of the phone-jamming (for which Bush campaign operative Tobin has already been convicted) of Democratic call centers during the 2002 elections might have been directed from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Still speculation at this point.

Meanwhile, another country is looking at building another fence, the Engadget crowd reports that Microsoft's Vista has been successfully installed on a Mac (and Daring Fireball has more thoughts on Apple's Boot Camp Mac-to-Windows download), world traveler Michael J. Totten is trying to drive back into Iraq, and for beer lovers who also love ice cream, Ben & Jerry's is rolling out Black and Tan ice cream (today's No. 17 most-cited link). Fer real. Sold by the pint, one blogger points out.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:59 AM

If you're a techno-phile curious about what's ahead, feast your eyes today on news of Microsoft's coming innovation, the Ultra-Mobile PC (featured in today's most-cited link), the prototype result of the long-awaited Origami Project (today's No. 15 top link). Microsoft's official press release about the go-anywhere, connect-anywhere, handheld PC ranks No. 27 today among top links, and Intel's companion announcement ranks No. 26. Microsoft's Channel 9 blog also has a brief blurb.

What time is it?
Maintaining the high-tech theme, today's No. 9 top blog post from ProductDose.com features the Top 10 Geek Watches, with eclectic nods to James Bond, Frank Gehry, Mr. Gadget and the Stanley (Tools) Ruler Watch. Timely discussion ensues.

Occupational buzz
A BlogPulse reader e-mailed recently and suggested a Trend Graph that plots "buzz" about various professions, so we gave it a whirl on several fronts (and will feature others in coming weeks). First, journalist vs. blogger vs. pundit:



And secondly, jobs in the news recently: coal miner vs. longshoreman/port worker and Enron executive.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:36 AM

"Crash" crashed the Oscars Sunday night, and buzz about who won (and who didn't) captured 8 of today's top 10 key phrases, while movie celebs dominated the most-discussed people list as well. Celeb-discussion included nods to host Jon Stewart (at No. 2, mixed reviews), best supporting actor George Clooney (No. 3), best actress Reese Witherspoon (No. 5), supporting actress Rachel Weisz (No. 7), best actor Philip Seymour Hoffman (No. 8), and actress nominee Felicity Huffman (No. 9). Not to be outdone, Tom Cruise, Jenny McCarty, Rob Schneider and Paris Hilton took home Razzy Awards in today's 33rd-most-cited news story.

Creativity in Legos, on film
As someone who has wrestled with more than her share of Lego creations in the endeavor known as motherhood, let me congratulate the winners featured in Tech Blog's Top 10 Strangest Lego Creations, today's ninth-most-cited link (and I thought the helicopter thing was hard). Equally creative is today's No. 2, 4 and 7 most-cited links, the opening credits to "The Simpson's" acted by real people with real nuclear plant smokestacks and scaneed grocery-store babies. D'oh! says MorgansMinstrel at LiveJournal. Too much time on someone's hands? asks an otherwise impressed Laist blogger.

Leakbusters?
When the news leaks out, and it's rarely good, who's the White House gonna call? The FBI and CIA, apparently, according to today's most-cited news story from The Washington Post, which is threatening news reporters with espionage laws for "leaks." Conversation is already fairly hefty.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:34 AM

If you were Steve Jobs, what products would you invent next? The bloggers at Engadget asked, and the submitted results make up today's most-cited blog post, featuring everything from the first-place Apple Tablet to the stand-up iWedge to the MacBaby. Reaction comes in a variety of languages and in anticipation of Apple's newest announcements this week.

Can you hear the kerplunk?
The most-cited link and most-cited news story among bloggers today details President George Bush's continually falling poll numbers, especially now that conservatives like William Kristol (Monday's No. 15 top blog post) of the Weekly Standard are expressing doubts about the Iraq policy on Fox News (the point of today's No. 2 top blog post). "Majority of Americans hate America" deadpans Wonkette, while Balloon Juice asks, "how do you go down from rock bottom?"

The BoingBoing campaign
BoingBoing's campaign against Smart Filter, whose filtering technology found a photo of Michaelangelo's "David" and classified is as "nudity," is picking up steam, according to BlogPulse Conversation Tracker, now that BoingBoing is asking other bloggers to post the photo of their web sites, too.

Passings
Today's burstiest person, Linda Smith, a British comedienne who died this week, continues a several-day pattern of deaths of famous performers and actors. "I am gutted," mourns the Incurable Hippie blogger, calling Smith "one of the funniest people ever."

Oscar Buzz: Best Foreign Film
Check out today's BlogPulse Spotlight for a look at potential winenrs in Sunday's "Best Foreign Language" film category at the Academy Awards ceremony.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:14 AM

Just goes to show you that a little media exposure goes a long way, which explains why singer Kelly Clarkson, the "American Idol" winner who snapped up a few Grammy Awards this week, is today's second most-blogged personality and why a real-estate evaluation web site called Zillow.com is among today's most-shared links after being featured this week on NPR.

Apple/iPod speculation abounds
Two other popular blog posts today discuss Apple and its iPod/iTunes domination, which will either expand if the company acquires Palm (today's No. 3 top blog post) or diminish if open-source Songbird takes off (the No. 2 top post) as an iTunes competitor, depending on whom you believe. Jake's Blog isn't all that impressed with Songbird; neither is the blogger at Insignificant Thoughts, pointing out that as an open-source application, "there will be 30,000,000,000,000,000,000 point releases fixing one bug at a time 30 times a week."

The cartoons...debuted in Egypt?
Today's top blog post, from Rantings of a Sandmonkey, notes that the editorial cartoons of the prophet Muhammed, the ones causing riots in the Middle East, also appeared without comment last fall in Egyptian newspapers. The Freedom for Egyptians blog (No. 10 blog post) seconds the motion. Operating on the notion that humor might perhaps work some magic, Iowahawk blogger offers satire on a similar cartoon brou-ha-ha brewing in the Midwest, as in Wisconsin.

Valentine's Day is for...eating?
If you wanna know what your sweetie has in mind for Valentine's Day this year, get ready to chow down:

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:49 AM

When Steve Jobs announces new stuff from Apple Computers, people listen, which is why Apple's newly announced MacBook Pro laptop and the revamped iMac are the stuff of today's most-cited link in the blogosphere. Moreoever, the laptop's innards represent today's most-blogged phrase. The bloggers are Makezine predict Apple TV by the end of the MacWorld event.

First, will someone please define "annoying"?
You can nominate a blog now for the Sixth Annual Best Weblogs Award program (the "Bloggies,") but don't say anything annoying on your blog, or if you do, at least sign your John Henry. Maybe because it's such a surprising find, but a CNETNew.com article about a hidden provision in a recently passed bill takes positions 1, 2 and 3 among today's most-cited news stories by bloggers. Writes CNET's Declan McCullagh: "Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity. In other words, it's OK to flame someone on a mailing list or in a blog as long as you do it under your real name. Thank Congress for small favors, I guess." The penalty? Up to two years in prison. Hmmm....

Reaction? Plenty. "Hey, there's a whole bunch of people who annoy me online and live in America. Finally I can do something about them," says the PeanutsComment blogger. But Boing Boing digs deeper and finds an (anonymous!) legal analyst who says the new wording simply updates legislation that's been on the books from the telephone era: "In other words, the latest amendment, which supposedly adds Internet communications devices to the scope of the law, is meaningless surplusage."

News of the weird
Here in Cincinnati, we've been following the bizarre news of today's burstiest person, the late Johannas Pope. She died more than 2 years ago at age 61, but told her caregiver she didn't want to be buried, so her body was left in an upstairs air-conditioned room, where it mummfied. Police and coroner officials discovered it over the weekend. "This is just disturbing," one LiveJournaler's reaction, sums up sentiments quite nicely.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:50 AM

From the "people/stuff you've probably not heard about before" department comes a few tidbits from today's blog discoveries.

Unknown hardware:
From the time it was hinted at in 2005, the Optimus keyboard has drawn plenty of curious interest, and as the source of today's most-shared link, it may soon be a commercial reality. Starting Feb. 1. Engadget has the scoop on this multi-task keyboard development from Russia-based Art Lebedev Studio. ShaolinTiger calls in the "best keyboard in the world." The BlogPulse Spotlight provides more analysis.

Unknown general:
Identifying himself only as "General Wager," a Vietnam vet has a few choice words for Sen. John Murtha at a town hall meeting...and then walks out when Murtha responds. Michelle Malkin provides a link to the C-Span video (today's No. top blog post). Discussion leans mostly right.

Unknown privacy invasions?
Did you know that cell phone records are for sale? That's the top of today's most-shared news story, from the crime reporter of the Chicago Sun-Times. MediaGirl.org calls it "Big Brother: Free-market style."

Unknown men
Also among today's blog disucssions are the names of two men, recognized for vastly different reasons. First is Hugh Thompson, a Vietnam vet (and today's No. 26 burstiest person) who died of cancer last week. He's best known as being a 24-year-old helicopter pilot who intervened and helped put an end to the slaughter of the residents of the village of My Lai. MarineCorpsMoms offers a tribute. Also on the list is 100-year-old Albert Hoffman, the Swiss inventor of LSD, and the subject of a New York Times article that's today's No. 4 top link.

The joke's on you?
For topical grins, check out today's No. 18 top link titled "Dean's Song," appropriate with the start of today's confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Samuel Alito. But if you're looking for the best blonde joke ever (the subject of today's top blog post), I get the feeling the joke's on you. You can keep clicking, and clicking, and clicking, and....

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:42 AM

Sure, there's all sorts of Internet announcements today, including Yahoo! Answers (today's No. 10 top blog post and the Yahoo! version of Ask Jeeves), and Google's new Transit Planner (which is today's No. 3 top link), a Google Maps service applied to public transit (and currently limited to Portland, OR).

Major changes ahead
But major changes are in store for the Hundred Acre Wood, where Christopher Robin (today's burstiest person) will be replaced by a yet-to-be named female character in 2007 to make the whole Winnie the Pooh franchise more, you know, marketable to a broader audience. USA Today coverage of the gender shift is today's No. 2 most-cited link and the subject of today's top blog post. And lots of commentary, including a "dream on, Disney" lecture from DebbieSchlussel.com. she's joined by this invective from a LiveJournaler: "Clearly TPTB at Disney need to be smacked repeatedly with the smitey book. These people are clearly of very, very little brain." What's next...Hey God, It's Me, Michael? Arnold Bedilia Strikes Out? "The Ghost and Mrs. Chicken?"

Mother Nature's wrath
You'd think that "December = snow" would start to sink into the public consciousness after all these years, but the snowstorm that swept the U.S. midsection Thursday created this scenario: it took me longer to drive from the airport to my house (25 minutes TOPS on a normal bad-traffic day) than it took me to fly from Rochester NY to Cincinnati, all because of a rush-hour snowstorm. Still, hurricanes have it all over Mother's Nature's snow and floods in the blogosphere...

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:02 AM

Some the law works in your favor, sometimes it doesn't. Two cases from the legal annals make BlogPulse news today.

At least three of today's top 10 blog posts (American Street, Shakespeare's Sister, and Pandagon) describe their outrage at the case of a 17-year-old Oregon teen who claimed three men gang-raped her but was found guilty herself (of filing a false claim) when the three were found innocent because she didn't act "traumatized enough" in the days after the alleged assault. In fact, traffic to American Street is so heavy that the site won't load easily; Shakespeare's Sister has a rundown. Kevin Drum at Washington Monthly questions the prosecution's decisions; "this goes way beyond blaming the victim," says Bamapachyderm.

More bad-guy intrigue
Today's most-cited news story tells another tale of legal woe: what happens when the CIA thinks it put the wrong guy in a foreign prison. "Oops, our bad," says Obsidian Wings.

The XBox ad you WON'T see
Maybe it's a guy cops-and-robbers thing, but today's 15th top blog post features is XBox TV "air confrontation" ad (for lack of a better term) that never made it to the airwaves. A Xanga blogger calls it the "best commercial ever."

Saturday Night Live Rebound?
Didn't think it could happen, but comedian Dane Cook is today's second most discussed personality (outpacing President George Bush), no doubt because of his appearance as host on Saturday Night Light last weekend. Or as one LiveJournaler intones, "not even Dane Cook can save SNL...sad state of affairs."

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 01:07 PM

Perhaps it's an issue you never seriously thought about, but blogger Garr Reynolds did: Does Apple's Steve Jobs or Microsoft's Bill Gates possess more Zen-like qualities during public appearances? Jobs obviously wins in the "simple is more" department. "Wow," says Lee of Australia, while author/marketer/blogger Seth Godin points out that the contrasting images in Reynolds' comparison are a "vital and essential warning sign to anyone who has ever considered giving a presentation." Just for curiosity's sake, which computer mogul captures more blog buzz? (Jobs' June spike coincides with Apple's Intel chip announcement).



Feminist voice, and T-shirts
Never let it be said that women's voices aren't represented in the blogosophere. Today's most popular blog post (and 10th most-shared link) is a LiveJournal Cereta's essay on male privilege. The blogger at Alchemy Without Moles applauds with a two-word review: "oooh, thinky." And for women upset with the slogans on Abercrombie & Fitch's new T-shirts, the Countess is holding a contest for alternative feminist T-shirt slogans. Protein Wisdom calls it what it is: a girlcott.

VOD, and the Ping of Death
First came Apple's deal to load ABC's TV shows into the video iPod for $1.99 a show, and now NBC and CBS are getting into the video on demand (VOD) biz as well (today's No. 19 top link). Or as Good Morning Silcon Valley describes the agreement: "New from Comcast: Pay $.99 to watch an episode of a show you could record for free on DVR."

And what's the ping of death, you ask? It's among the top 10 worst software bugs, as chronicled by Wired News (today's No. 5 top link). Others include the Mariner 1 space probe (wrong computer code), Therac-25 medical accelerator (which delivered a bit too much radiation to hospital patients), and the Ping of Death, the code responsible for the ever-popular "blue screen of death."

Chemical weapons...found?
And todays' disturbing blog discovery is a claim made in the most-shared news story from The Independent Online -- that U.S. troops used "white phosphorus" for more than illumination purposes during the 2004 assault on Fallujah? Juan Cole at Informed Comment offers an analysis; "hope like hell this isn't true," says John Cole at Balloon Juice.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:46 AM

Technical and Internet innovations move to front-and-center today, including a sneak peak at Yahoo!'s new maps from Jeremy Zawodny (today's No. 2 top blog post). SearchViews likes the new features, including multi-point driving directions; Tom Rafferty is less-than-impressed.

Microsoft's Live
This week, Microsoft also pulled the veil off its new portal page, Live. The beta version has already inspired so-so reviews from Joel on Software (today's No. 4 top blog post). Gear Live wonders, "is Microsoft scrambling?" to compete with Google and OpenOffice.org? Other techie issues being debated in the blogosophere include bloggers' discovery of anti-piracy embedded rootkits in Sony BMG compact discs and the launch of Google Print, a scannable libary of 10,000 books.

Heck of a job, Brownie...
One more reason to be careful what you say in your work emails: they might come back to haunt you. Especially if you're former FEMA director Mike Brown, who's back in the not-so-flattering limelight (today's 12th-most blogged-about personality) because of the online publication of some of the e-mails he sent during and after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast (today's most-shared link) and No. 3 top news story). The Louisiana Congressman who got access to the emails posted them online. In a Sept. 4 exchange, a FEMA rep advised: "In this crises (sic) or on TV you just need to look more hard-working...ROLLL UP YOUR SLEEVES." During exchanges about breached levees, missing Superdome roof tiles and ice shipments, Brown jokes about his clothing and asks for dog-sitter recommendations. Read 'em...and yeah, sigh. (Then weep). Maybe those kinds of emails explain these kinds of poll results (today's No. 5 news story)?

Riots in Paris
Today's 7th-most-shared news story, about riots in Muslim and immigrant neighborhoods of Paris, are worrisome to bloggers because of what they portend for the U.S., as La Shawn Barber points out. Other perspectives come from Gateway Pundit, an American in Paris and Blogs of War.

Quicker BlogPulse results
BlogPulse's speed and performance underwent some significant tweaks this week, and bloggers have noticed.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:18 AM

You gotta hand it to Apple's Steve Jobs. When he speaks, people listen, and when he announced the new video iPod on Wednesday (today's top link), Engadget buzz (and Gizmodo speculation) took off like the latest Chinese space rocket.

The ability to download day-old TV episodes into an iPod for $1.99 certainly captured the attention of bloggers, who wrote about the development in nine of today's top 40 blog posts and three of the day's top 5 links. In fact, spikes in iPod buzz closely mirror recent product announcements about color screens (June), iTunes update (July) and the iPod nano (September). The early June spike for Jobs reflects Apple's switch to Intel chips.



Forget your dedutions?
Today's most-shared news story is a New York Times article about tax cuts...and not the ones for rich people. Seems a tax panel thinks that a flat tax is a bad idea and so are the popular (and middle-class) deductions for mortgage interest and health insurance. "Bad policy and bad politics," says American Prospect blog. Wampum figures it'll be as popular as Social Security reform. "Who's crazy now"? asks Suburban Guerilla.

Feet to the fire?
As special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald seems to wind down his investigation of who leaked CIA Agent Valerie Plame's name to the press, speculation heats up about who's being targeted. Is it Vice President Dick Cheney, wonders the Huffington Post (today's No. 2 top blog post). Insiders Karl Rove or Andy Card? wonders Talking Points Memo? Cheney staffer Lewis Libby? asks the National Journal. Is the investigation widening? wonders Raw Story. Is all this speculation making the President nervous? asks the Washington Post (today's third most popular news story).

Passings...
The title of today's No. 16 top link caught my eye: "the best obituary ever." Guess it depends on one's political persuasion.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:47 AM

The Harriet Miers nomination to the Supreme Court seems to have curious staying power, particularly among conservatives who remain unconvinced that she's court-worthy. BlogPulse, in fact, was interviewed over the weekend on NPR about conservative reaction to Miers.

Why have conservatives (today's No. 3 top blog post) mobilized so strongly (No. 5) against Miers? Why so much emphasis on her and comparatively so much less on now-Chief Justice John G. Roberts? BlogPulse trend graph shows the disparity:



New from Yahoo!...podcasting
Now in testing phases is Yahoo! podcasting. Cool and plentiful, says Bobnar Blog, but with this caveat common to many Internet users: "Ever seen that Far Side cartoon where the kid asks his teacher if he can be excused from class because his brain is full? My brain's gonna pop if I keep trying to cram everything that happens on the Internet into it." Speaking of full brains, blogger Bill Hobbs is taking a blog break from a "rather time-consuming and uncompensated hobby" (today's 19th top post).

Indictment roulette, anyone?
Some bloggers are speculating about possible Bush administration indictments over the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame's name to the press. They're also speculating about the speculation.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:35 AM

The Internet opened communications and commerce in ways that its founders (Al excluded) never intended, and now it's taking on the features of a self-help movement. Evidence, please?

Roll your own....
First, there's a new web site called Rollyo (today's 10th most-shared URL), in which users create customized search engines, based on Yahoo! Search. Blogger Susan Mernit likes the idea and speculates about its ability to catch on; Rollyo's already being noticed in Germany and Korea.

Pixels for sale
Secondly, the Million Dollar Home Page (40th top link) is the invention of an entrepreneurial 21-year-old college student who's selling real estate on his web site for $1 a pixel; he's already sold 205,000 and covered his college costs. AdJab offers some insight on the idea that's catching on.

News in context
Bloggers are still lit up over the indictment of Sen. Majority Leader Tom DeLay (more blogged-about than Harry Potter!), the lightning-swift swearing-in of Chief Justice John G. Roberts, the Middle East tour by Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes, the political motivations of Texas DA Ronnie Earle, and the did-he-REALLY-say-that comments of former drug/education Czar William Bennett, but a tempered look at hot issues puts things in perspective, doesn't it?...

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:48 AM

Let's all go to the races today, shall we? Tuesday's launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery brought reactions such as "mind-blowing and exhilarating" from Alex at DemSpeak. An Aussie sends best wishes for the astronauts' safe return, pointing out that "they're just looking around."

Second District Race
Here in BlogPulse's back yard, Ohio's Second Congressional District, politics are heating up in the heavily Republican territory, where Marine veteran and Democrat Paul Hackett (No. 20 among today's bursty people) is hoping to be the first first Iraq War veteran to serve in Congress. Off the Kuff blogger says opponent Jean Schmidt's questioning of Hackett's service (No. 3 top blog post today) smacks of Swift Boat attack tactics. Today's No. 28 link mentions the Cincinnati Post's endorsement of Hackett, while the ActBlue blog is helping with fund-raising.

Other Races of Note
There's a race on to change language in hopes that no one notices the "war on terror" isn't going so smoothly. Today's No. 6 link from the New York Times points out that Bush officials no longer refer to the war on terror; now it's the "global struggle against violent terrorism." "This is important" for a more comprehensive approach to the problems inherent in terrorist thinking and tactics, says the QandO blog, while Needlenose blog can't help but point out the sense of Orwellian language-shifting inherent in the new wording.

How's John G. Roberts doing on his way to Supreme Court nomination hearings? An op-ed piece, "The Faith of John Roberts" from the LA Times,(today's No. 2 blog post) draws some commentary from the Get Religion blog. As they're wont to do, some bloggers are attacking the messenger, not the message.

Listen up, Will Robinson!
If you've already got NASA on the mind, check out today's No. 19 top link from NASA's Cassini mission: woo-woo radio emissions from Saturn.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:00 AM

Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door. Build a better computer keyboard, and you'll be Optimus, the most popularly shared link among bloggers today. From the Russian Art Lebedev Design Studio, the patent-pending keyboard features stand-alone display keys that enable easy, intuitive switching between programs and languages. "It's a concept I really really dig," says Laurie Duncan at The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Seconding the motion is Fosfor Gadgets..."brilliant idea."

Hot seat warms up
In the nation's capital, coolness is not in abundance. Hot words, in fact, continue on several fronts, including the Karl Rove brouhaha. Former ambassador Joseph Wilson, whose CIA wife was outed, thinks Rove should be fired (Link No. 32), generating plenty of blog spin; Republicans are ganging up on Wilson (No. 27 link), generating even more blog spin. Buzz about some of the key players shows the following:



War and terror
Politicians and the public are getting conflicting information about U.S. treatment of prisoners/detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, while the Warrior Class Blog finds that continued terrorist attacks may be changing Islamic attitudes for good...and toward freedom.

More hot stuff
Sen. Hillary Clinton is taking on the video game industry for a recently discovered porn module that can be downloaded into Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas video games. Tongue firmly in cheek, Good Morning Silicon Valley suggests alternative motives for Ms. Clinton's indignation?

Just plain sad
Speaking of indigation, there's plenty over the Florida murder trial of today's burstiest person, Ronnie Paris Jr., charged with boxing his 3-year-old son to death as a way of teaching him to be manly. I have to ask: is there something in the water in Florida? Have too many hurricanes muddled the collective mentality of the entire state?

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:50 AM

Cool things first. Ever wondered what it's like inside a tornado? National Geographic accomplished the feat with flat conical video cameras that stayed on the ground while the tornado roared overhead, and the footage (about 5 minutes) is today's No. 7 top link.

The ITLnet blog calls it a "technological first." Webslog describes it as "some of the most memorable photgraphic images on the planet."

Before we get to stormy words, how are you spending your first weeks of summer? At the movies? Glued to the TV watching reality and courtroom news? Kickin' back? Had to share this BlogPulse graph:



Politicial storms a'brewing?
Free-flowing words continue to spill from the mouth of Democratic National Party chairman Howard Dean, who, when asked about diversity, this week called the GOP a "white Christian" party. He shoots to No. 3 among today's key personalities. Right Pundit calls his blunt speeches divisive, while Junkyard Blog takes a longer view.

A word storm has also picked up in Washington D.C., bringing White House aide Philip Cooney to the top of today's bursty people list. Seems the former oil lobbyist, now a Bush aide on environmental policies, has edited global-warming reports to tone down language linking fossil-fuel emissions with global warming. PublicTheologian asks, "Aren't you glad lobbyists are keeping those pesky government scientists in line?"

The Articulatory Loop blog has a posting of a poster, and it's creating a stir as well. The "Watch, Ride and Report" poster now appearing in D. C. subways has bloggers asking: Is it Orwellian? Fake? A WPA/Art Deco throwback? Or a Soviet-style invitation to spy on one's friends? ? Red Wolf blog calls them "terrornoia posters," while Core Dump notes their content/stylist resemblance to 1930s-era Communist propaganda art. What do YOU think?

Passings
Bloggers mourn the Monday death (cancer) of actress Anne Bancroft, the original Mrs. Robinson and wife of comedian Mel Brooks.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:17 AM

Whoa. Apple's CEO Steve Jobs make a decision, and the blogosphere erupts. More than half (21, in fact) of today's top BlogPulse links refer in some way to Jobs' announcement Monday that Apple is switching from IBM to Intel chips in its computers by 2007. Apple VP Phil Schiller is No. 4 among burst people for his appearance before Apple's developers in San Francisco for his "running Mac on Windows" talk at the big announcement.

Among the reactions: There's the official Apple announcement, blogger commentary on PC vs. Mac by MacManX, live coverage of the event from MacObserver and the blogger at Northwest Noise offers some insights on the merging of Apple and Intel, two differently cultured corporations.

Also getting notice, but not as much attention, is Monday's Supreme Court decision that honors the federal government's jurisdiction over marijuana laws, regardless of state initiatives that allow its use for medically prescribed purposes. Diane Munson and Angel Reich, two California woman who filed the suit, are today's No. 1-2 burstiest people, and both say they're willing to be arrested on principle to keep marijuana available for chronically ill patients.

The artistic side of blogging
Several discoveries today caught the eye. First, a Spanish web site voting on the Spain's 20 best blogs. And today's No. 4 bursty person is artist Dave Devries, whose MonsterEngine web site (today's No. 9 link) is getting noticed for its unusual premise: Devries turns children's drawings of monsters into professional art. The Noise to Signal blogger calls it "amazing." And if it's Beethoven you love, it's Beethoven you'll get -- all week long on BBC Radio. Listen, and then download later.

BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: A first-of-summer look at Bush Administration initiatives for 2005.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:15 AM

Major shifts in the computer world are shaking the blogosphere, now that Apple is dropping IBM as its chip supplier and moving to Intel, according to CNET news. Sotto blog calls it "gobsmackingly unexpected news," Daring Fireball speculates about the impact and reasons, and Microsoft's Robert Scoble confirms the switch.

Two recent blows by Dutch and French voters to hopes of a unified Europe and single currency brought Tony Blair back into the limelight today, now that he's given up on the EU mission for now and is focusing on Africa instead. A Fistful of Euros blog discusses the Brits' bailing out of EU charter idea.

Just curious: since much of the EU discussion centers around currency, how do three of the major currencies stack up? BlogPulse takes a visual look:



Leaving Iraq...Today's No. 11 link is a Washington Post discussion of theory vs. reality in the war in Iraq, while Rod Nordland, Newsweek's Baghdad bureau chief for the last two years, gives a pessimistically honest assessment of what's been lost...and gained....in the ongoing conflict. When the world's most powerful army can't protect a two-mile stretch of highway from downtown Baghdad to the the airport, or collect its own garbage, how is "progress" for Iraq ever to be defined, he wonders?

Elsewhere in politics, Democratic National Party Chairman Howard Dean is making friends but not his fund-raising goals, according to reports. And Google is testing Sitemaps to help sites improve their coverage in Google's index.

BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: A look at the world's hot spots....

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:23 AM

When two of the biggest software companies join forces, it's news. Adobe's purchase of Macromedia is all over BlogPulse today, grabbing three of the top five links and the day's burstiest phrase. Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen tops today's bursty people list, and the move is discussed at Mike Chambers' Macromedia Product Developers' blog.

In Rome, the world awaits for Catholic cardinals to elect John Paul II's successor. BlogPulse follows the excitement with a graph that tracks mentions of the phrases "white smoke" (the signal of the election of a new pope) and "black smoke" (the signal of no decision on a new pope):



Do YOU feel safer now?
The Bush Administration's continuing, all-out war on terror now includes this piece of news: after 19 years, the State Department will cease publishing an annual report that tracks global terrorist attacks. Why? The 2004 report shows more attacks (625 "significant" attacks) than any year since 1985, when the annual report was first published. In 2003, a total of 175 attacks were logged, according to Knight-Ridder. (The newest bumper sticker on my car reads: "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." And this is why).

Elsewhere, there's news of flying cars, some good ol' peace and love talk from rocker Ted Nugent (tongue FIRMLY in cheek), scuttlebutt about a possible deal between TiVo and either Google or Yahoo!, and a Wired News piece describing a Department of Defense "hacker crew." And poor Ann Coulter. She gets the cover of Time magazine, and it's still not good enough for her, according to the Drudge Report.

BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: What's the buzz on a new pope?

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:17 AM

Browse through today's BlogPulse traffic and you'll find that Internet technology has invaded every nook and corner of everyday life. And music. And art. And law. And research. And beer. And...

Music: Don't know who these entertainers are, but the members of the acapella chorus geeks (today's No. 14 top link) may be starting a fad of video-game musical performances, a la Nintendo. Elsewhere, there's buzz of a prototype iPod DJ music mixer (No. 30 link) for folks who want to mix their iPod tunes on a DJ-style turntable/console.

Art: Google continues to get hits for its new video uploading function (today's top link) , video search capabilities (No. 6) and Google maps, (No. 17) which now feature satellite images.

Law: Taking the No. 8 spot among today's top links is the The ESQlawtech Weekly blog for lawyers keen on " technology tips, tools, and tricks."

Research: Hand it to crafty students at MIT to come up with the SCIgen, (No. 12 link) a "program that generates random Computer Science research papers "for amusement, rather than coherence." One of the fake papers, "Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical Unification of Access Points and Redundancy" was recently accepted at a national conference.

Beer: If you can't deal with human bartenders, how about a virtual one? (No. 24 link).

Politics: Liberal and conservative bloggers (No. 36 link) are teaming up to support a campaign finance amendment that exempts the Internet from regulation. And House Majority Leader Tom DeLay isn't the only politician with family members on the payroll. The San Francisco Chronicle provides a complete list.

Random observations: Today's top 40 key phrases are about as representative of a melting-pot society as it's possible to get. The list includes everything from Oregon's attempt to pass a civil unions bill now that the state supreme court has struck down gay marriages, the repeal of the federal estate tax, comic book covers, Social Security issues, TV's "American Idol," issues of faith, terrorists and summer camp.

BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: As details of the Michael Jackson abuse trial turn more and more tawdry, coverage and discussion seem to drop off.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:11 AM

If you're not good at reading maps, how about following directions on a photo? Google Maps captures the No. 2 link among BlogPulse discoveries today for a new feature offering users the option of a road map or a satellite image to locate themselves on Planet Earth. Google's up-close satellite images are more readily available for big-city locations. And if you can't decide between Google or Yahoo!'s search, try the hybrid YaGooHoogle that someone has created.

Pope John Paul II's death continues to generate blog discussion, and even as funeral preparations near, discussion intensifies over his possible successor. BlogPulse's trend-graph tool provides this picture of papal succesor buzz so far:



Other blog highlights...
ABC newsman Peter Jennings is in the news with Tuesday's disclosure of his lung cancer diagnosis, and Republican Sen. John Cornyn appealed to the base Monday in a speech in which he blamed recent courthouse violence on...of all people..."activist judges"...instead of the law-breaking citizens who bring weapons into courthouses or attack judges, courthouse employees and others.Bloggers discuss the brou-ha-ha.

Politics again
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has set May 5 as the date of the next British elections, and for U.S. elections, San Francisco is considering a propsal that would require political bloggers to register with the city's ethics commission and file the equivalent of blog-related campaign expense reports (today's No. 13 top link).

Blogging white paper
This week, Intelliseek (which owns BlogPulse) and Edelman released a white paper on blogging. Download it here (quick registration). Trust MEdia: Why Real People Are Finally Being Heard describes the blogging phenomenon and helps non-bloggers and veteran bloggers alike maneuver the Blogosphere intelligently.

BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Who's activist now?

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:09 AM

Yahoo! and Apple users seem pretty excited this week.

Yahoo! has announced