Dadblog

I’m only now recovering from perhaps the most extraordinary afternoon of football since 1999, and would now point this out: next season, a quarter of Premiership clubs will be managed by Manchester United people: Ferguson, Steve Coppell, Steve Bruce, Mark Hughes and, of course, Roy Keane. Now, can you see Chelsea being able to say the same about their contribution to English football a decade from now? No. Thought not.

Is this new? Just noticed that Gawker is displaying the number of page view on each individual article. Haven’t they read what this did to the NY Times?

UPDATE: But not on Wonkette?

• Sorry, Wrong Number: McCloud Abandons Micropayments. Many-to-Many:
  Clay Shirky on the death of micropayments and the rise of free content. Haven’t read anything by him for ages, and I’ve missed it enormously.
  (tags: micropayments advertising content publishing businessmodel)

I eulogised about the Telegraph’s writer blogs last week, and now blogs supremo Shane Richmond is giving a sneak preview of their user blogs. It all looks deeply groovy and well thought-out and everything, with blogging and tagging and networks of users.
And yet, and yet.

Why would I choose to host my blog with the Telegraph? Why would I want to make that kind of direct association between my personal acts of self-expression and another piece of media - a piece of media which comes with a whole lorryload of semantic and political baggage, a piece of media which actually represents something. It seems to me entirely logical that the Telegraph (or any media firm) would feel it has permission to go into this space, but I can’t imagine any circumstance where I personally would host my personal blog on someone else’s piece of media.

Which isn’t, of course, to say that people won’t do this. Le Monde has done very well in this space. All I’m saying is that I, personally, just don’t get it. But well done to the Telegraph for making such a good-looking product, and I’m sure they’re all desperately upset that I won’t be using it. Not.

AllThingsD, the new digital tech blog from Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, has a very friendly, very transparent note about tracking cookies on their site, telling people that they use them and that they can be turned off. Very nice. A good way to make a good first impression.

Suddenly, Live Earth doesn’t seem quite the self-indulgent toss-fest we were all expecting: Spinal Tap to reform for Live Earth.

The members of Spinal Tap have reunited several times since the film, but not for a number of years. For the band - whose last album was 1992’s Break like the Wind - the occasion warranted a new single: Warmer Than Hell.

Reiner provided a sneak peak at the lyrics: “The devil went to Devon, it felt like the fourth degree. He said, ‘Is it hot in here, or is it only me?”‘

The Devil went to Devon may just be up there with The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin’, for assonant genius.

• Magicalia buys Visordown.com | New media | MediaGuardian.co.uk
  (tags: magicalia messymedia)

• News and jobs for journalists :: BBC News discussion board gets record views
  “We now publish 49 per cent of messages received - up from around 25 per cent from a couple of years ago. Of course, as soon as something momentous happens that people want to tell us about, that can rise to more than 30,000 emails for any one topic and t
  (tags: bbc community messageboards moderation)

• SeedMagazine-ScienceInSilico639.mov (video/quicktime Object)
  Lovely little film about how super-computer visualisations are being used in science.
  (tags: science seed video)