June 17th will be a great day for internet culture, and no, I am not talking about Firefox 3 (although, go pledge, vote, download, rejoice, etc, and do it today – we are trying to set a world record here!).

No, instead I am talking about animals of a less fiery nature: The 2008 World’s Ugliest Dog Competition.

When doing my research on LOLCats (see gnovis for the result), the topic of the “anti-LOLcat” came up often. These are images that mock the nature of LOLcats, and they are quite funny:

That said, can they compare with this?

Many people asked me why LOLDogs aren’t as popular as LOLCats, and I have never had a good answer. This competition, however, sheds a little light. As Steve said, maybe dogs just need their own thing, and that we should start a new trend: the PIMMDog (aka, Puking in My Mouth Dog). This said right after “How are they alive?”

I think my vote is leaning towards “Elwood.” He/She/It(?) is last year’s winner, but I think this might be a case of an oldie being a goody… or something like that.

Today is the last day to vote, so while you are waiting for your 4th copy of Firefox to download, take a walk over and give these puppies some love. Just don’t get too close.

What makes an academic blog “academic”?

Tonight’s thoughts are brought to you via a post by Ashley over at gnovis on the topic of information overload and blogging. We can all relate to Ashley’s thoughts. You fire up your blog, you throw your thoughts out into the interwebs, and before you know it you are part of a “revolutionary cultural movement” that seems sometimes to be moving, well, nowhere. You are latest victim of that increasingly popular topic: information overload (See Robot Foot and the recent NYT article).

Ashley confessed that the internet had become “something that has stopped [her] own creativity.” But where Ashley has started a new blog project as an answer to information overload, Brad, gnovis’ editor, posted a comment stating that he felt like the standards we set for posts have turned blogging into something of a chore. I can certainly relate to that. A little blog deamon sits on my shoulder all of the time, reminding me that “someone else has probably covered it.” That is probably true in the world of tech, and certainly in politics. Put the two together… and, well, pack your bags and go home. (Today I wanted to write about the DC Twitter feud, only to find that the Huffington Post had already got it, and, err, that it was 2 months old).

But what about academia? Ashley’s post, and Brad’s comment stirred some thoughts that have been lurking in an unpublished format, somewhere in my brain for several months now. Simply asked, what makes a blog “academic”? Compared to the rest of the blog-o-sphere, is academia a different beast? Does it exist outside of the information stream that can overload us? After all, it isn’t as driven by the news.

And so, Ashley, Brad (anyone!) I have a question: How high is the “bar” for an “academic blog”? (more…)

Apparently HappyCat and I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER have combined forces and entered new mediums.

Announcing the I Can Has Cheezburger? LOLcat Colleckshun!

To be released in time for Xmas, this seems like the perfect gift to further confuse my parents about my higher education track.

Ready for something amazing? This last Friday I got to see what other people think about craigslist for a change.

Civilian Art Projects held an opening reception for a show titled “craigslist” featuring work inspired by the site and its occupants (Read on Civilian’s website here, and Steve’s coverage, and awesome photos, here, and then my Flickr photos here).

The curatorial write up captured exactly what I have been arguing over the past year:

A curious outcome of our global internet society is that while we are more hyper-connected than ever, our identities have become increasingly malleable to the point of anonymity… Anonymity can bring out the adventurous side of people, particularly when it comes to exploring socially transgressive situations. In this exhibition, the artists take full advantage of this growing social identity phenomenon and investigate how anonymity generates a new kind of portraiture.

This was readily apparent in Jason Zimmerman’s pieces. (more…)

(This is the fourth post of a multi-post series on the relationship between the real and digital world. To read them all, start here, and continue here and here.)

“Does anyone know when the new ‘primetime’ is?” Dr. Tinkcom posed this question one day during a critical theory seminar. We had been discussing advertising and the impact of the Internet on traditional television viewership. Several students hypothesized that busy schedules had shifted prime-time back a couple hours. Others, myself included, wondered if it had been obliterated all together.

“Its between 8 and 9 in the morning, and 5 and 7 at night,” he answered, but then asked: “Does anyone know why?” Considering my own penchant for anything in syndication, I figured it was due to shows like The Simpsons and King of the Hill that show across the nation during the 5-7 time block. It was one of my quieter peers who answered his question correctly. “Commuters,” she said simply. (more…)

A little bit of humor is needed for this Friday. Remember those LOL Theorists? (here and here) I thought I would try my hand.

These two theorists are the perfect signifiers of my week. Critical theory and economics. Same theory, completely different outcomes, leaving you with no where to go. Yep, that kind of sums up this week. What’s one to do? Sit back and LOL, I guess.

(Thanks Patrick for loosing sleep for the sake of the lulz.)

I usually keep my posts about craigslist to the Missed Connections section, but when Steve sent me this ad, it made me laugh - so I am sharing it with you!

RE: Cannondale R600c Compact Frame -
NEW - $900 Stop posting! - $1

Reply to: sale-562997321@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-02-04, 6:32PM EST

I think I am not alone in saying I am sick and tired of seeing this post!!

Look buddy new or not your bike has the lowest level of components there is.

People can buy a new bike at the bike store that is a current model with current components for half of what you are asking. Give up!!

I have never flagged your ad but I see others have. They are sick of looking at it too.

A BLACK and White TV was once a thousand dollars too!! New or not you cant give it away unless it was to a museum

* Location: NoVa
* it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 562997321

(Academic note: Isn’t it interesting how a post about an item — the bike — can be posted multiple times, but if someone were to follow suite in a missed connection it would be disastrous? Instead the entire online dating genre is plagued with “I don’t normally do this kind of thing…” disclaimers. Something to think about.)

Just to put us all at ease, here is some more typical craigslist based regulation:

I am gay but,I have to stop reading these CL listings. I am getting sick of what people are writing it makes me sick to my stomach sometimes. It shames me to be gay ,how did gay come to be basically all about sex. I am good looking and enjoy my sexually but some of you are just sick and perverts.If half of you that hang out in the suana and showers actually spent sometime on the floor working out you would not have to lower or degrade yourself. My gym has placed a camera in the showers and locker room, theirs a small notice at the desk to cover them for any law sui.t I will not tell you what gym. (The  bold is all me.)

A bit of vindication today.

It was two weeks ago that Trish saw a picture of a cat on my laptop and exclaimed “No more LOLCats!” She is so annoyed with the cats (or rather the frequency with which I will make a cultural reference to one) that even an analysis of the visual rhetoric involved won’t warm her up to the topic.

Well, apparently there is a reason, and Yale researchers have provided it: Evolution Explains Why Lolcats Control Your Mind

Perhaps that is why Rae Maor predicted (shouting “LOLCATS will not die”, I might add) that 2008 will not see the end of our anthropomorphized friends.

Ahh, now that is nice. So Trish, this one is for you. I R B lulzin thrus the O-8s.

(via Digg/io9)

While I tend to blog along the more social and theoretical sides of technology, I thought I would share a post that Phil Windley just threw up on his blog, featuring the top downloaded content on IT Conversations for 2007.

IT Conversations provides some of the most insightful interviews and programs, including a long time favorite, Tech Nation. If you haven’t checked it out, you should. Phil, in an executive director role, has definitely poured his heart and soul into it.

I actually met Phil several years ago while I was doing the Dot.Com thing in “Little Silicon” (a.k.a. Utah Valley, just south of Salt Lake City). He would host (and I hope he still does) a monthly CTO forum that brought some wonderfully intelligent people together to talk about geeky, but always fun, topics. While Phil might not know this, it was here that I first began to consider the connections between culture and digital life on the internet. (more…)

The title kind of says it all.

I am in NYC for the weekend, and while waiting for the arrival of a friend I sat down on a convenient pair of benches in SoHo (here featured by our own Steve Frost). Apparently TimeOut magazine has deemed these benches as one of the gay hipster hot spots for the year. My being there, however, was a complete accident - I can only hope some of that big appley hipster-ish-ness rubbed off.

That said, these benches are in front of an American Apparel. Go figure. This last semester amid queer theory and authors including Butler and Halberstam, we began saying “Even queers aren’t queer anymore.”

I kind of thought that hipsters might have become the new queers. Maybe that’s only true if you are straight.