bOING bOING

The award winning weblog bOING bOING is soliciting college students who have been busted by copyright infringment (illicit downloading/file sharing) on campus. Co-editor of bOING bOING, Xeni Jardin is asking students to speak out about the accusations and reprimands they received for an upcoming report.


The University of Massachusetts Amherst's Student Legal Service office lists "The Nasty Consequences of Illegal Downloading & File Sharing" in their brochure, but fails to identify them on their website. For those interested in what could/may happen if you were to download Mims "This Is Why I'm Hot" illegally, call the Student Legal Service office: 413-545-1995.

Photo: www.stoutonia.uwstout.edu

Gated Community Fans

If you like FOX's The O.C. (which ends its four year run this evening) and ABC's Desperate Housewives, you won't be able to resist Bravo's The Real Housewives of Orange County. This hit reality series now in its second season follows the lives of five rich and famous working woman and their families in Orange County's Coto de Caza.

Fans of the show make their way to Bravo's site regularly to dish about the five main characters: Jo De La Rosa, Jeana Keough, Lauri Waring, Tammy Knickerbocker and Vicki Gunvalson on topics ranging from what they're wearing, driving, dating, eating, saying, singing, traveling and then some.

Real Housewive fans were recently warned and soon restricted by the "Bravo Board Boss" to tone down posts directed at the main characters on message boards.

"Because of certain posts to this message board, we've switched the Real Housewives message board to "moderator approval required". This means any comments you write to the boards will not show up immediately; Bravo staff has to go through and manually approve them.

This is not a change we're making lightly. We're usually *very* hands-off with our message boards for all of our shows. And we really really don't want to start banning people for bad behavior -- it's a *very* rare step for us -- but we've already had to do that to two different people on this board in the past week.

We're *not* interested in censoring people's opinions here, but we can't go on having runaway posts and comments that invade the Housewives' privacy (or their families' privacy). Oh, and posting their home phone numbers or personal e-mail addresses or private details in a public forum is *not* okay. You'd think that would be obvious to everyone, but apparently not.

So please feel free to talk about the show, but let's not get so carried away here, okay? Keep it clean, and keep it legal, that's all we're asking."

This show is about real people. Although they may reside in what some consider to be the land of phonies where money grows on trees, Jo, Vicki (known on Bravo's message board as "Icki") and all the others have feelings too.

Wacky Weather

Cleveland.com's daily weather report is not your typical Weather.com search. Featuring a myriad of youthful reporters, Cleveland.com's quirky climate updates are informative but sometimes over the top.

Reporter Mike Conley states the obvious when covering Northeast Ohio during a Februrary 20, 2007 report when he warned viewers of large "standing puddles" and the precautions to take when walking or driving nearby.

If you don't consider yourself to be a "Clevelander" then this weather guide is not for you.

Defamer: Expect The Unexpected

To read unexpected top stories about your favorite celebraties and their affiliates, L.A. based "gossip rag" Defamer is a site to see.

Defamer posts juicy facts about Britney, Ben Affleck, Anna Nicole Smith, Milli Vanilli, as of recent, that may seem hard to believe but are completely true.

Defamer covers hot news stories with a wild twist. With the recent NASA scandal, Defamer posted about a young woman who took this murder-plot and ran with it, this past Valentine's day.

"Police in Tempe, Ariz., said 23-year-old Tiffany Sutton allegedly tricked her 43-year-old victim with an offer of kinky sex. But, after tying him up, police said, she pulled out a knife and cut the man on the leg. She then told him she likes to drink blood and proceeded to drink from his leg, officials said."

Drowning in H2otown

H20Town.info is the Internet's equivalent of a community bulletin board. The site is a place for Watertown residents to go and blog about anything they want - including jacuzzi trips with their spouses, school updates and what's new in Watertown politics.

The blogs are posted by members of the town, and you can check out each person's individual blogs. These citizen journalists have also shown they can keep up with the world of convergence journalism. Several bloggers posted video in their posts. One such video was taken during yesterday's snowstorm and showed the heavy accumulation in downtown Watertown.

Unless you live in "H20Town" or surrounding area, a lot of the information is useless. However, We're sure the site is very useful to the town community. It gives them an easy way to contact each other, make announcements and create social networks.

But we did find one of the most interesting Web sites ever - www.familywatchdog.us . Here you can enter your home address and find all the convicted criminals in your area. Family Watchdog can no doubt provide hours of entertainment.

Jon&Daryl

Sketchy McSketch

Check out www.familywatchdog.us, enter you home address, city and state and small colorful squares will appear around neighboring areas in your selected town/city of convicted felons. By simply clicking a square, the felon will be identified by height, weight, home/work address, photograph and details of crime(s) . This is a great tool to use to learn more about a particular region when planning a move or visit.

Casual Blogging

If you are looking to give uptight blogs a rest from poisioning your personal internet connection, check out www.cuteoverload.com blog and enjoy daily, cute and unusual photo and video posts of a multitude of animals and wildlife.

Who Is Scott Brodeur? Take Two.

The New London Naval Submarine Base located near Groton, Connecticut is the birthplace of the submarine force and also internet force Scott Brodeur.

Online mogul, Brodeur is currently a resident of Northampton, Massachusetts where he is married with three children. He arrived in Western Massachusetts to further his business with Advance Internet, MassLive.com and in addition has taught online journalism for three inconsecutive years at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Brodeur first took an interest in journalism during college where he wrote for the sports section of his school’s news paper. He then ventured into magazine writing where he would write three to four overnight reviews each week, work that he found to be very tough and unsatisfying. Brodeur packed up shop and headed for the bright lights of New York City where he took on a position as a freelance writer for Prodigy. It was here that Brodeur found his calling via the up and coming online world.

Brodeur's favorite journalist is Molly Ivans (August 30, 1944-January 31, 2007). "Ivans was a really cool journalist who came up through the ages and took a lot of hot shots at the president." He also enjoys the Red Sox and a good Thai meal.

It is evident, even from speaking to Brodeur briefly, that he thoroughly enjoys managing and coming up with editorial strategies for MassLive.com and his other ventures. "It’s a lot of fun," he says.

Photo Courtesy: www.navy-lodge.com

Who Is Scott Brodeur?

Scott Brodeur was never a member of the Good Handwriter’s Club at the Queen of Hearts grammar school.

But today, as the Managing Editor for Web Site Development at Advance Internet and the founding Editor-in-Chief for MassLive.com, Brodeur is considered a distinguished member of a new and evolving club that is taking over the world, the Beneficial Blogger’s Club. Here pens and pencils are not required.

Brodeur’s daily Blog Beat featured on his site, MassLive.com, includes quirky remarks ranging from the topics of local and regional newspaper stories, music, sports, and entertainment. Here, the reader can also learn about Brodeur and his admiration for people who take bold stances, especially in the name of comfort, that his kids like Tom and Jerry and Joseph Barbera had a big influence on his formative years.

If you are in search of learning more witty knowledge first hand, you can find Brodeur on the 7th floor of the W.E.B. DuBois Library every Thursday afternoon at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Brodeur will be holding a laboratory course entitled, Convergence Journalism, where he will employ his vast knowledge of our ever-evolving media to sophomore, junior and senior students majoring in the field of journalism.