NetGrrl: Zeitgeist

Tuesday, December 06, 2005 - 12:21 PM EST
Only a year ago, podcasting was an arcane activity, the domain of a few techies and self-admitted “geeks.” Now you can hear everything from NASCAR coverage to NPR’s All Things Considered in downloadable audio files called “podcasts”. Thousands of podcasts are available at the iTunes Music Store, and websites such as iPodder.com and Podcast.net track thousands more. That’s why the editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary have selected “podcast” as the Word of the Year for 2005. Podcast, defined as “a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player,” will be added to the next online update of the New Oxford American
Dictionary, due in early 2006.

Where no one knows you’re human… http://www.dogster.com/video.php

More than 300 episodes from about a dozen prime time, cable, late-night and classic TV shows are now available for $1.99 apiece, viewable on computers or downloadable on the new iPod Video.

Has anyone seen these? And even better, are they commercial-free?

…the number of days since Morgan-Quitno reported that Jackson fell significantly in 2004 in the book publisher’s ‘Most Dangerous Cities’ rankings. The Clarion-Ledger still has not reported it.”

Oddly Enough News Article | Reuters.com: “LONDON (Reuters) - Tired of the same old lunch at your office desk? Help is at hand. A British supermarket is launching the ultimate life-enhancing snack — the musical sandwich.

In a trial certain to be welcomed by the estimated one million Britons who eat their lunch at their desks each day, Britain’s biggest retailer Tesco will use technology similar to that used in singing greetings cards to sell musical sandwiches.

Opening the top of the sandwich box will activate a tiny sound module that plays a selection of music. This season’s offering will be a medley of Christmas tunes including Jingle Bells, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Tesco Spokesman Jonathan Church said the potential of the melodic munch was enormous.

‘It’s designed to provide busy office workers with relaxing music to make eating lunch at their desks more enjoyable than ever before,’ he said, adding that the concept could be easily adapted for Easter, Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day.

While it’s not certain how your true love would react to being given a tuneful tuna lunch on February 14, Church said the idea could also be used in conjunction with record companies to launch songs by new artists clamoring for the kudos.

The first offering will have no such ambitions, and will consist of a turkey and cranberry sauce sandwich with pork and cranberry stuffing. The new musical sandwiches will go on sale this week.

But further out, flavor/song combinations under consideration include Prawn To Be Wild, Let It Brie and that old Julio Iglesias favorite, Fillings, Tesco said.”

“I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.” - John Cage