We’re thrilled to announce a new member of the family this morning: our sister site io9 is everything and anything you want to know about science fiction, futurism, space, comics, hackers, science, and all manner of geeky culture.
Sounds kind of odd for Gawker to launch a Sci-Fi blog, but then again Sci-Fi content in starting to plunge into the mainstream and therefore means potential dividends for all those who embrace it.
So I suppose all those predictions about libraries being felled by the Internet were a little premature. In fact it looks like all the cool kids are doing the library thing.
According to the newest study from the Pew Internet and American Life Center – the youngest, most affluent and most internet-connected adults in the US are also the most likely to visit a physical library. It wasn’t that way just 10 years ago. How many other legacy industries can you think of today that can say their strongest growth is among young, affluent, power-internet users? Something is going very right in library land.
You probably have already read this WaPo article (or one like it) about the RIAA’s next evil plot …
In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.
This makes me Hulk mad, but the graphic that accompanies the story actually gave me a chuckle:
$9,250 for a Richard Marx song? Now that is a true injustice sir! The RIAA should be happy that people even go through the trouble of downloading his music from a CD instead of just using it as a drink coaster.
With news like this it’s getting more and more likely that the next big network (e.g. NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, or hell HBO) will be online.
Will Ferrell’s video comedy site Funny or Die has raised a $15 million round from Sequoia and other unidentified institutions, reports Portfolio, in a broad look at the company’s business. [...] The site, which has a staff of 30, will use the funds to hire creative and engineering talent. Also in the works is a revenue sharing scheme to compensate content contributors.
A site just has to strike the balance of being profitable without being annoying (e.g. typical interweb advertising schemes) with great original content. It also doesn’t hurt to have names like Will Ferrell “slumming” on the really small screen.
You can file this video for Jenny Owen Youngs‘ version of Hot In Herre under my like affair for alternative versions of hip-hop songs (see herre, herre, and herre for more).
Amazon.com has purchased J.K Rowling’s hand-written book of fairy tales for a boat load of loot.
We’re incredibly excited to announce that Amazon has purchased J.K. Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard at an auction held by Sotheby’s in London. The book of five wizarding fairy tales, referenced in the last book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is one of only seven handmade copies in existence. The purchase price was £1,950,000, and Ms. Rowling is donating the proceeds to The Children’s Voice campaign, a charity she co-founded to help improve the lives of institutionalized children across Europe.
P.S. I recently read the first Harry Potter book and though I liked it, I felt that I already knew the whole story because of it’s intense pop-culture saturation. It’s like knowing all the words to a Britney Spears song without owning any of her albums or listening to any stations that play her music. They (Potter and Britney) are such powerful pop-culture machines that you can’t help but let them seep into your brain.
Amazon.com has purchased J.K Rowling’s hand-written book of fairy tales for a boat load of loot.
