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WHEN OFFICE WORKERS HAVE TOO MUCH TIME ON THEIR HANDS (Victoria)
When a man in Ohio randomly posted a photo on his Facebook holding his thumbs up next to a girl on his computer screen, he was not aware that it would go viral.
Others quickly got in on the act, spread through work colleagues, and it was posted on social network Reddit, attracting participants from all over the world, including a dog and a man in a horse mask.
Less than 24 hours later, the photo was within a photo series of 55 pictures and had been viewed a whopping 1.8 million times.
Wow. The power of social media is truly incredible – who knew such a random concept like this would take off to such an extent. It’s great to hear positive stories like this especially in light of the negative media over ‘trolling’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6w1O0lJjbo&feature=player_embedded#!
WHERE’S YOUTUBE GONE? (Graeme)
If you own an iPhone, you may notice something missing when you update to iOS6 (or buy the iPhone 5, if it ever actually gets launched).It would seem that as well as Google Maps, YouTube is also about to become a thing of the past when the newest version of the the software is released. When asked about it, Apple claimed that its licence agreement to develop the program had expired. As a result of this, Google is working on its own version of the app. However, the more cynical of us can draw our own conclusions. It would appear that Apple are trying to cut Google out altogether, and perhaps run its own version of the application. In addition, some tech insiders believe this is just the beginning of a process which will eventually see Apple no longer using Google as its default search engine. Instead, users will probably just ask Siri, and use those results. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19162228
MACAULAY NEEDS METHADONE (Sarah)
So, it is fairly common practise for magazines and newspapers to publish stories about celebrities taking drugs, often quoting anonymous sources who give their claim validity. The celebrity in question (or their publicist) then denies the allegations, claiming they are unfounded. This back-and-forth, my-word-against-your-word, public, non-conversation rarely sees any resolution, with both sides standing by their claims and newspapers unwilling to push the topic for fear of legal action. It is for this reason I was intrigued to read the blanket statement issued by the National Enquirer, quoting no unknown source, in which they stood by their claim that child star Macaulay Culkin is addicted to Heroin and that his life expectancy due to this is around 6 months. The, what can only be described as brazen statement, seems to make it clear that drawing the publics attention to Culkin’s problem is designed to prevent another drug-related death like that of Whitney Houston. I can’t work out if this is noble act or the result of irrefutable proof. You can make your own minds up.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/05/macaulay-culkin-national-enquirer-heroin-addiction_n_1744663.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
IT’S RAINING TEDDIES (Gaynor)
Not all PR is good PR. This is what a Swedish public relations agency probably learnt after executing a very large teddy bear stunt into Belarus. The firm dropped 800 teddies with pro-democracy messages in to the country. This led to Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko to sack his air defence chief and the head of the border guards, and caused a diplomatic rift in which Belarus expelled Sweden’s ambassador. Don’t think this will lead to anything good between the two countries now. PR FAIL. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19176432
HOW TO DISMANTLE YOUR HEALTH BRICK BY BRICK (Scott)
What is it with young kids that they’re so fascinated with sticking stuff up their noses? One American youngster stuck a Lego piece up his schnozz and promptly forgot about. Cue three years of chronic health problems, worried parents and baffled doctors. It was eventually identified as a ‘ball of fungus’ and removed. Ee-ew. Still at least the kid got better – instantly. http://consumerist.com/2012/08/lego-piece-crammed-up-nose-for-3-years-causes-childs-chronic-health-problems.html
