Friday Videos: Pakistani Grover, Butter Jesus, Church Biker Fail

Pakistani Grover

This is amazing and worth every second.



"An incredible mash-up from Pakistan. Grover and friends do some shaking to a 'Sufiyan English' song from a 1970s Pakistani film."
h/t to BoingBoing


Big Butter Jesus

And if you've been at all conscious this week and live around Cincinnati (or caught it on various national news programs), Touchdown Jesus, a.k.a. Big Butter Jesus went up in flames when it was struck by lightning Monday evening. Here's Haywood Banks' classic to some video:




Church Biker Fail

And since I know and you know you're here for a decent FAIL, let's keep with the religious theme and give you the church biker:



Have a great weekend!

Twitter Today! Dalai, Irish, Not English?

I'd love to say this week that there's a whole buzz over some Twitter news, but after filtering out the useless celeb noise (like Adam Lambert's musings on hottest 12 guys), I'm not left with much this week.

Excitingly and somehow not-so-celeb, the Dalai Lama has opened a Twitter account - and is apparently using it. Founder Evan Williams suggested it and it was laughed off, but the next day, Here's Dalai! You can follow him at the verified account of the Dalai Lama.


And I don't usually toss out my differing projects, but my wife and I have been very involved as of late in helping get the Irish Heritage Center of Greater Cincinnati up and running for their theater opening this weekend. If you've got a few minutes, take a look at the IHC website, follow them on Twitter, and even join the Facebook Group. Thanks!


And, finally, what language you tweeting?

According to Semiocast, which examined 2.8 million tweets over two days in February, 50% of all messages sent on Twitter are in English. Japanese, Portuguese, Malay, and Spanish follow English with 14%, 9%, 6%, and 4% of tweet share, respectively. Several other languages, including Arabic and Italian, make up the remaining 17% of non-English tweets.

Very interesting that Twitter is garnering an international following. I actually picked up on the Japanese aspect a month or two ago when looking for tweets having to do with Xbox 360 game Fallout 3 and was answered with almost solidly foreign language tweets. Which raises an interesting question: Related to video games, how do the percentages fall?


Yeah folks, sorry. That's all this week. If you're really hurting for celeb news on Twitter, feel free to comment. I might be persuaded to add a "Celeb box" to each weeks' Twitter blog post if I get some comments on the subject. Cheers!

Wednesday Twitter News: Western Wall, Stable Tweets, and NBA vs. Twitter and Law

It's time for the Twitter headlines of the week. Yay!

Western Wall
You can now Tweet your prayers to the Western Wall.

Economics student Alon Nil delivers Twitter prayer messages to the Western Wall, which was part of the Jewish Second Temple of Jerusalem destroyed by the Romans in AD 70. At this sacred spot, people from around the world stuff prayers written on pieces of paper into the cracks of the wall.

Check out the tutorial here.

Stable Twitter?
Don't we all wish for it?. Between the recent DDOS and the apparent scalability, it's a lingering issue. Thoughts?

Knicks' Nate Robinson
Story reads as such:

Nate Robinson hasn't been able to get signed in New York since becoming a free agent this off-season, but Tuesday he was able to get booked up in The Bronx, charged with driving with a suspended license. Cops say they pulled Robinson over for not having his seat belt on while driving down the Grand Concourse in Bedford Park, but the Knicks' two-time dunk contest champion tweeted, "Cops pulled me over cuz my windows were 2 dark (but my windows were down) lol how funny is that." Doesn't an NBA star get tinted windows specifically for 95 degree days driving down the Grand Concourse? In any case, cops discovered that Robinson's license had been suspended in June for the fifth time after a series of infractions around the area including traffic violations, speeding, driving without his seat belt on and for driving while talking on a cell phone.

And I can only hope most people - worldwide - have a better sense in them.

But then I'd be denied some of this weekly entertainment.

You've Been Poked by the Pope

Today, the 43rd World Day of Social Communications - taking place May 24th, 2009 - received a bump from the Vatican with the release of Pope Benedict XVI's public message for that day with the title "New Technologies, New Relationships: Promoting a culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship."

In the release, he refers to "technologies" in reference to social networks as "truly a gift to humanity." From whom? Oh, I think you know.

He also, wisely enough, goes through a thoughtful examination of the double-edged sword that social media and internet communication in general has become. It has shrunk the world, allowing for instantaneous communication to...anywhere. But, as a consequence, it has turned many of us into a particular form of zombie, our unblinking eyes gilded by hard glow of the computer monitor. This type of communication is fine, but it should be harnessed to extend our human contact, not shut us away from it.

I'm not innocent or an objective analyst of these words, to tell the truth; On more than one occasion I've found myself blogging or searching for lost colleagues on Facebook until it was a question of should I even go to bed.

But will the Pope's words make a difference, today or May 24th or any day future or past to the tweens giddily adding Team Cullen images to their MySpace Twilight album or the guy down the street who's got a WoW poopsock weekend all planned? Does it matter to me?

I can tell you it should. For all the MySpace and LinkedIn and Twitter and Plaxo and Facebook connections I've made over the last few months, I have received 0 web-based leads that have resolved themselves into a client or business resource. It was only when I met people in person, when real, personal networking took place that I have reaped the rewards of connections. The best interactions happen not by IM but by me.

I can't say I'm the biggest fan of or agree with everything the Pope says, but I do believe he's got this one right. Maybe it'll hold a little more weight than a shouting - or worse: absentee - parent.

(FYI - I did search for Pope Benedict XVI on Facebook and MySpace but could find no credible representations. The Vatican's going to have to get on the stick on that.)