Heroes was the Most Pirated Show of 2009

Way to go, kids! It’s all your fault that Heroes will be canceled! Well, not really, but you’re pushing it. According to the blog TorrentFreak, which reports on the Internet black market known as file-sharing, NBC’s Heroes was the most illegally downloaded television show of 2009.

The stat shouldn’t be taken as gospel, however, as the site merely lists the number of downloads for a show’s most popular episode and not its entire season run (not to mention that it’s tough to swallow empirical data from a site with “freak” in its name). Still, TorrentFreak claims that the most-pirated episode of Heroes (the particulars of the episode were not disclosed) was “stolen” approximately 6,580,000 times. That’s over half a million more than the show’s average TV audience.

Overall, sci-fi and action dominated the list of most-pirated shows, with Lost (6,310,000 downloads), Prison Break (3,450,000), Dexter (2,780,000), and House (2,590,000) rounding out the top five. Eight of the top ten entries were broadcast shows, and two were premium-cable shows (Dexter and no. 10 True Blood), indicating that TV piracy isn’t committed primarily by those who don’t want to pay extra for HBO and Showtime, but rather by those who don’t want to pay for cable at all and are willing to watch on their dinky computer monitors.

And while online piracy is thought to be the realm of the male basement nerd, both Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives made the top ten list. Either female basement nerds are getting into the act too, or the guys out there are getting soft. That’s what happens when you dudes gender-swap and level a female night elf to 70 in World of Warcraft.

Overall, the takeaway from these numbers isn’t that there are millions of horrible people out there stealing TV (a large chunk of the downloads is thought to be from foreign markets that can’t get the shows legally), it’s this: Television viewing habits are changing. Networks shouldn’t be looking for ways to stop illegal downloading, but rather to find a way to make it work to their advantage.

The list:
Show Title, Downloads of most-popular episode
1. Heroes, 6,580,000
2. Lost, 6,310,000
3. Prison Break, 3,450,000
4. Dexter, 2,780,000
5. House, 2,590,000
6. 24, 2,440,000
7. Desperate Housewives, 2,180,000
8. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, 1,960,000
9. Grey’s Anatomy, 1,740,000
10. True Blood, 1,600,000

tv.com

How to Moonwalk Like MJ

Step 1

Keep left leg bent with heel planted. Put your weight on that leg.

Step 2

Slide right leg backward by pulling from the hips, keeping that knee locked and that foot flat on the ground. Swing left arm forward at the same time.

Step 3

When right leg is behind you, shift your weight onto it while bending right knee and lifting right heel. Straighten left leg, then pull it backward from the hip. Meanwhile, swing right arm forward.

Step 4

Repeat. Grab crotch (optional). Exclaim: “You’ve been struck by a smooth criminal! Hooo!” (not optional).

Skate Group Takes ‘Tetris’ to the Streets

It was only a matter of time, really, before mankind witnessed the glorious nexus of extreme sports and classic video games. And, much like other, similarly epoch-making events, the fruits of such a marriage could not have been more sublime.

Some skaters from San Francisco have put together a stunning video of their escapades, in which they cavort up and down the hills of the city on their boards, with massive, neon-illuminated ‘Tetris‘ “blocks” attached to their heads (video after the break). The visuals of the brilliant neon against a San Fran street-scape are mesmerizing, while a pulsating electro score and elegant editing only heighten the sensory experience. Perhaps most impressive is the skaters’ ability to somehow interlock themselves into a ‘Tetris’ mosaic at the end.

It’s always refreshing when someone toys with the standard ‘Tetris’ medium in new, aesthetically pleasing (or sometimes bizarre) ways. This particular rendition of reality video gaming certainly isn’t replicable by the uncoordinated, non-glow-stick-owning population, at large. But the fact that an entire mini-genre of viral performance art has sprouted up around a cultural touchstone as basic and technologically ancient as ‘Tetris’ speaks, above all, to the astounding game’s astounding timelessness. As with a contemporary hip-hop artist sampling a classic Motown hook, any nod to and reinvention of a bygone era never fails to bring a smile to our faces.

Truth About Twitter!

Women Rule the Social Web

According to an infographic by Information is Beautiful. The stats, compiled by Brian Solis from Google Ad Planner data, show that equal numbers of men and women use sites like LinkedIn, DeviantArt and YouTube.

When it comes to sites like Flickr (), Facebook (), Twitter (), FriendFeed (), MySpace () and Bebo (), however, women outnumber men. In fact, there’s only one major holdout for men on the social web: social news site Digg (), where 64% of users are male.

That the Digg population is largely male should come as no surprise, but what about the other stats? Are women just more social in general, or is there some other explanation?

Time-Waster: So you think you know Helvetica?

Earlier in the month we covered Cheese or Font – a fantastic perpetually-running time-waster that challenges you to choose whether the name displayed refers to a cheese or a font. However, the web is buzzing (at least, in some circles) about a far more nerdy variant: Helvetica vs Arial in Ironic Sans’ “So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?” quiz.

You’re shown 20 logos, each rendered in both Arial and Helvetica. All you have to do is correctly select the logo that was originally rendered in Helvetica. Of course, you shouldn’t be referencing any materials during the test – though you’ll have to fight temptation as there’s some incredibly tricky logos in there, particularly later on when the test throws in a couple of full-capital logos that hide some of Helvetica’s easily-identifiable characteristics.

If you’re feeling brave, take the quiz and be sure to let us know your score in the comments!.

Download Squad

Google Wave

According to the official Google blog, 100,000 invitations to Google’s most hotly-anticipated new service, Google Wave, are going out today. Wave is being touted as a communication tool that reimagines the way email should work. When Download Squad took a look at Wave back in May, Lee explained it this way:

Create a Wave, add people to it, toss in some gadgets, feeds, and photos, and mix with a rich text editor. You’ll see new content in near-real time as your friends add it, and you can even hit the rewind button and watch your Wave evolve from scratch.

So, who’s getting invited to use this next-generation communication tool? Well, it helps if you signed up early for an invitation and wrote the Wave team a message offering to give feedback. If you’re a developer who’s been using the developer preview of Wave, you might also get an invitation, and some are going out to paying customers of Google Apps.

In their blog post, the Google Wave folks stress that – if you do land an invitation – you’re not going to be playing with a finished product. Wave is still missing some crucial features, and bugs are going to be par for the course until the team starts using the feedback from these 100,000 new users to start identifying problems. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to directly invite friends to Wave, but you will be able to nominate them for invitations.

Do you have a Wave invitation yet? What do you think of the service so far?

Flickroom: Desktop browser for Flickr

Flickroom is an application that lets you interact with photo-sharing site Flickr from your desktop without opening a web browser. Flickroom is based on Adobe AIR, which means you need AIR to be installed in order to run the application. But it also means that Flickroom is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux.

The program lets you login to your Flickr account and view photos in your own photostream or those of your contacts or groups. You can also use the search feature to find images from all Flickr users, upload your own images, save images from Flickr, add comments, notes, or share images via Twitter.

I have to say, I’m not that impressed with Flickroom’s tools for discovering photos from users that aren’t your contacts. I find the Flickr web interface much easier to navigate for that activity. But Flickroom has an attractive user interface and handy tools for keeping up to date with your contacts’ activities.

Flickroom also has a few odd features like an integrated chatroom where you can communicate with other Flickroom users. But since the program is still in beta, I suppose any chance to leave feedback for the developer and other users is a good thing.

Let the Panda Die Out, Naturalist Says

Gentle, slow-moving and cuddly, the giant panda attracts millions of visitors to zoos across the globe. In its native Chinese habitat, however, the species has a population estimated at just 1,590.

Addressing the fate of the giant panda, BBC television host and noted zoologist Chris Packham made controversial remarks in an interview with the U.K.’s Radio Times, The Times Online reported.

“‘Here is a species that, of its own accord, has gone down an evolutionary cul-du-sac. It’s not a strong species,’ he said. ‘Unfortunately, it’s big and cute and a symbol of the World Wide Fund for Nature and we pour millions of pounds into our panda conservation. I reckon we should pull the plug. Let them go, with a degree of dignity.'”

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Packham’s comments were welcomed with a quick rebuke from World Wide Fund for Nature’s chief scientific adviser Dr. Mark Wright, the Times Online said.

“Chris has taken an irresponsible position,” Wright said. “Pandas face extinction because of poaching and human pressures on their habitat. They have adapted to the area in which they live and if left alone, they function perfectly well.”

Hours after making his comments on the giant panda, Packham was interviewed by the British newspaper the Mirror, and offered the following apology.

“I really upturned the apple cart with what I said and I’m sorry I upset people. But I am glad it has raised a debate and that was always my intention. I don’t hate pandas, I love cuddly animals. I love all animals.”

Livestream Livepack: a ‘satellite television truck in a backpack’

“Game changing” is thrown around way too frequently these days, but man, this thing just might be. The Livepack is being described as “a satellite television truck in a backpack” by creator Livestream, and for all intents and purposes, it is. Put simply (or as simply as possible), the pack includes everything one would need to stream “HD quality” footage: encoding hardware, a Firewire cable and the real kicker, a built-in wireless connection with six load-balanced 3G modems over three carriers (AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint if you have to know). Users simply provide their own camcorder, mash a button when it’s show time, and out goes the signal. The Livepack can currently be rented for $2,500 per month (includes 30 hours of streaming) or $1,500 per month if you commit to a year-long agreement. So, who’s up for showing the world their high school prom live in HD? Demo vid is after the break.

Twitter to Launch Lists

Tweeter is working on to launch a new feature “Lists”. Official blog of the Twitter says that they are testing the new feature and once it’s done it will be out soon. The idea is to allow people to curate lists of Twitter accounts. For example, you could create a list of the funniest Twitter accounts of all time, athletes, local businesses, friends, or any compilation that makes sense.

Lists are public by default (but can be made private) and the lists you’ve created are linked from your profile. Other Twitter users can then subscribe to your lists. This means lists have the potential to be an important new discovery mechanism for great tweets and accounts.

Core blimey! It’s the red and green apple with a split personality

When Ken Morrish picked this apple off a tree in his garden, he thought a prankster had painted half of it red. But after inspecting it closely he realised that the remarkable split colours on the fruit were a natural phenomenon. And the bizarre apple turned Mr Morrish into something of a celebrity in his village with scores of neighbours queuing up to take a photograph of it. Experts say that the odds of finding an apple with such a perfect line between the green and the red are more than 1million to one.

A fruit of two halves: This Golden Delicious apple seems to be having an identity crisis, split perfectly down the middle into red and green. Local horticulture experts are baffled by the specimen

But Mr Morrish, a retired painter and decorator who lives in Colaton Raleigh, near Sidmouth in Devon, has no plans to eat it. Instead, he has stored it in his fridge so villagers can continue to come round and take photos.  ‘It looks as if a green apple and a red apple has been cut in half and stuck together,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t believe my eyes. It’s absolutely phenomenal. The 72-year-old pensioner spotted the split-coloured fruit as he picked apples from a Golden Delicious tree in his garden.

One in a million: Ken Morrish could hardly believe his eyes when he saw the freaky fruit.

Horticulturists say the colourings on the apple are probably caused by a random genetic mutation. In such cases, the red side usually tastes sweeter than the green side – because it has seen more sunshine during its growth.

‘The red and green split through the stem is totally perfect – as if I’ve painted it. It’s a genuine one-off and none of us have ever seen an apple like it before.’Mr Morrish, a grandfather-of-two who has grown apples for 45 years, took the fruit to horticultural experts at a nearby college for closer examination. ‘They took pictures of it and said they had never come across anything like it either,’ he added. ‘It’s caused a real stir in the village. People have been coming round to see it and take photos of it. ‘I’m sure a few hundred years ago it would have been seen as a supernatural sign or something. I don’t know if it’s worth a lot of money but I won’t be letting it out of my sight.’

John Breach, chairman of the British Independent Fruit Growers Association, said: ‘I’ve never seen this happen before to a Golden Delicious. It is extremely rare. It is an extreme mutation. ‘There has been the occasional case of this type reported. If there was a whole branch of apples with the same colouring then fruit experts would get even more excited.’

Jim Arbury, fruit superintendent at RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey, said it was probably the ‘result of a random genetic mutation’. ‘This is known as a chimera where one of the first two cells has developed differently giving rise to one half of the apple being different,’ he said. ‘It is unlikely to be a stable mutation but it is worth checking next year to see if it recurs. There are instances of some striped apples and pears where the mutation remains stable including one striped pear in the collection at Wisley called Pysanka.’

Dailymail

Dust storm in Australia

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia cleared up on Thursday after the worst dust storm in decades which smothered Sydney and cost an estimated tens of millions of dollars in lost productivity.

Residents cleaned grimy cars and windows under clear skies a day after millions of tonnes of dust blew in from the desert Outback, forming an eerie red dawn in Sydney and caking the city in orange powder.

Health experts said the danger from record air pollution had passed but industry groups pointed to heavy economic damage in lost working hours and precious agricultural topsoil.

The dust storm forced the closure of Sydney construction sites and played havoc with air travel, with international flight diversions causing long delays.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is seen on September 23, 2009

Barely visible Sydney Opera House as a dust storm blankets the city on September 23, 2009

Sydney office buildings seen through the haze of a dust storm on September 23, 2009.

more images..

House of cards? Too easy! Here’s a hotel made from plastic keys (200,000 in fact)

If you’ve ever wondered what to do with unwanted hotel key cards, then think no more.  Because, providing you’ve somehow amassed 200,000 plastic slips, the solution is simple – use them to build your own guest house. That, at least, is what one hotel chain decided to do.

Holiday Inn’s Key Card Hotel, which opened yesterday in New York, includes a guest bedroom, bathroom and lobby, all fully equipped with life-sized furniture all made out of, yes, well, you get the point.

The 400 sq ft, two-ton construction in Manhattan , which will be in business until September 21, was built by world record-holding ‘card-stacker’ Bryan Berg.

He said: ‘This is my largest card-stacking challenge to date and the only card creation I have ever made at full human scale.’

During the five day event, Mr Berg will build a freestanding 9ft replica of New York’s Empire State Building in the lobby using Holiday Inn playing cards.

It marks the relaunch of the chains 1,200 hotels around the world. Kevin Kowalski, senior vice president of global brand management at Holiday Inn, said: “The Key Card Hotel is a fun and interactive way to showcase the changes happening at our hotels and is the only structure of its kind to ever be created by a hotel brand.” Mr Berg first broke the world record for World’s Tallest House of Freestanding Playing Cards in 1992 at the age of 17, with a tower 14ft 6in. Since then, he has been commissioned to break his own record ten times. His most recent tallest record was a 25ft 9in inch tall tower built at the African-American Museum at Dallas, Texas.

For this record, he tried a new technique involving stacking cards vertically instead of horizontally, which reduced the number of cards needed by nearly half. In 2004, Guinness created a new record category for World’s Largest House of Freestanding Playing Cards to recognize a project Mr Berg built for a replica or Cinderella’s Castle for Walt Disney World in Florida.

Daily Mail 18th September 2009

Two foreign animators from VTV’s “Maakanaa Show” arrested

Haveeru 2009-09-14
Two foreigners, animators for the popular animated comedy talk show “Maakanaa Show” shown on VTV, were arrested by the Police. A Police Media Offical said on Sunday that in addition to the two animators, another foreigner believed to have connections with the two animators had also been arrested, but did not reveal any additional details about the arrest. Haveeru sources say that the two animators are Indians.

Producer of the “Maakanaa Show”, Yaameen Rasheed, said on Sunday that the two Cellmin Animation Studios staff had been arrested at the Jumhooree Maidhan. They had been arrested while they were drawing a picture of the area. He said that the drawing had included parts of the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) building. “They are artists,” Yaameen said. “They would head out every day to draw various places. That day they were drawing scenes from around Jumhooree Maidhan, including parts of the MNDF building. From what I know, that was the reason they were arrested initially. They were released from custody after being carefully searched. Police searched their PCs, hard discs, their offices and apartments and released them because nothing incriminating had been found. They were released by Court order.”

Yaameen said that even though they had been released, they were rearrested not even an hour after they had arrived back at their house. “Police came and said that they had arrested a foreigner believed to have ties to Al Qaeda,” Yaameen said. “They said that they wanted to question our animators to see whether they were connected to the person they believed to have connections to Al Qaeda. We have not heard anything from them since then.” Yaameen said that the two non-Muslim animators had been hired randomly on separate occasions. One of them had been hired last year while the other had been onboard the team this year. “I am very confident that they are not connected to Al Qaeda,” Yaameen said. “They are mild-mannered and very helpful. Besides, I hired them from random searches.” Yaameen admitted that without two of the show’s animators it would be very difficult to produce the show on time, but was confident that they would be able to continue with the show.