Spreading Like Wildfire: Rumours and Misinformation

As the situation in London continues, the combination of both media coverage, and online reports have allowed people to keep track of the events, and be vigilant for it's possible effects on their own area. Thanks to micro-blogging sites like Twitter, people have been able to give first-hand accounts of the situation, as it happens, on a previously unimaginable level. However, this constant stream of information has had it's downside.

While keeping people informed has undoubtedly been useful in keeping people safe, a glut of misinformation has inflamed people's fears even further. As the rioting spread to other cities, the internet was buzzing about where would be next. Whispers and rumours spread rapidly, that the violence had reached other towns. While many areas were legitimately affected, several areas where claimed to have been hit by rioting, despite thankfully being spared. Similarly, people in Hackney were claiming they'd heard of people being shoved off of bikes to be violently mugged. However, police have said there'd been no evidence of such crimes actually happening.

Taking it even further were the people using fake pictures to cause panic. As seen above, photoshopped pictures of the London Eye on fire appeared online, along with photos of Big Ben, Westminster, and religious buildings. Despite the violence not reaching anywhere near the areas the aforementioned landmarks were located, many people took then at face value, raising worries. One of the most bizarre rumours invented was that looters had broken into London Zoo, and as a result a tiger was now roaming London. The accompanying photo of a tiger wandering in the streets was actually real, but from an entirely unrelated story in Italy, three years ago.

It's a shame that, which all the chaos and fear already on the ground, that others, entirely removed from the situation seek to compound the situation.

K-Pop: What Exactly Is It?

Most people have never listened to Korean Pop, or even thought about it. But as more and more big name producers queue up to work with acts from South Korea, is that about to change?

In the last few years, a musical revolution has taken place in South Korea. There was a shift from balladry and soft rock, to "K-Pop", a mesh of pop, rock, rap and dance music. In a short period of time, the music industry in South Korea was revitalised. Dozens of K-Pop acts have been successfully launched since. Debuting a new act is taken very serious by the labels, with many having years of training in singing, dancing and acting before releasing a single.

Despite the fact that the acts are usually singing in a hybrid of English and Korean, it doesn't really matter that you can't understand the words. When it's done right, like any genre of music, you can feel it and appreciate it regardless. Korean Pop as it stands combines the sheer abandon of 90's pop with a "harder" edge. Acts such as SHINee and 2NE1 combine both singers and rappers within the group, with joyful pop choruses often seguing into fast and furious raps. It all adds up to a synthy sugar rush, with many tracks having real lasting appeal.

Even without breaking the West, Korean acts are having huge success. BoA, above performing Dress Off has sold 24 million albums, figures acts in the "bigger" territories like the UK or USA can mostly only dream of. In fact, South Korea is one of the few markets to have had strong growth in sales over the last decade.

There are some frustrating aspects to K-Pop, however. Full albums are a rare thing, with most acts choosing to release singles and mini-albums largely comprised of said singles. For those importing, it's often hard to justify the costs for the amount of music you're getting. 

Although it's still largely a national phenomenon, acts are starting to push outside their borders, thanks in large part to the internet. In the last year, several groups have begun to have big hits in neighbouring countries. This includes artists such as Kara and SNSD having top ten hits in Japan (becoming the first foreign girl bands to appear in the Oricon top ten since The Nolans nearly thirty years ago). BoA has also landed the lead in an upcoming Hollywood dance film. Add to this the fact that several groups are venturing on tours to both Europe and America, and it seems less and less likely that the genre will continued to be confined to South Korea. It's unlikely to become a dominant force in Western mainstream, but it's proven that it's still possible for music industry growth.

Check out:

Go Away - 2NE1 by ikpopox

8) Bang! - After School by Tenshhi

Last Ever LCD Soundsystem Concert Tonight

After a year of threatening to do it, LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy has finally followed through, retiring the moniker.

Tonight the last ever LCD Soundsystem gig will take place, at the Madison Square Garden. Murphy has said repeatedly that he felt too old to be doing this kind of thing, but it's a shame that it's over. Having produced three amazing albums, it feels like there was still room for the act to continue on.

In saying that, maybe sometimes it's best to go out on a high. Faulty Towers only had 13 episodes. As did Firefly. Who knows if they'd be revered if they'd continued on for longer. And ending on a performance at Madison Square Garden is certainly one way to go out with a bang. Besides, Murphy has implied that he intends to continue on working on music (as well as running his own label). So maybe there's still something to come. The name may be retired, but his talent certainly isn't.

For those of unable to actually make the gig, Pitchfork will be streaming it live.

Born This Way Rips Off, Well, Everybody

Poor Lady Gaga. Despite launching her new single straight to the top of the Hot 100, and keeping it there for the past five weeks, some people aren't impressed. Across the net there are whispers and incriminations that Gaga has been heavily "inspired" by other artists. Who exactly? Well.... *takes a deep breath*

There's Madonna,



David Guetta/Kelly Rowland,



Christina Aguilera,



TLC,



aaaaaand now SNSD. Who? They're a K Pop girl group, who released a song called Be Happy, about a year ago:



Of all of them, this is oddest. In the other cases, there are definite similarities in the melodies, and while it's understandable that people immediately think of the other songs, I don't think it was an intentional act.

Be Happy is different though. The beat is actually quite similar throughout, and the message of the song is almost identical. I'm in now way saying Gaga has actually ripped the song off, but it's a very odd coincidence.

In all honesty, it's not Gaga's best work. She'd be better off to let these other acts take the blame and move on to You & I, which sounds very good indeed.

British M.P. "Playing Air Guitar" In Important Debate

During a debate on military cuts in the House of Parliment, eagle eyed viewers noticed one of the M.P.'s was less than focused on the issues at hand. Conservative MP, Graham Evans, can be observed absent mindedly strumming and playing air guitar. The video has sparked anger from Labour's Shadow Defence Minister, Michael Dugher who accused the Conservatives of not treating the debate "like the whole thing was some sort of joke."


The clip has proved popular on the internet, with many people dubbing music from Guitar Hero in sync with the video:




Evans has since insisted that he was "only tapping", and blasted claims that he wasn't paying attention. As yet, it's not been confirmed exactly what song the MP was allegedly trying to play.

Viral Marketing: The Highs And Lows Of 2011's General Election

All of the major parties attempted to use viral marketing to sway voters, from party leader's recording videos, to Fine Gael releasing a flash game and Fine Gael e-Valentines.

Added to this, several of the individual candidates created personal videos, with some being more creative than others. So, did this give them a boost?

1) Mannix Flynn 

Running as a "New Independent" in Dublin South East, Mannix revived the "Dub Rap" from the 80's during this interview, which promptly spread across the net. Despite being on of the most viewed videos of the campaign, it did little for Flynn, who was eliminated on the second count.

2) Dylan Haskins

Also running in Dublin South East, Dylan Haskins placed a lot of importance on internet campaigning, with a active blog, and Facebook and Twitter accounts. His video urged people to get behind him and support his campaign, but it failed to achieve this, as Haskins was eliminated from the election after the forth count.

3) Michael Dolan 

A country song, called Dolan For The Dail attempted to support Michael J Dolan's campaign to be elected for Fianna Fáil. The song attempts to promote Dolan as a new option, but it didn't work. He fell early in the race, being cut after the forth count.


4) Michael Conaghan 

Not technically a video, but still one of the more unusual attempts at promoting a candidate. Created for Michael Conaghan, running in Dublin South Central, the song is a remake of Horse Outside by the Rubberbandits, called Rest Outside. Not long after the song hit the web, the Rubberbandits slammed the effort, and insisted that they in no way supported the candidate, or were asked permission for the use of the song.

Despite the controversy, Michael Conaghan was still easily elected, picking up over 10% of the first preferences.

5) John Dillon

Also taking the form of a country flavoured song, Independent John Dillion recieved support in the form of "Dillon's Gonna Win". Despite the optimistic name of the song, Dillon didn't win, coming in fifth in the three seater constituency. 

6) Martin Heydon 

Possibly the most bizarre of all the videos to surface during the campaign was for Martin Heydon. Running for Fine Gael, in Kildare South. An overtly apocalyptic assessment of Ireland's state, it takes huge swipes at Fianna Fáil's record, and references Superman, Johnny Cash and the Terminator.  

While it's impossible to tell if the video helped Martin Heydon's campaign, it certainly didn't hinder him. Heydon topped the poll and was elected on the first count, taking a third of the votes.

When Will The Sheen Wear Off?

His television show has been cancelled, one of his ex-wives has obtained a restraining order and taken away his children, and just one month ago he was rushed to hospital after a drugs binge. And yet, nobody seems to be doing a thing to help Charlie Sheen.

At this point on the internet, he's approaching meme status. He's appeared on most of the major talk shows, and each time has given a rambling interview, spewing nonsensical comments, and claiming that he's not addicted to anything, and "cannot die". He's taken swipes at AA, his former employers, and generally anyone that's questioned his actions. 

And yet, these comments are being treated, not as worrying, but as hilarious:

"I am on a drug. It's called Charlie Sheen. It's not available because if you try it once you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body. It's too much."

“Can’t is the cancer of happening.”

(On the possibility of relapse) "No. Not going to. Period. The end. I blinked and I cured my brain."

Even by his own admittance, Sheen has done a lot of drugs, and is on a downward spiral. And yet, the only thing that seems to be happening is that he's wheeled out onto chat shows, booked for interviews. Even if he has quit drugs, he's still obviously not fully well. 


And yet, the circus trundles on.

Social Perception: Piracy Is OK As Long As Nobody Profits

The majority of people have no issue with illegally downloading files, according to a study by Danish academics, that looked at today's moral standards, compared to ten years ago.

Seventy percent of those surveyed said they had no problem with regards to file sharing for personal use. The survey asked people to rate on a scale from 1 to 10 how socially acceptable certain acts were. When it came to downloading pirated materials for personal use, 7 in 10 people felt that it was "generally okay" with 15 to 20 percent of the group concluding that there was nothing wrong with it whatsoever. 

However, three-fourths of those who responded found it completely unacceptable to sell the material for a profit.

Elsewhere in the survey, it was found that tax evasion tolerance has fallen over the past ten years. However, the acceptance of social welfare fraud has risen, despite an crack down in recent times. Unsurprisingly, in almost every case, women were found to be more moral than men. The only exception was in taking early retirement, which men found to be more of an issue.

No Mythical Creatures Were Harmed In The Making Of This Video

Unicorns, lasers, rainbows, Dawson. I've no idea what it's all meant to mean, but honestly, it's a trippy, fun video to start the weekend with. And don't worry, all of the unicorns were professionally trained to do stunts, so they're fine.

Can A Bad Review Be Criminal Libel?

This week, a French court will rule on whether a law professor in New York committed criminal libel, by publishing a bad review of a book.


The review in question can be found here for those that are interested. It's not a particularly harsh review. There is a degree of criticism of the text and editing, but it is reasonably balanced. The reviewer Thomas Weigend, a constitutional law professor lays out his reasoning quite clearly, and even suggests exactly how the work could be improved. 


The author, Ms. Calvo-Goller, has claimed that the review “may cause harm to my professional reputation and academic promotion.” The case obviously could not be heard in America due to it's freedom of speech, and the choice of a Parisian setting seems to be due to their stricter laws on the subject.


If the article had contained personal attacks, this could be understandable. However, allowing authors to sue over bad reviews sets a dangerous precedent, basically making it impossible for unbiased critiques to exist. What is the point of reviews if one can object and remove those that are in any way negative?


Besides which, it seems counter-productive for the author herself. It was not a particularly major review. It was an online review that few people would have read. Authors will always receive poor views from someone, somewhere, and should be prepared for such events. However, by bringing this as a criminal case, her actions themselves are doing far more damage to her reputation than one review ever could. 

Facebook: Helping Creepers Everywhere?

Facebook stalking; everyone's done it at some point. But now it seems like it's being made far too easy.

As anyone with a Facebook account will have noticed, the picture viewer has been updated to display photos better. What people may not have noticed is that there is now a download picture button underneath each photo.










Oddly enough, this option doesn't just appear under your own photos, or under photos of friends. It's available for any photos that haven't got a privacy setting, even people you're not friends with. It's not yet known if this is a programming error, or Facebook just didn't see a problem with it. Either way, if you don't protect your photos correctly than one and all can download them (in high quality, no less).

It's not just Facebook itself that's aiding Facebook stalkers. A third party app, Breakup Notifier, allows you to choose friends that you're interested in romantically, but are in relationships. The app then emails you to notify you straight away if their relationship status changes. Presumably with this playing in the background.

And they say romance is dead.

Which candidates are most visible on the web?

At the moment, the news and internet in Ireland is of course currently dominated by discussion of the upcoming election. Now there is a way to tell exactly who is receiving the most coverage.

David Dolphin, a graduate of both the University of Limerick and NUIG graduate created the site http://td2011.com/, which measures how much of a presence individual candidates have on the web. Updated daily, the website tracks how often candidates are mentioned on online news articles, blog posts, and websites. As well as detailing a candidates overall ranking and stats, the website also lists a candidates current standing compared to others in the same constituency.

Unsurprisingly, the five most prevalent candidates are the leaders of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Labour, Sinn Féin and Green Party respectively, with Dylan Haskins currently the highest ranked Independent, at 14th. While obviously news coverage can be either positive or negative, and is in no way a guarantee of election, it still makes for an interesting read.

The top 10 are as follows:

1^st Enda Kenny (Fine Gael) 

2^nd Micheál Martin (Fianna Fáil) 

3^rd Eamon Gilmore (The Labour Party) 

4^th Gerry Adams (Sinn Féin) 

5^th John Gormley (Green Party / Comhaontas Glas) 

6^th Brian Lenihan (Fianna Fáil)

7^th Michael Noonan (Fine Gael) 

8^th Mary Hanafin (Fianna Fáil) 

9^th Willie O'Dea (Fianna Fáil) 

10^th Joan Burton (The Labour Party)

Taxing The Internet

In the run up to the general election next week, two separate parties have come out with similar "computer tax" policies. First off, the Green's proposed an usage based internet tax, to replace the tv licence fee that they would scrap. Their logic behind the tax is that it would fund journalism. "Good journalism, whether on the television, radio, in print or online costs money."

Fine Gael emerged the next day with a similar replacement to the licence fee, a public broadcasting tax that would “apply to all households and applicable businesses, regardless of the device they use to access content”. Although the finer details of the idea have yet to be decided, as it stands, the tax could apply to iPods, e-readers, Android phones, as well as computers and televisions. Obviously enough, it penalises people and companies who've made efforts to become carbon neutral by switching from paper usage to electronic.

Asides from that, specifically with the Green party policy, people will be double charged. They already pay their internet service provider for the data usage, and this proposal will add further cost on top of that, despite the state not providing the service. In this regards, the tv licence fee made sense in that at least the state was providing a direct service for the fee.

If you consider the importance placed on Ireland being a "knowledge economy", it seems a move backwards to create further costs to technology driven businesses. One can opt out of having a television, and therefore a television licence. Industry, on the other hand, cannot choose to forego the use of internet services, and thus could not avoid such charges.

Obviously, both parties are only mooting these as possibilities at the moment. Hopefully consideration will be put into the widespread effects of such a move happening.

Music Downloads: Go With The Flow?

As CD's die out, more and more focus is being put on internet downloading of music, with several online retailers popping up. Cue the latest entry into a rapidly overcrowded market: mflow.

Like any MP3 store, you can browse the site and find most major acts (there's still a couple of labels that are unavailable). Both songs and albums are available in 320kps quality, which is very good. In the push to get people to notice the site, it has making available a surprisingly large amount of promotional offers. So far, it has offered a range of offers, from free credit to codes that lower all song prices to just 20p, as well as offering certain albums for free. The site is 100% legal, and pays all artists, as required.

While it is undoubtedly a great offer to avail of, one has to ask, how do they intend to make a successful business out of it?

The answer to this is a fairly novel idea. The website allows users to "flow" songs, either on their mflow profile, or via Facebook, Twitter or Google Buzz. What this does is essentially promote the song to anyone following that user, presenting them with a link to purchase the song. But why would anyone do that?

As an incentive, for each purchase that is made via that flow, the user receives some of the payment, in the form of additional credit, worth 20% of the purchase.

It remains to be seen if such a tactic will pay dividends in the long term, or whether it is just a short-term novelty. However, with iTunes currently dominating the digital downloads market, it makes sense that new challengers will have to provide something different.

Not Even Mark Zuckerberg Is Immune To Being Hacked

The Facebook page of company founder Mark Zuckerberg has been hacked by an unknown person, who left a status update calling for more social investment in the company. A message was posted calling on Facebook to look towards social investment from ordinary people, rather than encouraging investment from banks and capital specialists.


The message read: "Let the hacking begin: If Facebook needs money, instead of going to the banks, why doesn't Facebook let its users invest in Facebook in a social way? Why not transform Facebook into a 'social business' the way Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus described it? What do you think? #hackercup2011."


The message appears to have been in reference to the recent investments in Facebook by Goldman Sachs and a Russian venture capital firm, valuing the social network at $50bn. Concerns have been raised over the secrecy clouding the deal.


Embarrassingly for Zuckerberg, more than 1,800 people 'liked' the update and almost 500 left comments before the post eventually was taken down.