Want a Free Gardener? Offer Up Your Land.

Take away all the analysis and prognosticating and fear-mongering, when it comes right down to it the internet is so damn cool it makes my head spin.  Nearly every day I see something that just would not have been feasible ten years ago but is now simple and revolutionary in some way.

Today, I saw it in a  post in PSFK:

Although community gardens might be nothing new, two UK based websites, Landshare and LandFit (temporarily on hiatus), are hoping to expand the concept in a radical way by putting would-be gardeners who lack the space in contact with those that would like to see their underutilized property put to good use.

How totally cool is that?  Makes me wish I had a lawn to offer up.  Somebody here in the US should give this a shot.

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Virtual Worlds Much Like Real Ones – Yet Worse…

It’s already well known (among those who care to know at all) that much of Second Life is devoted to various sexual quirks and fetishes.  Sure there is some other cool stuff happening there once-in-a-while but its the virtual sex that drives the core user base.

Recently, there was an attempt to open a virtual world for Muslims.  This was quickly shut down after various haters invaded the world and basically harassed the crap out of the users.

Now, Sony is having to eliminate voice-chat from their new VR world “Home” because it was being used to harass female avatars.

It might be time to face facts – virtual worlds that have no directed gameplay element will quickly devolve into a lowest-common-denominator society.  Maybe total freedom is less of a gift than it appears.

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The Return of Smell-O-Vision? Dear Lord, NO!

From the country that brought the world sauerkraut comes the return of “Smell-O-Vision“:

“A company called Cinescent is giving marketers the chance to pump out the scent of their brands in German theaters, where it first tested the technology for Beiersdorf’s Nivea. For the test, a specially made 60-second spot showed a typical sunny beach scene, with people lying around on deck chairs or sunbathing on towels while waves crashed and seagulls cried in the background.

As people wondered what the ad was for, the scent of Nivea sun cream permeated the cinema, and a Nivea logo appeared on screen along with the words “Nivea. The scent of summer.” (via)

It’s bad enough that, after paying $12, I am bombarded with close to 30 minutes of commercials before I get to see my movie of choice.  Now they want to attack my olefactory glands?!  As if we needed another reason to stay home and pirate a movie or two off of mininova.

Will TV MicroSeries be the Solution for Web Video?

First it was “Blank Slate” sponsored by Audi and now it looks like TNT is setting up another “microseries” this time with Dodge:

“Debuting July 22 and spread across 20 installments over a two-week window, “Lucky Chance” is a criminal tale of deception and betrayal through the eyes of undercover Drug Enforcement Agency agent, Lucky Chance. Presented by Dodge and AT&T, the microseries is supported by an exclusive national commercial pod schedule. The episodes will live online at TNT.tv following the on-air premiere, with both AT&T and Dodge sponsoring the broadband episodes featured at the attendant microsite.” (via MultiChannel News)

I definitely don’t think an episodic story that plays out over the course of a completely different episodic story is going to be very successful finding it’s audience but it will be interesting to see whether or not it drives up awareness enough to boost the viewcount when it moves online.

TNT and Acura Microseries a “Blank Slate” (Trends I Hate, Vol 314)

Following in the footsteps of Dove/MTV (“Fresh Takes”), TNT is teaming up with Acura to present an original “microseries” starring Eric Stoltz, called “Blank Slate.”  The 80-min long series will be broken into 4-minute segments and here’s the best part (via NewTeeVee)

“The show will have an overly-complicated release schedule on the network: It will be spread out over five back-to-back hours of Law & Order over two days, across two consecutive weeks (I know, it’s confusing). But Slate will also be available on TNT.tv and on Acura’s site, where the “microseries” will become a web series.”

And people wonder why nobody is watching original shortform content online?  With such a huge star in the lead and this brilliant distribution plan, “Blank Slate” is about as close to DOA as a project can be and still hope to see the light of day.