The Daily Loper – September 22, 2006

Today’s links of interest:

• Wal-Mart threatens studios over iTunes
  Wal-Mart is threatening to stop ordering as many of the DVD’s they normally sell at a loss to get people into their stores. That’ll teach Hollywood a lesson.
• Time?Warner?chief?queries?internet prices
  Finally someone talks about the elephant in the room: overpriced Internent properties with no proven revenue model. Next up: why buy when building can be cheaper?
• Buffy Lives — In Comics
  The series covering what would have been Season 8 is scheduled to come out in March. So Rox doesn’t have to check Amazon every single day.
• Gervais puts a stop to podcasts
  Sure, it’s easy for Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant to quit — they have other careers. But has anybody considered poor Karl Pilkington?
• Average home has more TVs than people
  In one ‘Loper household, the TV-to-person ratio is 2-to-1. Even worse, the computer-to-person ratio is 3-to-1. Cars, however, remain 1-to-1.
• Yahoo Confirms Flaming Laptop On Campus
  Joke #1: "Great. Now Google and Microsoft will announce *their* flaming laptops." Joke #2: "Flaming laptops! All the cool kids have ‘em." Joke #3: "Dozens of laptops spontaneously combust every year, it’s now widely reported."
• CW network a "Model" performer in debut
  Good start for the CW; now y’all just need to tune into "Veronica Mars" when it debuts on Oct 3.
• Judge tells reporters silence means prison / The BALCO case: He rejects request to impose fines instead as unlikely to make them obey subpoenas demanding names of confidential sources
  These two guys helped to break one of the biggest sports stories in years. Their reward: jail, thanks to overzealous witch-hunting prosecutors who are trying to find who leaked to them in the first place. Does that seem right?
• The 5 Most Ineffective Anti-Drug PSAs of All Time
  Not that there have ever been any *effective* ones. From Michael Ian Black’s reimagining of Cracked Magazine.
• Zune on Ellen
  Your mother wants a Zune. Maybe even your grandmother. Should make for some interesting file sharing.
• Guest List: Decemberists
  There are bits on the upcoming Decemberists album that sound like Yes or Genesis from the early 1970s. Luckily, they sound like the *good* bits . . .
• Facebook in talks to sell itself to Yahoo
  Would they then turn it into Geocities for College Students?
• A tag-team Tuesday
  If "Veronica Mars" doesn’t keep the audience from "Gilmore Girls," it will be axed mid-arc. This would make those of us who love it very sad. Please don’t let that happen.
• Online activists launch Battlestar Galactica party-planner
  Worth clicking the link for the picture of Adama & Roslin.
• New faces in daytime
  Daytime television, now more talky than ever.
• Shadow of censorship over ‘Prize’
  In their desperate attempt to create a fake reality, the FCC makes the act of airing programming an expensive struggle.