Fans of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen know that the former child stars have been missing from the spotlight for a while. While both actresses decided to do less media while attending college, they are slowly beging to re-appear in films. Writer/comedian Elaine Carroll has taken advantage of this lull to bring the internet Very Mary-Kate, a mocumentary web series that lampoons the former child star.

The satirical version of Mary-Kate follows the actress as she attempts to live on her own in the big city (with a body guard) in her 26 bedroom apartment. How will she ever survive? Check out the first two episodes below.

So far 19 episodes have been made with the possibility of more in the future. For more check out verymarykate.com and be sure to follow @VeryMaryKate on Twitter.

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Slow news days eventually lead local television to sensationalist stories, such as internet addiction. Since the late 1990s, investigative reports have shown that people spend too much time online. These are the same outlets that have accused television of robbing people of exercise and a social life. Perhaps the irony is lost when the reporter unknowingly reads from a teleprompter that children are addicted to the internet, while the station republishes the same story on the their website.

The internet, much like any other popular media, remains a target and a scapegoat for people to blame their behavior on. Does internet addiction really exist? The recent report from Reuters gives a mixed answer. The article cites a study conducted by the University of Maryland in which they had 200 students cut their media ties for 24 hours. The results claimed that the students suffered similar withdrawal symptoms to that of a real addiction. The American Psychiatric Association does not acknowledge internet or media addiction as a disorder.

The media jumped on this story after Reuters previously published a story on internet addiction in South Korea. This article claimed that 10% of adults and 26% of teenagers in the country had an addiction to the internet or online gaming. The South Korean government has taken action, spending the equivalent to $9 million on education programs and are even developing a voluntary system that will assign gamers identification codes that can be monitored by parents or tracked for time spent online.

If you think South Korea is tackling this problem the wrong way, then consider what is happening in the US. An internet rehab facility, reStart, opened last year outside of Seattle. The center is designed to help people who excessively surf the internet, text, or play games. The cost for a 45-day stay is roughly $30,000.

Addiction to social media and computers may very well be real, but until more conclusive evidence is presented, I think it is best to look at computers (or anything with a screen) as a tool that should compliment a lifestyle, not lead it. Until the media has some new studies to report, or a new technology to blame, we will continue to endure the sloppy reporting.

I’d love to hear your opinions on internet and/or social media addiction. Is it true? Are you addicted? Leave your comments below. I’ll leave you with a humorous comercial for Sony Vaio.

Bonus! A clip from South Park!

Photo: Lee Jordon

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I usually like to give context, but I think this is self-explanatory. From the creative people at FilmCow.com.

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On Monday, August 31, 2009, the worlds of the Marvel Universe and the Magic Kingdom collided as The Walt Disney Company announced plans to buy Marvel Entertainment for slightly over $4 billion. Almost immediately, the Disneyana types were excited and the Marvel Zombies were mortified.

Will Mickey Mouse become the newest member of the X-Men? Will Wolverine become a star on Disney on Ice? Will Hannah Montana dress up like Dazzler on an episode of her series? Will they pit Marvel’s Hercules versus Disney’s Hercules? Will Pinocchio be accused of being a mutant? Will The Incredibles fight against and later with the Fantastic Four? Actually, I’d like that one to come true to tell you the truth.

Most critics of the acquisition fail to realize that the same studio that gave us Hannah Montana, Winnie the Pooh, Cars, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, and G-Force also gave us Gargoyles, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Lost, Scream, Kill Bill, Trainspotting, and Clerks. Needless to say, the initial reaction has cooled down compared to what happened upon the announcement. Now, a little clarity is in order.

The long and short of it all. Marvel is still going be Marvel, just with Disney money and global reach behind it. That’s not to say there aren’t going to be changes on both sides.. A little breakdown of what exactly went down:

1. What exactly happened?

The Walt Disney Company has announced that they are acquiring ownership of Marvel Entertainment in a stock-and-cash deal for $4 billion, not including debt (that, along with the transition fees and such, will actually make the deal about $6.4 billion in total). Disney will have 100% ownership in Marvel Studios (film and television production), Marvel Characters (intellectual content company), Marvel Animation, Marvel Toys (formerly Toy Biz), and, of course, Marvel Comics. Marvel will now be owned by the same company behind Mickey Mouse, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lost, SportsCenter, The Golden Girls, Hannah Montana, The Incredibles, Power Rangers, Gargoyles, and The Muppets.

What this also means is that Marvel is no longer the world’s largest independent company, but rather a part of the Disney corporate machine not unlike how it’s longtime rival, DC Comics, is part of Disney’s longtime rival Time Warner’s corporate machine. Some might see it as a bad thing. Some might see it as a good thing. I’m still looking at both sides myself because, at least from a business and creative perspective, it’s a good thing, at least on Disney’s end.

2. Wait, what about the current film and programming deals Marvel has with companies like Sony, Paramount, Universal, Fox, Lionsgate, Cartoon Network, BET, and Nickelodeon?

The current deals with the Spider-Man and Men in Black franchises at Sony, the Marvel Studios deal with Paramount Pictures, Universal’s Hulk franchise, and Fox’s deal with the Fantastic Four and X-Men/Wolverine franchises are still valid and will be honored by Disney. However, beyond the duration of the deals, Disney intends on becoming sole distributor of those projects.

The Lionsgate DTV projects are still a go, though Disney could eventually take over distribution of anything after the deal (whether that includes the upcoming Japanese adaptations of Iron Man and Wolverine is to be certain the closer they’re completed and distributed). As for Nickelodeon’s current programming deal involving Iron Man, Wolverine and the X-Men, and the 2000s Fantastic Four animated series as well as Cartoon Network’s deal to air Marvel Super Hero Squad and BET’s upcoming Black Panther could be in jeopardy in 2010 and could end up elsewhere, particularly Disney XD.

3. Disney XD? What’s that?

To talk about Disney XD, you have to go back to the glorious era of cartoons on cable television. Cartoons were on Cartoon Network on a daily basis. Spongebob Squarepants wasn’t on Nickelodeon. Fox Kids was still on weekday mornings and afternoons as well as Saturday mornings on Fox. 4Kids Entertainment was preparing to syndicate Pokemon that fall. For you younger readers, syndication was a practice studios used to distribute first-run programming as well as off-network reruns that didn’t appear on cable first and used for more than just trashy “talk shows” and court shows.

While Disney was preparing to release Pixar’s second film, A Bug’s Life, they were preparing to launch their second family-themed network, Toon Disney, which would be a commercial-based outlet unlike sibling network Disney Channel, which had just become a basic network rather than subscription-based. Over the years, Toon Disney failed to make an impact. When they introduced Jetix in 2004, many felt it was the beginning of the end of Toon Disney, especially with the dependence on boys’ entertainment and the live-action Power Rangers, which was a gateway to bring in more live-action to Toon Disney.

Good call to those that felt that way.

Disney XD is Disney’s male-oriented network formed from the ashes of Toon Disney after that channel was burned by Jetix. It’s not on many cable systems, and those where it’s on, it’s a digital cable-only network. The Marvel purchase means that Disney has as library of characters they could adapt into live-action and animated projects exclusively for the network. Disney already owns the pre-1997 Marvel Animation library as well as broadcast rights to the Film Roman-produced X-Men Evolution and the Sony-produced Spectacular Spider-Man, so it wouldn’t be a stretch to add more Marvel programs to that channel.

Plus, unlike the Power Rangers franchise (which may or may not be on its last legs depending on the source), Disney would own the Marvel franchises lock, stock, and barrel. In fact, it is believed that Disney XD will be the first Disney outlet to directly benefit from the Marvel purchase. For example, if Marvel wanted to make an animated version of The Avengers, they could. If they wanted to make a Teen Titans-like adaptation of New Warriors or Power Pack, they could. If they wanted to make a live-action series based on Runaways or Araña (think a female Spider-Man/Buffy the Vampire Slayer hybrid), they could. And they’d make for great television possibilities and give Disney XD a foot up on the competition that Cartoon Network once had back when they exclusively showed cartoons and didn’t want to be a third-rate kids’ network.

4. What about the Marvel-themed section of Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios in Orlando?

That’s a tough question and one that could get pretty ugly before it all ends. For now, the section of the park isn’t going anywhere. They’re safe. Spider-Man, The Hulk, Doctor Doom, Iron Man, Wolverine, Storm, all of those characters will be a part of Universal Studios as long as Universal wants them there. They’re just not going to add any new characters or expand on the characters they’ve got at the park. But if it’s one thing Disney knows how to do, its bury their competition, something they have almost 90 years of experience of doing.

5. Speaking of characters, does Marvel REALLY have over 5000 characters?

Yeah, they do.

The core Marvel Universe, Earth-616, are the most familiar ones to the general public. There’s also the Ultimate Universe characters, the 2099 characters, the New Universe, the Squadron Supreme universe, the Ultraverse, the Microverse (home of the Micronauts), the Earth X universe, the Spider-Girl universe, the recently-acquired Marvelman stable of characters, the Genesis universe (mostly populated by public-domain characters), the Aircel Comics titles (including Men in Black), and many, many, many variations of familiar characters and universes.

Not to mention the library of characters from their days as Timely Comics and Atlas Comics like Ziggy Pig, Silly Seal, Super Rabbit, Dippy Duck, Melvin the Monster, Powerhouse Pepper, Millie The Model, and a whole host of characters you’ve never heard of. I don’t know if anybody actually counted them, but it’s probably roughly between 2500 and 6000 characters and counting.

6. Good to know they’re still creating characters. Now, will Disney stifle creativity at The House of Ideas?

On the offset, Disney has announced that they’re going to treat Marvel the same way they treat Pixar. They’re going to still be an autonomous unit free from editorial control from Disney folks who don’t know how to handle the characters. In fact, Disney has been on the record as saying they’re “not only buying great characters, stories and brands, but also excited about working with people who know those characters best and how best to work with them in other media.”

However, I think there could be trouble if Marvel wants to, say, kill a marketable property in the future. I doubt Disney would have let Marvel kill the original Captain America after a major storyline or make Spider-Man sell the soul of his marriage to save his aunt (seriously, I’m still pissed over that), but if DC could kill Superman and take him away from the Earth and his own comics and kill off Batman by, more or less, trapping him in a past where nobody would be looking for him at all, Marvel should be fine.

7. Sorry. Kind of zoned out when you said Pixar and Marvel in the same sentence.

Yeah, Pixar and Marvel are going to be really close when the deal is completed. John Lasseter, head muckety-muck at Disney Imagineering and Pixar, broke bread with Marvel types and practically got giddy over potential projects the two companies could collaborate on together. If anything,good could come out of all of this, it’s Pixar working on Marvel-created properties.

They probably wouldn’t make a major property like Spider-Man, Iron Man, X-Men, or Fantastic Four into an animated film, at least not initially, but they could turn a smaller property like, say, New Warriors, Power Pack, Prime, or even a newer property like Skottie Young and Eric Shanower’s Wonderful Wizard of Oz adaptation. Of course, animation should be fair game for the most part for Marvel properties since they do have all animation rights. So, the skies the limit. I’d personally would love to see Galactcus animated without looking cel-shaded or like a cloud in a Silver Surfer film.

8. Okay, I went back and noticed you made a DC Comics reference. Have they publicly responded to the deal, and what do they plan on doing?

Neither DC Comics nor its own entertainment juggernaut of an owner Time Warner has made a public announcement about Disney’s purchase of Marvel. Aside from the now-dormant Blade franchise, Warner has no connection to Marvel. They’re just going to continue doing what they’re doing. Take that as you will, though I’ll take it as a bad thing because, if anything, DC Comics and Time Warner are tenuous yet successful partners in what they do, especially with their animated productions. Perhaps in the end, Disney will look at Time Warner’s example and treatment of DC Comics and learn from its successes and mistakes when the ink on the Marvel acquisition is finally dry.

Now, I don’t claim to be an expert or anything. I just pay attention. But am I happy with Disney buying Marvel? I’m a little torn. As a Warner Bros. cartoon fan, I was literally born to hate the Disney characters (even though I find Donald Duck and Goofy great cartoon characters), and as a DC Comics fan, I was literally born to hate the Marvel characters (though to be fair, Spider-Man is in my top five list of superheroes along with Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, and Plastic Man). I still have a feeling Marvel is going to end up affecting the storylines in the comics, even though they said they wouldn’t. On the other hand, Disney and Marvel are, to paraphrase Wolverine’s famous quote, the best they are at what they do, and what they do is pretty damned sweet. There’s a reason Disney is still considered the standard all media companies adhere to and why Marvel is called The House of Ideas.

Whatever happens, it’s going to be a fun time.

Photo: lkayama

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It started with Wolfram Alpha which is not so much a search engine, as it is a data calculator. Someone uses a search engine, the site usually searches for words within a web page. Wolfram Alpha makes decisions based on your search query which allows you to compare data such as two stocks prices, the popularity of a name, research on this day in history. As the creator says, “its not a search engine its an answer engine.” Its an electronic brain that takes your search concept and displays it an informative and clean page. If anyone out there is fearing the singularity from Terminator, I’d say Wolfram Alpha is certainly a step in that direction.

Microsoft’s Bing.com, a search engine that organizes results into categorizes and gives more contextual search options. The video on their site shows how Bing will allow you to search restaurants, flights, coupons, and more, done on a global scale or only showing results in your city. The site will be replacing Microsoft’s Live.com search (who uses that?) upon release.

Google aptly responded with an announcement of their new project, Google Wave. If you’ve ever used Google Docs, this is a logic extension of the service. Gmail’s best feature is organizing email into conversations. Google Wave is purported to organize discussion around a document. Imagine having all your co-workers or friends editing a text file, adding photos and discussing it in real time. Its a chat room kicked up a level.

May the search engine war rage on!

Photo: manfrys

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State attorneys general from Missouri, Illinois, and Connecticut met in New York to discuss the site with a Craigslist representative. Finger pointing and ad citations began. Craigslist CEO, Jim Buckmaster, expressed his desire to work with law enforcement to stop illegal activity on the site. People are speculating that this means the complete removal of the erotic services section. Has Craigslist made prostitution too easy?

There is no doubt that the site has allowed many sex workers to make a living with less effort than before, but to claim that the site is responsible might be a step too far. Newspapers have offered similar advertising services, and people have died as a result from responding to the advertisement. If the victim died as a result posting an ad for selling old shoes, would the public still be in an uproar? Craigslist’s success is partly because its underground nature allows people to explore the freaky and fiendish taboos our society isn’t comfortable dealing with.

The debate over if prostitution is truly a victimless crime is still heated. State attorneys are arguing the law (prostitution is illegal in most states). Craigslist plays the role of an invisible pimp that never asks for cash. By only charging to post ads for jobs and real estate, the site is practically libertarian in nature. Almost anything goes. Should there be limits? If so, what should they be?

Photo: acloudman

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Now that I’m a grown-up, the calling has stopped, but I’m able to live vicariously through the millions of angst-ridden kids that record and post their adventures on the web. The web is rife with audio and videos of some of the best pranks out here. I’ve outgrown the puns of Bart Simpson and relish in the elaborate and contrite plots people make up to keep others on the phone. Read on for my favorite prank sites…

One of my favorite shows to catch pranks on is PLA Radio, a podcast for phone phreaks and hackers. Brad’s ballsy approach to pranks put operators in awkward positions and he records every minute of their uneasiness. If he’s calling random customer service lines or using social engineering to get information out of people, its always entertaining.

Another of my guilty pleasures includes Friday Night Cranks, a weekly video show in which two teenage host call random lines (sometimes they prep their victims via email) and basically try to keep the person on the phone as long as possible with very implausible stories. One of my favorites has them calling a Walmart store, posing as a father that has forgotten their child in a shopping cart. The store goes into lock-down mode while searching for the imaginary lost child!

My final place to find pranks is on YouTube. Just search for “prank call” and watch the long list of pranks that are both inspired and really stupid. Here is a hilarious (and somewhat mean) prank using a sound clips of Dr. Phil.

To clarify, I’m only into harmless pranks. There is such thing as too much, such as the case of the prankster that convinced several KFC workers to strip down to their underwear and turn on the fire alarms. When a prank involves property damage, money loss, or hate speech…just don’t do it. There are plenty of other “morally gray” areas that can still be exploited for giggles. Oh yeah, before any one thinks of it: prank calls to emergency services is a felony! Caller beware.

Photo: awefulshot

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A great video from Summer of Tears, a southern California-based comedy troupe. Do pets really prepare couples for parenthood? Let’s find out.

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To my delight, there is a way. Audio books! Anyone that has used iTunes or Audible.com knows that the selection of audio books (formerly known as books on tape/CD) is expansive. Just type in an author’s name or book title, and load up your iPod, Zune, or other media device and go! Many of the newest titles are read by authors or celebrities which makes for a wonderful experience. As times are tough, I’m making less purchases and audio books were the first expense to go. Is it back to the library again? Almost, until I discovered Librivox, a free open-source depository for public domain audio books.

Librivox is operated by volunteers recording audio chapters and uploading them to the site. The files are then collected to form an entire book and released as downloads and podcasts. The quality ranges from book to book and among the various volunteer readers. Despite the hodgepodge nature, most of the audio is decent. The content produced is created for the public domain, which means you can redistribute it on your own web site or send files to friends.

The types of books you’ll find on Librivox are considered “the classics,” which include great stories such as Dracula, The Wizard of Oz, Ulysses, A Tale of Two Cities, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Treasure Island. Its all the books I avoided in high school, but now wonder about as an adult. Are they really good or just overrated? Now its time to find out. The site offers non-fiction, essays and poetry collections. I’m already two titles in an I’m hooked. The best thing is that I’m going through a book much sooner than two weeks!

Librivox is perfect for lit junkies looking to cram a few more novels into the day. Now if I want to listen to Charles Fontenay’s Rebels of the Red Planet while doing the dishes, I can.

Photo: flattop341

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In true Hollywood douche fashion, Kutcher tried to spin the competition after he had won it. He claimed the victory to be a sign of individual/web user empowerment over corporations. As Ad Age so eloquently points out, Kutcher doesn’t address the fact that CNN aired his web clips as part of their broadcast or that his entire career was created and fostered by the big media conglomerates he claims to have overcome. It’s easy to bite the hand that feeds when someone is already full.

[Above: Kutcher's acceptance speech video. Its 19 minutes of him and his friends waxing philosophical about "new" media. Only watch it all if you have a high tolerance to bull. Note fellow TV star, Soleil "Punky Brewster" Moon Frye in the background.]

It is supposedly a win-win situation for the charity, Kutcher, CNN, and World Malaria Day right? Wrong! As Kutcher has shown, it is fairly easy to turn a social media into a broadcast media. As you’ll note through his acceptance video, its basically a broadcast done via the internet. Is Ashton just excited that there wasn’t an agent involved or is the discussion totally out there?

The concept of Twitter and its subsequent derivatives is that people are empowered when they are communicating within a community. Everyone has context. I follow CNN on Twitter to get news stories. I’m still trying to figure out why I’d want to follow Ashton Kutcher. Perhaps to to see him promote his next TV project or pimp one of his friend’s account? At over a million strong and growing, Kutcher, CNN, Ellen, and all other people waging a Twitter battle are changing the intent of Twitter and bringing along the thousands of useless TV viewers with them. Why useless? These users are TV watchers first and Internet users second. Habits die hard, and most of these new users are blindly following the suggested user list Twitter provides or all the celebrities that happen to have an account (Ellen, how could you!?). That’s not community, that’s the Hollywood model, brought online.

I knew the Twitter party was over when Oprah herself featured a Twitter segment. The “Oprah effect” is well documented, helping sell books, chocolates, and various other approved products to the Oprah faithful. Oprah’s endorsement of Twitter is estimated to bring 1.2 million users to the site. With that many soccer moms and aspiring life coaches flooding the site, I think its safe to say the iron gates are off the hinges. When Facebook expanded their user base beyond college kids, it stung. To listen to middle-aged family members and co-workers talk about Twitter non-stop is killing me. All this press in one week!

The Twitter from 2007 is dead. Perhaps the celebrities didn’t intentionally mean to upset the balance of Twitter, but I’m still left with the crowded, celebrity-filled network of sandwich-eating nobodies and task-listing wannabes (“lunch, gym, then LOST”). I understand…I don’t have to follow everyone, so I search through a lot of garbage to find the creative and humorous users. Those people are still there, but now there is just more garbage to sort through. Thanks Ashton and Oprah.

Photo: creativecarrot

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