A few days ago a 7.2 magnitude Earthquake in China was first reported by several Twitter users, and only got picked up by the news agencies 20 or so minutes later.   Today it’s happening again:

地震！Earthquake in Tokyo! http://urltea.com/2zug

27 minutes ago from Zooomr

Reported by Kristopher Tate on Twitter.  No news agencies reported it yet. Google blog search reveals one post:

March 24
(3-24-08) EARTHQUAKE IN TOKYO, JAPAN!
I am sitting her at home in Shimoakatsuka, Itabashi-ku , Tokyo and I just felt an earthquake at about 12:41pm! Did anyone else feel the earthquake?

So it’s twitter and a single blog post.

The USGS site has the precise information: magnitude 5.3 Monday, March 24, 2008 at 03:40:13 UTC Honshu, Japan.

Still nothing on news wires.

Update:  Still nothing on the majors, but the Times of India and the Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan report it now.  Perhaps we need to redefine what a major news agency is

Tags: earthquake, japan, Twitter

Scobleizer @dotBen says there was just a big earthquake in Chine and it’s not yet on BBC’s site.

the above came from Twitter.  The news is nowhere to be found on Google or Google News either.  If true (hope not…), twitter just beat the major news services again.

A weird co-incidence, I just read this earlier today:

Report: Next major earthquake on Hayward fault will be catastrophic

Update: here’s the USGS report, and the first news from Fox News - still nowhere else.

Update #2:  It’s on Reuters now.

Update #3: It hit (no pun intended) CNN now.

Update #4:  I don’t normally lose it, but I can’t believe such idiots exist:  Chinese EarthQuake Hits 7.4: Karma for Tibet Violence.  Jerk. (pardon my French).

Tags: china, earthquake, hayward fault, Twitter, usgs

I really did not want to write about Gizmodogate again.  But instead of letting it die, today Gizmodo found it important to defend themselves as saviors of journalistic independence:

Our prank pays homage to the notion of independence and independent reporting. And no matter how much access the companies give us, we won’t ever stop being irreverent. That’s what this prank was about and what the press should understand.

How heroic!  And hypocritical, as I pointed out before.  After all, it was Mighty Hero Gizmodo themselves who not only trashed the TV-B-Gone 3 years ago:

Mitch Altman is an asshole. And not just any asshole, but one of those snotty holier-than-thou types who has nothing better to do with the money he made as a founder of 3ware than to develop a device with the sole purpose of imposing his viewpoint on others…
…Essentially a universal remote that cycles through every possible code, the TV-B-Gone has a single purpose: to power off televisions whenever the user feels like being a dick.

(Emphasis mine). So who is the dick now?

Related posts: Scobleizer, mathewingram.com/work, kottke.org, IP Telephony, VoIP, Broadband, Venture Chronicles and The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, Webware.com

Tags: ces, gawker media, gizmodo, pranks, TV-B-Gone

OK, time to put things in prospective.  Yes, I believe the Gizmodo prank of switching off LCD’s at CES, disrupting presentations was immature, and they deserved to be banned.  But let’s realize they were still relatively harmless; could have done a lot worse with the almighty TV-B-Gone, just like this Polish kid did:

A teenage boy who hacked into a Polish tram system used it like “a giant train set”, causing chaos and derailing four vehicles.

The 14-year-old, described by his teachers as a model pupil and an electronics “genius”, adapted a television remote control so it could change track points in the city of Lodz.

Twelve people were injured in one derailment, and the boy is suspected of having been involved in several similar incidents.

(Full story at The Telegraph)

Tags: ces, gizmodo, prank, TV-B-Gone

Investor and prankster Yossi Vardi delivered a lecture @ TED (March 2007, Monterey, CA) on the dangers of blogging. Specifically, um, for men. Eagle-eyed Amit Agarwal spotted a glimpse of my earlier blog post, Will Geeks Become an Endangered Species? embedded in the presentation:

Here’s the full video , it’s 6 minutes 15 seconds long, and my 4 seconds of fame come at 2:12

On second thought, this was my first 3 seconds of fame - explanation here. Ah, when I was young…

Update (4/5/07): The seeds of innnovation in danger …

Tags: endangered species, fertility, geeks, Humor, infertility, laptops, local warming, male fertility, mobile phones, TED

One for all, all for one. Modern-day “musketeers” don’t use swords anymore; they have the Belkin Rockstar instead.

Connect, share, listen, even mix songs together.

Details on all the gadget-blogs: Gizmodo, CrunchGear, Blast Magazine, Boing Boing Gadgets and Engadget.

Tags: belkin, gadgets, Humor

The CEO of Traffic Power, a SEO firm using “black hat” tactics that got them kicked off Google, Yahoo and other search engines has more to worry then trying to get back on Google: he is in jail for allegedly running a housing foreclosure scam.

It’s not that rare to see CEOs arrested, just check out the search results.

I know what’s wrong: they don’t watch MSNBC enough.

Tags: ceo arrest, crime, msnbc

MSNBC used to be my favorite news channel - when it was a news channel. I really don’t know what it is today. Here’s how they welcome the new year:

Yes, you can spend the entire day watching documentaries on life inside a prison. This isn’t just a random programming mistake: throughout the year, any time I tuned to MSNBC ( and I rarely watch TV), it was likely “Lockup”, the prison documentary, or “To Catch a Predator”, the series about a hidden-camera investigation of sexual predators who troll Internet chat rooms for children. It’s a serious matter worth our attention, but every **** day? C’mon, since when has MSNBC become Crime Channel?

But here’s the worst part: I’m sure MSNBC are watching their ratings … which can only mean one thing: these shows are popular. What’s America’s infatuation with crime?

Update: Clearly I am not the only one finding MSNBC’s programming (or lack of) weird:

CNN and FOX Noise are delivering a ton of politics today even though it’s a holiday because the Iowa caucus is in overdrive mode. I flipped on to see who MSNBC had working the network today and guess what I saw? Repeats of Lockup, Lockup, Lockup, Lockup…Holman—Alabama…

That’s ground breaking political coverage for you…

Tags: crime, Fox News, msnbc, News channels, TV networks

The Land of Oz is already in 2008. Too bad they ring in the new year with a controversy over government censorship. Good intentions aside, letting Big Brother grow on people is never a good idea. Governments can not, and should not take over the family’s responsibility. It’s a slippery road… governments by their very nature tend to expand: porn filtering today, political views tomorrow - we know where it leads.

If you are a parent, sister, brother, uncle, aunt, YOU (and not the government) have the joy and responsibility of bringing the children to a safe and better world. That’s my parting thought for 2007, and I wish you a prosperous, peaceful, Happy New Year with a shot of the NYE fireworks from the beautiful city of Sydney:

(photo credit: Christopher Chan)

Update: enjoy this video of the Sydney NYE 2007/08 Fireworks (it’s a two-part clip, please wait a few seconds at the end of the first):

Tags: Australia, censorship, fireworks, government, NYE, Sydney