Excuse us for a second while we try to stop laughing.

Ok, it starts with this story from MSNBC:

Free EA software release spawns “sporn”

It’s a double-edged sword, this user-generated content thing

It’s a simple equation that marketers can’t seem to grasp: The Internet plus free modeling tools equals giant dancing penises.

So it goes for Creature Creator, the free trial tool Electronic Arts released on Tuesday to herald the marketing blitz for the September shipment of its long-awaited Spore game. It’s the latest creation from legendary game designer Will Wright. You know, the guy behind the iconic Sims series. Gamers couldn’t wait to get their mitts on the free software which they downloaded by the thousands.

With the Creature Creator, you can make your own creatures, get them to dance around, and of course, upload them to YouTube.

You can also make Spore porn, or sporn - fantastical creations of a less imaginary, more anatomical nature.

It’s a double-edged sword, this user-generated content. On the one hand, it’s laudable to create a community around a game… On the other hand, not everyone’s well-behaved on the Internet. And if EA didn’t know that, they found that out right quick with the Creature Creator.

“Well, I guess we know what every half-wit will be posting pictures of from now on,” lamented one commenter on game site Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

Yes. Half-wits like us!

The following is Not Safe For Work:

And of course - you knew somebody would do it - the Goatse creature.

You people are twisted!

Source: WSJ

Paris and Lindsay Hacked Again

Pictures of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan from private MySpace profiles can be seen by anyone on the Internet, thanks to a flaw in a system that helps the social-networking site share information with other Web sites.

Byron Ng — a computer technician who earlier this year found a way to access Paris Hilton’s Facebook page — walked the tech-gossip blog Valleywag through a 15-step process that allows people to see supposedly-private pictures and other information by first logging into Yahoo, which is one of the sites that shares information with MySpace. It takes advantage of a flaw in the way MySpace exchanges information with other sites. (MySpace has disabled the software with the flaw in it until it develops a fix.)

Pics At ValleyWag

Food Network host Rachael Ray is a terrorist sympathizer.
Well, according to retard Michelle Malkin, anyway.

Rachael Ray Dunkin Donuts ad pulled over “jihad scarf”

Source: The Star (and many others)

A fashion faux pas by Rachael Ray led the Dunkin’ Donuts chain to pull an online ad starring the celebrity chef, and sparked a debate about the subtext of accessories. The domestic diva’s black and white scarf has drawn cries of outrage from some observers, who say it looks like the traditional garb worn by Arab men.

Terrorist! But thanks for the great food!

Critics say the accessory looks like a kaffiyeh, a type of scarf that they say now represents Muslim extremism. “The kaffiyeh … has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad,” conservative commentator Michelle Malkin said in her Fox News column. “Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant (and not-so-ignorant) fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons.”

The ad was pulled over the weekend. The company says it wanted to avoid any “misperception” about the scarf and its cultural meaning.

“Kaffiyehs are worn every day on the street by Palestinians and other people in the Middle East – by people going to work, going to school, taking care of their families, and just trying to keep warm. To reduce their meaning to support for terrorism has a tacit racist tone to it,” says Amahl Bishara, a University of Chicago anthropology lecturer who specializes in media matters relating to the Middle East.

From Boston.com:

Malkin was pleased with Dunkin’s response: ‘‘It’s refreshing to see an American company show sensitivity to the concerns of Americans opposed to Islamic jihad and its apologists.’’

From Feministe:

If you look at the scarf Rachael Ray is wearing in that picture, it doesn’t even remotely resemble the pattern traditionally associated with the keffiyeh, which resembles an interlocking net or a chain-link fence.

Arafat wearing the traditional keffiyeh

There are two problems in this case. One is that the right-wing zealots are trying to foist their own blanket meaning on a piece of clothing that has a long history as a national symbol. The other problem is that Malkin and Johnson are complaining about a symbol that has basically escaped and vanished, lost its meaning in the Land of Miscellaneous Consumer Scarves.

As if people’s fashion choices really did mean something, but the whole point of consumerism is that these kinds of meanings get sucked out and replaced with price tags.

OddCulture’s take: Malkin is the same person who said the puppy-over-the-cliff incident was a fake. Nuff said. Now, the real lesson to be taken from this is: Rachael Ray is hot.

This is crazy. Somebody placed an ad on Craigslist last Saturday afternoon, saying the owner of a Jacksonville home was forced to leave the area suddenly and his belongings, including a horse, were free for the taking.

However, the man, Robert Salisbury, had no plans to leave. In fact, Salisbury was relaxing at a lake in southern Oregon when someone called him to make sure it was OK to take his horse.

During his rush home, Salisbury stopped a truck loaded down with his work ladders, lawn mower and various other pieces of equipment. “I informed them I was the owner, but they refused to give the stuff back,” Salisbury told the Mail Tribune. “They showed me the Craigslist printout and told me they had the right to do what they did.” Not only did the driver of the truck refuse to turn over the belongings, he also sped away in cloud of dust.

Upon arriving home Salisbury was greeted by nearly 30 people rummaging through his barn and front porch.

“They were like a pack of vultures,” Salisbury said.

Salisbury blocked his driveway and ordered everyone to leave his property. The trespassers, armed with printouts of the ad, tried to brush him off. “They honestly thought that because it appeared on the Internet it was true,” Salisbury said. “It boggles the mind.” Some attempted to lie saying the home’s owner had just left after instructing them to take whatever they wanted, Salisbury said.

Jacksonville police and Jackson County sheriff’s deputies soon arrived to restore order. By then, however, several cars packed with Salisbury’s property had fled. He did managed to collect license plate numbers, which he turned over to sheriff’s detectives.

Detectives have contacted Craigslist’s legal team in an attempt to track whomever posted the ad. They also plan to trace the license plate numbers taken by Salisbury. Possible charges connected to the case include theft, burglary, computer crime, theft by receiving and conspiracy to commit theft and burglary, Fagan said.

After the rough day, Salisbury could not even take a minute relax on his porch swing — it had been snatched earlier that afternoon.

Update: Sunday: Some Items Returned

Only a few items swiped from a Jacksonville man’s property Saturday as a result of two hoax ads on Craigslist were returned Sunday, the property owner said, including clay pots, a backpack, parts to a crib and some saw blades.

Update: Also Happened in Tacoma!

Someone with cruel intentions placed a fake ad on Craigslist last weekend, inviting people to take whatever they wanted for free from a Tacoma home. Homeowner Laurie Raye says there’s little left now of the Tacoma house. The outside of the home is trashed, the inside is nearly gutted and covered in graffiti. Raye says she is devastated. The homeowner says from the light fixtures to the hot water heater, everything is gone - including the kitchen sink.

“We’ve had a lot of scams off of Craigslist,” said Detective Gretchen Ellis, Tacoma Police Department. “We’ve had prostitution things happen, rental scams, fraudulent activity. In this case, it appeared the items were going to be given away, but they were not.”

Yes, this morning, AOL dropped eight hundred and fifty MEEEEEEEEEEEEELION dollars on Bebo.

Bebo, a social networking site with even less content than Facebook and MySpace. Bebo, a video site with videos lamer than YouTube.

Bebo.

Of course, with the dollar sinking below 100 yen this morning, it’s not as if that $850MM is really worth all that much. But it still leaves the question of where the hell did AOL get that much money. Couch cushions? Or just printing worthless stock?