The World Worm Web

For those that remember when Google Voice was GrandCentral … Other than missing Like.com’s acquisition on August 20th and having the DoubleClick grab plotted when Google revealed its intent to acquire in April 2007 and not when the official acquisition was announced in March of 2008, this is pretty much a comprehensive record of the search giant’s ploy for world domination, or whatever they’re calling it these days.

Also, for those that inevitably won’t read through all of this, yes Google absolutely did not acquire Zynga or AOL, but rather invested in them, which is demarcated by a *, see top right.

Graphic: Jess

CrunchBase Information

Google

Information provided by CrunchBase

Ten reveals new digital channel Eleven as future home of The Simpsons and Neighbours

Just a week after Seven announced it was to launch a new male-focused digital channel 7mate, Ten has announced its next ‘distinctly youthful’ digital channel – Eleven, which will see a joint venture with CBS Studios to provide the content.

As part of the move, cartoon series The Simpsons, a longtime stalwart of Ten programming and Neighbours, will both move across to Eleven.

Announcing the deal with CBS Studios International, Ten said: “Eleven will also become the exclusive free-to-air home of the iconic The Simpsons.”  

While CBS Studios will not be a co-owner of the channel itself, which would probably not be permissible under the current free TV regulations, Ten and CBS have created a content JV – ElevenCo Pty Ltd. This offering will be owned two-thirds by Ten and one-third by CBS Studios.The two companies have also extended their existing output deal which already sees CBS output such as NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, Rules of Engagement, Medium, The Good Wife and Hawaii Five-0 appearing on Ten.

Read the rest of the story over at that fantastic Media Blog Mumbrella…

We’ve all heard of trickery that goes into many kinds of photography to make something look more appealing to consumers, whether it’s a Big Mac at McDonalds or the swimming pool at a motel. Sometimes the discrepancy isn’t worth complaining about, but this wasn’t the case for David Ng (currently a guest blogger over at Boing Boing) when he purchased the Banzai Wild Waves Water Park. He took a photograph of the box art and then a photograph of his two children standing next to the actual inflatable water slide.

What we learn is that the product photographer used tiny children when photographing the slide. Just kidding. Unless the photog actually hired six miniature-yet-perfectly-proportional children as models, this is a pretty nasty case of dishonest photo-manipulation.

Reviewers on Amazon agree, giving the product two out of five stars. Here’s a sample comment:

It is a tiny piece of junk. I know a lot of things are mildly digitally enhanced these days but I have studied the picture and there is just NO way that is the product. I mean I dont know anything about doctoring photos but it is so grossly obvious in this case even a kid could tell. My 3 yr old can barely slide down b/c the other end of the pool is in the way.

At least the box says “product may not be as appears on image”.

(via Boing Boing)

This photo is an urban legend come true—a real baby alligator crawling out of a New York City sewer. What makes this image especially lovely though, is that it was snapped hastily with a cameraphone.

Apparently New York resident Joyce Hackett found herself driving past an intersection where a large group of people was gathered around a car. Like any other curious person might, she quickly pulled over, slipped out of her car, and peeked around the crowd to see what was going on. She saw the two-foot-long fellow pictured above and acted quickly to get that particular snapshot:

Ms. Hackett quickly, carefully, slung her iPhone to ground level and snapped a shot, she said. A police officer on the scene warned her that maybe she should not do that.

But angling for a better shot, she stuck her phone down a bit further.

“Be careful!” the officer said, with a bit more urgency.

Then the officer snuck a peek at the pictures on Ms. Hackett’s iPhone and asked her to e-mail them to her.

There’s still a bit of a mystery regarding just how this alligator wound up crawling around New York, but thanks to a quick-thinking cameraphone-carrying citizen, we can all have visual proof that urban legends can come true. [NYT via Gawker]

Photo by Joyce Hackett/New York Times

“I tend to like things in their place,” says Steve Sauer, a Boeing engineer who spent the last seven years turning this 17sqm basement apartment into a decked-out, three-level dwelling. Can you spot the bathtub?

Ah, there it is, built into the floor just beneath the front door and covered up by a 3form Chroma panel. That’s just one of many ingenious touches Sauer worked into his puzzle-like home, which also includes two beds, a 37-inch TV, a bathroom with shower, a kitchen with working dishwasher and space for two full-size bicycles.

There’s a “cafe area” – that’s the part up top with the table – and a “video lounge” – the space below it with the TV. Inspired by the space-saving buildings of Scandinavia and Japan, Sauer spent hundreds of hours scouring the internet for just the right components (at just the right size). When he couldn’t find them, he made them himself.

And his pod’s not just for his own pleasure; Sauer says, “the parties have been fantastic” in his abode, which can squeeze up to 10 people. It’s all the inadvertent-body-touching of perennial party favourite Twister without having to spin that damn pointer every minute or two.

Very impressive, Mr Sauer, but I think I might have you beat – I’m blogging from my home office, which also serves as my dining room (I’m eating a bag of chips), which also serves as my home theatre (I’m listening to some music) which also serves as my sleeping quarters, because it’s my bed. [Seattle Times via Apartment Therapy]

Youthful pop-cultural re-interpreter,  James Hance has layered our favorite intergalactic, inter-species bromance over a few of our beloved youthful kinships. Namely, Winnie the Pooh & Christopher Robin and Calvin & Hobbes. A very straight forward yet loveable juxtapostion no doubt.

Check out more of his work and purchase some prints while your at it.

A writer for Futurama created a brand new maths theorem based on group theory to explain a plot twist in the show. That is like, going way beyond the call of duty, dude.

Ken Keeler, the Futurama writer behind the theorem, actually has a PhD in maths, so this was probably just a walk in the park for him. But for the rest of us non maths geniuses, his theorem was used to explain a problem with an invention that let characters switch bodies. In the show, you can only switch bodies once with the same pair of people, so they needed an equation to prove that with enough switching bodies around, everyone will eventually end up as who they really are. Insert: funny jokes, robot humour and black comedy and mix accordingly.

Keeler’s theory would mathematically put everybody in the right place so that all could be right in the Futurama world. Without Keeler’s work, Bender’s brain might have ended up in Amy’s body forever! Which, to think about, actually might not be such a bad thing. I’m no Keeler so I can’t explain his theory but you can check out the proof in full here. [TheInfosphere.org via Geekosystem]

Note: I changed the poorly spelled “math” to “maths”