Opinion or Fact?

On January 26th the New York court system will be asked to judge the case of Cohen vs. Google. You may or may not know who Liskula Cohen is, but I doubt you have any idea what Skanks in NYC is. For all of (us) those who have managed to live their lives without any awareness of the site, let me explain.

The “Blog” site was created on August 21st 2008, and to date has only had 5 posts. All of these posts were posted on August 21st. There’s a picture forming, right.

The “Blog” details the personal life of Liskula Cohen, and her status as a ‘skank’ in New York. According to one of the posts, the site "would have to say that the first place award for 'Skankiest in NYC' would have to go to Liskula Gentile Cohen”. It goes on to say that she is a "psychotic, lying, whoring ... skank.".

Unfortunately for Ms. Cohen the site has had a seriously negative effect on her career. She stated that her current employers "mentioned the blog and expressed concern about my suitability to serve as a spokesperson and representative for the client's products".

As the site is hosted by Google's Blogger service, Cohen is asking the court to order Google to disclose information including the blogger's name, address, telephone number and email. Google’s policy is to not reveal bloggers' identities without a court order.

The difficulty here is that the court must be convinced that the site is defamatory (i.e. based on fact) and not just a statement of opinion. Should the court decide it is opinion, Ms. Cohen will not have any right to the “Bloggers” information.

Cohen, who in the past appeared on the cover of Australian Vogue, alleges in the complaint that the blog has drawn the attention of other people, including a current client. "These people mentioned the blog and expressed concern about my suitability to serve as a spokesperson and representative for the client's products," she alleges.

Interestingly, a Californian court previously held that calling someone a "skank" was not libel as it's not a factual statement.

When in Japan...

I found this great video from Eric Testroete over at We Made This. It's a collection of 3340 photographs documenting Eric's recent trip to Japan. Great idea and definitely something I'll do on my next holiday. Enjoy.

Dancing Matt a fake!

Well, not quite. Matt Harding speaks at 'The Entertainment Gathering 2008' (11th December 2008) about the continued online accusations that his video's were hoaxes, part of an elaborate viral campaign that was faked.

Nice candid insight into the man that created, what Time magazine called the Best Viral Campaign of 2008, and the New York times called 'an almost perfect piece of internet art'. Speaking about the responses he received he mentions the feeling of connectivity that people found through his video. A connection to the rest of the world.

Concept Japanese Pedestrian Lights

A friend passed on these photos to me of a concept design for pedestrian lights. There was no information with them but I presume this is more fantasy then reality. To the best of my knowledge there are no technologies out there even close to this level of free floating capability. Unless anyone out there knows better?

Panasonics new Gel Remote (possibly)

Panasonic have released details of new concept remote they have on the development blocks. When unused and sitting idle the remote takes on a gel-like, non-rigid form. However, when the remote is activated or picked up, it becomes fully rigid just like a 'normal' remote control.

Personally I'm unsure of the advantages this is proposed to give but it looks kinda cool. Something I'd have imagined sitting around in Minority Report or iRobot.