By late May, more than ten million copies of E.L. James’s Fifty Shades trilogy, an erotic romance series about the sexual exploits of a domineering billionaire and an inexperienced coed, had been sold in the United States, all within six weeks of the books’ publication here. This apparently unprecedented achievement occurred without the benefit of a publicity campaign, formal reviews, or Oprah’s blessing, owing to a reputation established, as one industry analyst put it, “totally through word of mouth.” [
Grey Area: How ‘Fifty Shades’ Dominated the Market]
posted by vidur
on Jul 30, 2012 -
101 comments
MIT scientist Dr. Todd Rider has
developed a viral infection treatment that works by triggering host cell suicide when it finds the cell has been producing double-stranded RNA. Since dsRNA is the mechanism by which all viral infections proceed, but is not part of normal cellular function, the treatment seems both universal and safe.
[more inside]
posted by seanmpuckett
on Aug 11, 2011 -
49 comments
This clip of the
baby preacher has been floating around the internet for a while. If you've never seen it before, it's memorable - this toddler, too young to be able to talk, is imitating a preacher in front of a church congregation.
[more inside]
posted by rodmandirect
on Dec 22, 2010 -
60 comments
Steve Tucker met a woman at a nightclub in Canberra, made an extreme effort to find her, and was then ridiculed by the Australian media and most of the general public when his email went viral. But there's a
backstory that gives a whole new perspective.
[more inside]
posted by malibustacey9999
on Nov 29, 2010 -
167 comments
Hygiene. Flexibility. Safety (SLYT) Another spoof on the
Jobs presentation, but with a real company, product and serious effort behind it. It's odd because it's super-real, injokey and the viral ambition is ambiguous. Moneyshot at 7m40s.
As a sidenote, would Apple be able to stomp on this if they wanted to? I mean, this is so tongue in cheek I can't really see the tongue.
posted by monocultured
on Jun 25, 2010 -
10 comments
For Neda. "
For Neda reveals the true story of
Neda Agha-Soltan, who became another tragic casualty of Iran's violent crackdown on post-election
protests on June 20, 2009. Unlike many unknown victims, however, she instantly became an international symbol of the struggle: Within hours of Agha-Soltan's death, cell phone photographs of her blood-stained face were held aloft by crowds protesting in Tehran and across the world. With exclusive access to her family inside Iran, the
documentary goes to the heart of who Neda was and what she stood for, illuminating the larger Iranian struggle for democratic freedoms through her powerful story."
[more inside]
posted by homunculus
on Jun 4, 2010 -
7 comments
In 1989, Hollywood heavy metal band Rock Sugar was stranded on a desert island. For the last twenty years, the only music they had to listen to was the 80's pop CD collection of a 13 year old girl. And now,
Rock Sugar has come home.
[more inside]
posted by netbros
on Feb 15, 2010 -
46 comments
A fourth music video clip has appeared on
iamamiwhoami, a YouTube channel set up in December, complete with cryptic title and enigmatic imagery. The quality of the music as well as the apparent high budget of the videos has
people guessing as to who's behind it. Is it Poe? The Knife? Goldfrapp? Is it Margaret Berger? Lady Gaga? It's not Christina Aguilera,
is it?
posted by creeky
on Feb 10, 2010 -
71 comments
Corey Arcangel is perhaps the internet's most
infamous hack,
masher-upper,
digi/net artist.
His work stands for a
growing culture of artists who
run wildly through
animated GIF landscapes populated with corrupted
data-compressed bunny rabbits and tinny, MIDI
renditions of Savage Garden ballads. As the
Lisson Gallery, London, opens its archives to Arcangel's curatorial eye, could digi/net
art be set to
infect the real,
fleshy world, like a rampant
Conficker Worm? Has
YouTube become the truest reflection of our
anthropological selves? Are we destined to roam the int3erw£bs like the
mythic beasts of yore, hoping,
in time, that
digi art can free us from the confines of this fleshy void?
[...
previously]
posted by 0bvious
on Dec 8, 2009 -
20 comments
During the last week, a senior detective in Novorossiysk, Russia named
Alexei Dymovsky had a viral hit on YouTube with a series of videos (in Russian:
1,
2. With
English subtitles: 1) complaining about working conditions, accusing officers of corruption, and claiming that he and other police were ordered to stage crimes in order to put innocent people in jail. Dymovsky was promptly fired, but the Russian government has since admitted that parts of the police have been turned into
criminal businesses. More
here and
here.
posted by twoleftfeet
on Nov 12, 2009 -
11 comments
