Tag... you're it!

It's pretty incredible the amount of tags (Wiki) I've used. I started working on PlanetBears in October 2006 however I didn't start tagging articles until the spring of 2007. Could you imagine the amount of tags I would have used had this technology existed when I first started working on the net, back in 1999? Back then it was html and keywords placed into metatags. Tagging is simpler and supposedly more effective (altho I'm not sure how search engines work with tags, and even my sysadmin who is a Google expert says that Google is not even sure how tags work), and tagging is a Web 2.0 (Wiki) technology which is the latest... and it's better to be up with the latest than be last with the greatest... ok that last part didn't make an ounce of sense.

This isn't Bear related... however... has anyone been following the news concerning the Swedish website The Pirate Bay...? The Pirate Bay is a site that indexes and tracks torrent files - so - get yourself a program like BitTorrent, then start your quest to find and download music from your favourite bands while at the same time grab the latest blockbusting movies. Once you find these files, you now become part of the group that is 'sharing' that particular file. It's as simple as that, and because it's so simple, there's a whole bunch of people online who seed and leech torrent files. Getting back to The Pirate Bay, they've been having legal issues since 2006 specifically because certain people are saying that torrents are not about sharing but rather it's about stealing, and with a name like 'The Pirate Bay'... well... I'm sure the site has angered a ton of people who feel they are watching their dollars disappear with every 'shared' byte flying by.

There's 4 main guys who run the site and they are all up for a year in jail including having to pay a fine for $3.2 USD (news articles here). However, there's been a ton of backlash ever since this court case. First they stated that the judge is biased since he is a member of various copyright protection trade groups. And rather than scare and deter people from downloading torrents by putting these guys up on trial, this court case has increased the number of torrent users, by double if not more.

It will be interesting to see just which way this case is going to go. However I do know that you just cannot stop people from passing stuff back and forth online. Ever since I have been online, since 1994, I have heard about people passing games and files and what have you, first through the newsgroups then the BBS and IRC. Now you can movies, music, games, and files from other sites such as RapidShare, MegaUpload and from bloggers on BlogSpot. And for those who like movies, you don't even need to download them anymore, not with sites like Vidics. I just don't see how anyone is going to police what people want to share over the net.

Yesterday was St. Patrick's day, and the Taoiseach met with the President, sharing the 'photo op' as well as stories. Many of you might not even know what a Taoiseach is (I didn't until recently)... it's the title given to the head of government in Ireland (Wiki), and the guy filling those shoes is Brian Cowen (whom I've mentioned before in an article, stating he'd look tons cuter with a beard - Google images).

Also, it seems that President Barack Obama has a bit of that Irish pride and luck going for him as he stated that his "great-great-great-grandfather on my mother's side" came to America from the same county as Cowen (CNN article). They checked, however, and unfortunately they aren't kissing cousins.

This is an update concerning the websites that were using the Ning platform and were ordered to shut down all their sections that were adult in nature (you can read more about all this from our archived articles). Well I received an email which illuminated certain areas to this story which I wasn't aware of. But before I get into that, I'd like to first mention a few sites that were affected by Ning's decision and where they are now.

1st off, the 'Got Fur?' website had already moved their stuff over back in December and things have been fine for them at their new home with Grou.ps. Their new effort is called Bears in the Woods.

The next site is ChubSpot and they have been having issues re-opening up. They have changed their date of re-open at least a half a dozen times so far. On their site now they mention that they will 'probably' open their site before February 20th.

The 3rd site is BearZone and it's from their newsletter that I received a few eye openers in regards to what Ning did. Once Ning allowed adult content, eventually members started uploading more and more x-rated videos.

From their newsletter: "The problem is that more than enough of these videos were professionally done porn videos from studios such as Falcon, Titan, Colt, etc. Everyone quickly found out that this is very much frowned upon. These companies started contacting Ning of the copyright infringing and many sites were shut down, and many site owners, and site members are now being sued.

Ning decided they'd take drastic measures and just delete all the sites with adult content from their servers in effort to keep Google investors happy.

We had to work closely with (Ning) and keep pressuring them to give us a way to export more than 30,000 members profiles, and all their pictures, videos, blog posts, comments, favorites, profile information, etc. Eventually, they did, but it wasn't a format that made any sense. So we had our programmer hack up some code to import and translate the information and content.

To make matters worse, Ning shut us down early. They didn't keep their word, and we could not import every member. We could not import any of the videos, music, and some other replaceable but sucks to lose content".

I (unfortunately) never heard of him before, but his name is John Martyn (website - Wiki (photo) - Google images), a Scottish/British artist who has been making music since 1967 with over 20 studio albums under his belt. He's definitely got that big Daddy Bear appeal to him, and from what I heard, he carries his emotions on his sleeve and plays them all out in his music, something I'd like to hear. He's straight, so he's not perfect, but cute (thanks to Chubarama - article).

The mayor of Portland, Oregon - Sam Adams (Google images) who is openly gay "publicly apologized Tuesday for lying about a sexual relationship he had with an 18-year-old (Beau Breedlove) in 2005, and for asking the teen to lie about it" (CNN article). That article goes on to say that they had met when Adams was 42 and Breedlove was 17, altho Adams said he didn't have sex with him until he was 18.

Boy George (with stubble) of the Culture Club fame has been sentenced to 15 months in prison (CNN article - Google images). Real name George O'Dowd, age 47, is going to jail for allegedly chaining a male escort to wall in his London flat and then beating him with a metal chain. From CNN: "O'Dowd, who maintained his innocence, came to court Friday sporting a multicolored tattoo on his bald head, none of his trademark makeup, and a black winter coat".

The results are in from the 'Best of the Bears' awards, held by 'Got Fur...?'. The best Bear site for 2008 is BearNation.us (website - article). This is the 3rd year that these awards have been held (results for 2006 and results for 2007). This was the 1st time that PlanetBears was nominated, for Best blog and Best Resource, however we didn't win in either (PlanetBears isn't a blog so that makes sense, however we are a resource... maybe next time).

I should also note that 'Got Fur...?' has been bumped around quite a bit in the past while. They went from MySpace to Ning (articles) to now finding their home here at The Complete Bear. Anyhow, here are the results as posted on the Bear Bones blog:

Bear of the Year - Ron Suresha

Best Movie Bears - SF Movie Bears

Best Bear Website – www.bearnation.us

Best Bear Blog – bTalk

Best Bear Podcast - bTalk

Best Bear Porn Site - Butch Bear

Best Bear Video – Bear Oasis (Pantheon)

Best Bear Porn Star – Jim GagBear

Best Bear Business - The Complete Bear

Best Bear Celebrity – Chris March

Best Bear Club/Organization – Northeast Ursamen

Best Bear Run - Lazy Bear Weekend

Best Bear Bar - DugOut (NYC)

Best Bear Fundraiser – Lazy Bear Weekend

Best Bear Campsite - Hillside Campgrounds

Best Bear Accommodations – Hillside Campgrounds

Best Bear Publication - 100% Beef

Best Bear Play Party - Steamworks

Best Bear Resource – The Complete Bear

Best Bear Artist - KillerBob

Best Bear Performer – Elijah Black

This is Reverend Gene Robinson and he's an Episcopal bishop in New Hampshire. He is also gay, and from this CNN article, he is "The first openly gay priest ordained by a major Christian denomination (who) will deliver the invocation at the kickoff inauguration event Sunday at the Lincoln Memorial". I say 'hurray!' for that... yet don't all bishops have beards...? Isn't that by law... "God said: you are a bishop, haveth beard". Honestly, he'd look way better with one.

This looks like it's going to be a fun movie. It's called 'The Boat That Rocked' (trailer - poster - Wiki) and it stars Philip Seymour Hoffman (Google images) and Nick Frost (Google images)... indeed quite a Bearish cast. The movie "is set in 1966 and tells of the United Kingdom pirate radio movement, which used a legal loophole to broadcast to audiences of up to 25 million from ships anchored off the coast of the UK".

I feel like I should start a new section: 'Men Who Should Be Bearded'. I see so many guys who should have some kind of facial hair. Why? Because they would look 10 times better. Take for instance Emil Boc (Google photos). Boc is in the news lately because (from Wiki) "The Democratic Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party form a coalition government in Romania, with Emil Boc as the new Prime Minister". Truly he'd look better with a beard.

Unrelated, did you ever see the video in which Boc fell off a platform? Kinda scary.

Barack Obama has chosen the evangelical pastor Rick Warren as a speaker at the president's inauguration on January 20th. Rick Warren (Google photos) is a supporter of Proposition 8, is against gay rights and marriages as well as pro-choice. Why do some Bearish men have such narrow-minded thinking? Obama states that his views are "absolutely contrary to Warren on gay rights and abortion and described himself as a fierce advocate for equality for gay and lesbian Americans" (source). Obama chose Warren due to their differences in opinions: "That's part of the magic of this country... that we are diverse and noisy and opinionated". Still, many gay activists are in no way happy of Obama's decision.

To learn more about Rick Warren, visit his site.

This is non-Bear related however it's an interesting event which is taking place within the world of 'search'. Google has introduced a new feature. It's called 'SearchWiki'.

First of all, you have to sign in with Google. Then when you do a search on 'anything', you will see a couple of boxes next to each link. One is a 'promote' link and the other is 'remove'. By promoting a link you move it to the top, giving it rank. By removing a link, you actually blow it up from the page and it disappears (it's very fun... something about blowing up crappy links leaves one very satisfied). To best understand this, check out this article from Google's blog and watch this video.

This is a technological huge leap within the search world. For someone like me who spends all day searching, I think Google is onto something great. The only thing is... I don't know how much I am going to use this feature. Why? Because when I search for something, and then find it, I don't need to do that search anymore. There's really no need for me to promote or demote links. This being said, I foresee the 'SearchWiki' growing and expanding, with newer features added to it which will enhance and enrich our searching adventures. I foresee the SearchWiki assisting us to find exactly what we're looking for and cutting thru all the bull... but it's not there yet. Still... it's cool... and a lot of fun to blow up links...! Try it... they go *...poof...*.

His name is Brian Cowen and he is the current Taoiseach for Ireland. Now I'm not even sure how to pronounce it but a Taoiseach is the guy who is the head of government under the President.

To be honest, I know very little about Irish politics, and to even prove you more of my shallowness, the only real reason why I'm mentioning Brian Cowen is that I truly believe he'd look way better with a beard. There are some men on this planet that should wear a beard at all times, and Brian is one such man. To see more photos of him, do a Google Image search.

The following is from his Wiki page: "Cowen is often referred to in the Irish satirical and tabloid media as BIFFO, a pejorative nickname sometimes applied to people from the midlands county of Offaly. BIFFO is widely understood as an acronym for 'Big Ignorant Fecker / Fucker / Fellow From Offaly'. Cowen has said that 'BIFFO' stands for 'Beautiful Intelligent Fellow From Offaly'. The Irish Independent has provided him with a further acronym GRUFFALO (Grumpy Rude Uncensored Fecker / Fucker / Fellow From Around Laois Offaly). Cowen was accused of 'conduct unbecoming' in the Dáil, over comments that he made in the Dáil, when at the end of a heated exchange Cowen sat down, and turned to Tánaiste Mary Coughlan and Dáil microphones then picked up the Taoiseach using the word 'fuckers'. He subsequently apologized for this remark. Cowen's reputation as an effective politician has suffered since he became Taoiseach".

I have heard of Staind (site - Wiki) back in the late 90s and their singer Aaron Lewis (Google) has one of those recognizable voices. Aside from their song 'Outside', I don't know their music all that much, and in my mind, Aaron was this skinny skinhead. Well I saw a recent video of him doing some acoustic song, and wow has he ever beefed up since. He's definitely moved into the Bearish ranks. Here's a few pics of him - here, here and here.

A Bearish prince is suing Michael Jackson. The prince's name is Sheikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa and he claims that Michael Jackson owes him an album, an autobiography and and a stage play. Michael Jackson's lawyer stated to the British court that the singer is too ill to testify in person for this breach-of-contract brought on by the prince. There's not too many photos of the Sheikh online but here's one and here's another. It'll be interesting where this story will lead.

So the story goes: a bunch of KKK members are holding an initiation rite. One woman who they met online was there... now I'm not sure if she was the only one being initiated, but at some point she didn't want to be a part of it and wanted to leave. That's when the leader Raymond Foster, 44 (photo) decided to kill the woman. There's 7 others involved.

Now the only reason why I'm mentioning this is because... dang... the leader is so cute. How can such cuteness just be so evil...? It's like discovering your favourite teddy bear you love to cuddle has fangs and decided to bite you. It just saddens me when guys I find cute turn out to be evil creatures.

BearJournals is a very simple site yet we know that simple is sometimes the most effective. Just look at Google. Ok, now BearJournals is far from Google however it's got enough links on it to have you browsing for awhile.

BearJournals is a site which lists Bear as well Chub and Cub blog sites, Bear/Chub/Cub paysites and news sites. It's definitely worth a visit.

Sometimes when I come upon a site I have never seen before, it's like discovering an uncharted island... like I just found a map for a treasure trunk... And sometimes I feel like... how come I wasn't invited to this party? How long has this site been around and nobody bothered to tell me...

ok... enough about what I feel - here's a site I recently stumbled upon and said 'wow...' (and I don't give out wow's all that freely). It's called The Bad Cub Club and it's WordPress blog but 'wow' what a blog (I just wow'ed again). Now there's a fine line between what's a Cub and what's a Bear, however the men on this site all have that husky goodness about them, so call them Cubs or Bears or even young Daddies... whatever... just give me more of their wholesome good looks. One site to definitely bookmark ~ twice even ~ or 3 times - in IE, FireFox and Chrome.

I'm sure you've heard by now however Google has released its own browser on September 2nd called Chrome. The very thing I noticed about it was that its logo sure looks a lot like the old Simon Says game.

So I loaded it up and it sure is fast, much faster than either Internet Explorer and Firefox, and it's a minimalist's dream - it's very naked of 'stuff...' like buttons and address bars. However there are some issues, such as popups. With IE and Fox you can choose which sites to block however Chrome doesn't, so it's not really all that friendly for sites like TubeBear. Also, it also codes things a bit differently and I notice that when I'm adding news on PlanetBears. The administration pages on PlanetBears are all messed up. In any account, it's beta, and I still give it a thumbs up, and if they polish it up, it just might wind up as my 'default' browser.

BTW, I got to 12 on that 'Simon Says' game. Alzheimer runs in my family.