Looking For Trouble?

Disney has bought a social network aimed at kids.


It's called Togetherville, but they might as well call it "To Catch A Predator: The Online Edition."


"Togetherville is meant for children aged 6 to 10 and allows them to interact with the children of their parents' friends on Facebook," reports the Huffington Post.


I have no idea how they'll weed out the kiddie diddlers and potential perverts, but I wish them good luck. 

Memorial Day Hangover

Forget the pool parties; THIS is what I'm looking forward to this Memorial Day Weekend...

Mother's Milk... On Ice

Gross. A ice cream shop in London, Icecreamists, is about to launch a new flavor of frozen goodness. They call it "Baby Gaga" and, like the pop star it's named after, it's like no other. It's made from human breast milk.

The delicacy will be flavored using Madagascan vanilla pods and lemon zest, and the shop will sell single servings of home-churned delight for £23.

No word on cup (or cone) sizes, but at that price, here's hoping the portions are, ahem, voluptuous.

Unsurprisingly, this new product has attracted a lot of attention. The BBC, Reuters and the Huffington Post have all covered it. 


"What could be more natural than fresh, free-range mother's milk in an ice cream?," said Victoria Hiley, who is one of the 15 women who answered an online ad, and agreed to sell her boobs' bounty.


Thanks, Hiley, but I think I'm going to stick with Häagen-Dazs.

Finally, a Reason to Get Cable

Source: wingazette.com

I haven't had cable TV for more than a year now. Heck, I didn't even have a TV until I literally stumbled upon one back in October. Still, I watch all my TV—and my "all my TV," I mean "episodes of The Office"—online, via Hulu. I kind of miss some shows, but I don't really have time for TV. (And thanks to the internet, I can always dig up a recent episode of whatever show I'm missing in .25 seconds online, if I really want to.) Meanwhile, I get my cable news fix at the gym almost every day.

However, the recent announcement that Swiss Chalet has its own channel might force me to reconsider my stance on cable television. The restaurant chain is about to launch a 24-hour chicken channel. And it's going to be all rotisserie, all the time.

"The Rotisserie Channel will feature two rows of chickens roasting in an open-flame oven," CBC news reports.

I don't even eat chicken, but I feel I need to see this for myself. Sadly, it's only going to be available for Rogers cable subscribers in Ontario, Canada, for 13 mouthwatering weeks.

This Cat Means Business

This cat never sleeps. He's kind of like the Chuck Norris of feline business. And yes, there's more where that came from.

Public Places, Public Photos

Here's another ditty from Flavorwire for you folks. This time, it's a collection of photographs by Swiss artist Corinne Vionnet that depict some of the world's most famous landmarks. It's a collection of hundreds of photos, actually, that, when combined, resemble dreamlike Impressionist paintings. (Think Monet, Manet, Renoir and Van Gogh, you swine. Although, yes, some consider Van Gogh Post-Impressionist...)

At any rate, Vionnet’s Photo Opportunities is well-worth checking out/clicking through. But, a proceed with caution: Viewing these photos WILL make you want to travel and see them for yourself. Consider yourself warned.

Apparently she used 200-300 photos that were shot by strangers to make each of her images. She found all of the almost-identical pictures online, then layered the lifted (presumably public domain) pics on top of each other to create 18 of her own blurry, Impressionist-like works of art.

My favorites are below, but click here to see the whole set.

If IKEA Built Stonehenge

See, this is why you should visit Flavorwire: Stonehenge building instructions, through the industrious eyes of IKEA. And this time, no Allen wrench required! Brilliant. 

Cheers to Justin Pollard & Q1 Annual for this one.

The Birthday Grinch

This is hilarious: A blogger crashed Paris Hilton's birthday party, then stole her cake. He didn't set out to steal the cake—that's what makes this so brilliant. Instead, he just took such good and full advantage of the open bar that he got wasted and, in his stupor, decided it a good idea to steal the three-tier cake.

"I woke up this morning with a $2000 birthday cake in my living room. It’s big. It’s red. It says “Paris.” And its fucking delicious," he writes.

The blogger, Paz, briefly explains how his buddy convinced him to crash the party and, once inside, how it all shook out. It seems the key to their success—in terms of crashing the party, and stealing the cake, too—was simply acting like they belonged there. (That was my strategy when I was challenged to crash a party at the Russian Embassy in Ottawa several years ago. Indeed, it worked—but sadly, there was no cake for me to eat, never mind steal.)

According to Paz's account, the party was all fine and well, until he realized no birthday cake was being served. There were multiple cakes, but no one was eating it. (Apparently Paris Hilton has her cake, but doesn't want to eat it, too.) And when Paz heard the uneaten cake would probably be tossed, he decided to take action. Click here to read the entire hilarious play-by-play.

#FF Fail

As some of you know, I compile Vegas Seven's popular Tweets of the Week column, and I'm kind of (OK, totally) obsessed with Twitter. Imagine my excitement when I heard the Las Vegas Review-Journal published a story outlining the 10 must-follow Twitter personalities in Sin City. Being the obsessive-compulsive tweeter that I am, I was immediately obsessed with the story.

Unfortunately, I thought it was crap—and failed to mention a few of the best tweeters in town. (Who? Keep reading, or skip to the bottom.)

Yes, the writer, Corey Levitan, made some solid choices. @zappos @vegascourtesan and @jayfenster have all made my column—a few times, I think—and for good reason. A few of his other picks were decent, too, although they're not necessarily at the top of my must-follow list. @danawhite and @hollymadison are high-profile Las Vegans, but that doesn't mean we should be following their every move on Twitter, too.

Still, I give Dana serious credit for speaking his mind at all times. The UFC boss has no filter, and god bless him for it. He swears, he tells people off, he's real—which is something I wish Holly would do more of. I follow her, but I find her Holly's World co-star @LauraCroft83 far more entertaining. When the two went on vacation together a few months ago, it was like following two totally different vacations: Holly was all sugarplums an lollipops (pleasant, but kind of boring), while Laura kept asking who farted and made fun of, well, everything. But maybe this just speaks to my affinity for crude jokes and toilet humor. But I digress; back to the list.

@PennJillette is also listed on the R-J's roll call, but I honestly don't see why. Levitan says "Jillette's feed ushers readers behind the Rio's magic curtain and inside the mind of an outspoken libertarian and atheist," but most of Jillette's posts—his most recent ones, at least—are status updates that fall flat. (Flying to LA for meetings and some V/O work? Zzzz!) I'd actually follow his wife @EmilyJilette before Big Poppa Penn; the Mrs. is a far better tweeter.

There were a few head-scratchers on the list. I couldn't help but wonder why @slidertruck make the cut. I love Ric and his little baby burgers, but... really? (And if he did, why didn't the other food trucks in town, such as @SloppiJos or @FukuBurger?) Meanwhile, another list-maker, @VegasDegenerate, is only mildly entertaining some of the time—maybe once for every 10 or so tweets, if that. But! **Spoiler alert!** he DID make next week's column, so perhaps his game is improving. Lastly, @GuyNSinCity and @workingthestrip are niche tweeters—for bargain hunters and job seekers, respectively—and are not worth most people's while. That said, I understand Levitan was doing his job, trying to appeal to a range of readers.

I certainly don't blame Levitan. I mean, @coreylevitan doesn't have much of a Twitter presence (he has 467 followers as of now, and his last post (Feb. 6) was little more than a link to a R-J story). And, hey, at least he didn't rank Twittergate scandalmakers Vegas Bill or 24k. Hmmm. I wonder why the R-J didn't have their web content editor, @lasvegasloopy, compile the list. She's savvy and in the Twitter know. (And she's made this week's Tweets of the Week, too.)

Again, it's unfair and far too easy for me to criticize. Heck, I actually feel Levitan's pain: Lest we forget how the very publication I once worked for named @lasvegassign as "Best Use of Twitter" in its Best of the City issue. (Laaaame!) But, in my defense, my foot was half way out the door when the issue was published in July.

Alas, I think most old media outlets (and editors and writers) still don't understand how new media works—here in Las Vegas or elsewhere. The Las Vegas Sun generally gets it, but they're a rare breed over there. (Yes, I'm totally biased; I used to work there.)

Ah, but I digress once again. This post is not meant to fling mud here or there—or anywhere, really. Instead, I wanted to give props to a few very-deserving folks who didn't make the R-J's cut for some bizarre reason, including but not limited to:

• @JockinJB (SpyOnVegas photographer Jessica Blair)
  "Just made a goodwill donation. Don't be surprised if the homeless of Vegas start to look like 90's club whores and smell of cool water..." (Feb. 8)
  

• @BrookeInVegas ("I'm entertainingly inappropriate, sprinkled with a dash of awesome")
  "Whenever you start to feel like you don’t get the recognition you deserve. Just think how Tom Cruise’s boyfriend must feel right now." (Feb. 16)

• @DustyPickle (My old boss—not that I ever truly thought of him as a "boss," per se—who used to tweet as @Wendoh but recently reconsidered his handle, and went the more non-corporate route—and for good reason)
  "Attempting to be the first guy with no shoes on at this club. These drunk chicks aren't winning the bare foot dance off. Not on my watch." (Feb. 11)
  

And, while I'm at it, here are some more Twitter personalities whom I'd suggest worth following. Not that you asked, but, let's face it, this is as close to a #FF as I get:

@DangerGuerrero, @kellyoxford, @adam_fogle, @TFLN and my very funny, long-lost friend @Aubs.

Just because they don't live in Vegas doesn't mean they're not worthy of your attention.

Cheers and happy tweeting!
@marseniuk

PS: Who did I miss? If you have a favorite Vegas Twitter personality who you consider a must-follow, give him or her a shout-out in the comments section below.

Hometown Girl, Born This Way

Shout out to 10-year-old Maria Aragon, whose cover of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" moved the modern day Madonna to tears—and prompted her to tweet about it:


CBC News says the video had been viewed about 3,100 times since being posted on Feb. 16. After Gaga posted a link Thursday morning, hits jumped to 61,000 (as of 1 p.m. EST).

"Born This Way" was unveiled to the world earlier this week, meaning Aragon mastered it in a matter of days. (Or hours, considering the time she undoubtedly had to spend away from her keyboard to attend school, etc.)

This is cool in and of itself, but it's extra cool to me, since Aragon lives in Winnipeg, a.k.a. everyone's favorite obscure Canadian city (and where I went to college). The Peg boasts two degrees of separation, and its residents are filled with a bizarre, fierce sense of civic pride—hence, my cheerleading.

Check out my sweet-singing homegirl: