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Facebook Invites Ad Community to Witness Its Demise Facebook's up to something and we're not even going to speculate other than to say, "Facebook, Meet MySpace. May you both have a fine time languishing on the digital nursing home veranda awaiting certain death." Italy May Tax Hard-Working, Salt-of-the-Earth Bloggers! BoingBoing via Beppe Grillo reports that Italian politician Ricardo Franco Levi has proposed a law that requires anyone with a blog or website to register with the government and produce certificates or pay a tax. This holds even if the publisher has no intention of making money with the site. The draft was approved by the Council of Ministers on October 12th. Bastardos! Grillo vows, "My blog won't close. If I have to, I'll transfer lock stock, barrel and server to a democratic State." There's the hot-bloodedness we know and love. In a thoughtful post-script, he provides Levi's email address to "anyone wishing to express their opinion" about the draft law. Get Laid. And Maybe Paid! No, you don't have to move to Nevada. Durex is conducting a cattle call for condom testers, ostensibly -- MBP wryly adds -- to find out how its products are performing. "Sexual intercourse enthusiasts" who volunteer at the Condom Tester site get a handy-dandy toolkit with vibrating rings, condoms and lubricants. One volunteer gets $1,000. Try explaining that one to mom and dad. Anyway, we of course have registered because we're always good sports where a noble cause is concerned. Post-registration, the brave are invited to The Pants Whisperer -- which we've seen -- and Propose the Ring -- which we wish we'd caught earlier, because damned if a vibrating ring isn't a better take on the De Beers manifesto. Perfect Vid for Geek Nostalgia -- Right Before the Crying Jag At first we thought 4:30 for an online homage was way too long, but after the first few seconds of The Internet Stars are Viral we leaped up repeatedly and went "ohmigod!" like a bunch of kids. It includes: ask a ninja, Miss South Carolina, the Western Whoppers campaign, Vote for Pedro, the Sony Bravia bunnies, the Thriller prison dance, LonelyGirl15, o rly? bird, Chris Crocker, i love bees, box in a box... Neat stuff from Cakke. But hey, where's how do I shot web? Levi's Launches Branded Universe in Asian Market Levi's has just launched a virtual world in Hong Kong and China. It has the amazing effect of chafing both our American and Asian sensibilities. Way to go, Tequila\TBWA. NexTag: Get a Degree in Business, Health, More... "Want degree but can't quit job?" We love that. Guess where we found it? MySpace. Get diploma in two years while toss donuts at Nicole Richie! GLEE Serves Military Recruitment Ads to Gay Demo! MediaBuyerPlanner points us to a military recruitment ad campaign that accidentally appeared on GLEE.com (Gay, Lesbians and Everyone Else). The armed forces still operate on a "don't ask, don't tell" basis, so it was with surprise when recruiters for the Army, Navy and Air Force discovered they've been pushing ads on a site so flamboyantly ... out. The ads came from Community Direct -- GLEE's parent company -- as part of an alliance with Monster.com. Apparently the military buys some kind of package from Monster that grants their spots inclusion onto any of a number of represented community sites. When military agents were told of the GLEE placements, they appeared astonished and pulled the ads. YES Essentials Hits Us with Icky New Product Demos If you're wondering what the image is at left, it involves two guys pouring milk onto a pair of car seats. Later, these seats are going to be locked in airtight capsules and left alone for awhile, and then we're going to look at mold! This is part of YES Essential's new Seeing is Believing demo, which shows you the effects of odors, stain and static on items that are protected by YES Essentials, and items that aren't. (The latter is not cute.) YES Essentials last indulged our ick factor with Splat the Mat, where we got to pour stuff on a really clean woman. Props to Erwin-Penland for knowing we like watching things get gross. So many products focus on ridding our lives of this compulsion. EP obviously knows better. John Cusack, Mars Movie Bring Time Capsules Back into Vogue Here's an interesting premise for a movie: a kid who thinks he's from Mars and spends most of his time in a box. And who better to socialize him than John Cusack? Few adults suffer more adorably. For sex appeal, add Amanda Peet to the mix. How can you lose? The film is called Martian Child, which you can learn all about at the Martian Child/Family Project website -- brought us by New Media Maze, Ltd. The site lets families create time capsules -- er, "pods," to which they can add photos, videos and other documents. When you're done, your pod gets launched to virtual Mars, where other people can look through it. We're going to guess that at the end of the film, irrefutable evidence will suggest that the kid actually is from Mars, and the grown-ups will have something to believe in again. After 3 Weeks on a String, Gum Thief Proves Decidedly Worthy of Perusal Final reactions to the last installment of the Crush, Toronto campaign for Douglas Coupland's The Gum Thief: - Roger, pt 3: If people wore costumes 365 days of the year, it wouldn't be cool, it would just be Second Life And we have no idea why these ads are now compelling us to buy this book. Maybe it's because we actually did wait anxiously for each installment. Or maybe the thought of poisoning people at a dinner party -- or at least making their tummies hurt -- is almost appealing. Or maybe, once upon a time, we did scribble Anarchy symbols onto office supply shop property with felt pens. It's anybody's guess, really. 
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