Top Websites Blocked By Businesses in 2010

Huffington Post - Cyberslacking can be a real drag on companies. The solution for many firms seems to be to simply block the websites on which they believe their employees will waste the most time. Studies have shown social media to be a major time sink, as well online games and personal email. Take a look at the slideshow below to see if your favorite sites are among the most blocked by companies. Which sites do you see that you think shouldn't have made this list? 

10. Ebay, 9. Meebo, 8. Ad.Yieldmanager, 7. Orkut, 6. Hotmail.com 5. Twitter, 4. ad.doubleclick.net, 3. Youtube, 2. Myspace, 1. Facebook

Not that I think this study is completely wrong, for the most part its about what I expected to see, couple of spammy pop-up servers, and your usual social network sites (though I wonder how long Myspace will need to be on this list, I assumed only perverts and convicted felons hung out there these days, just figured a company wouldn't hire you if you were the kind of person that liked Myspace).

A couple of exceptions though, what the hell are Meebo and Orkut? And what are they protecting us from exactly?  Orkut I've figured out is a google social network that is apparently only popular in Brazil? Is that right?  Good thing they blocked that, I've got a ton of people in Sao Paulo I've been trying to catch up with...

Meebo is even more puzzling. I guess it's a type of instant messenger, though after 2 minutes of google searching I'm still not sure (that's my limit, if I can't figure something out through google in 2 minutes then its probably not worth knowing).  I'm not quite sure what office admins are worried about here as I thought only 13-17 year olds used instant messenging programs...the rest of us gainfully employed people have smart phones.

How did a porn site or two not make this list? Do companies block these or is it some sort societal assumption that workers won't get their freak on during office hours?

By the way, the Number One time waster in my office, by far, ESPN.  Know why this isn't blocked? Because all the male bosses wouldn't be able to get through their day with out a sports article or too.

Jay-Z and Will Smith To Remake Broadway Hit, Annie

USA Today - It's official: Jay-Z is teaming with Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, along with some other folks, to form a joint venture to develop and produce movies.Their first project will be a "re-imagination of the classic Broadway musical Annie ,as a vehicle for Willow Smith," according to an announcement by Overbrook Entertainment, the Smith's company.  Willow Smith, who probably isn't all that familiar with a hard-knock life, is already signed to Jay-Z's record label, Roc Nation, which produced her first hit single titled Whip My Hair. Jay-Z previously sampled the classic Annie song It's the Hard Knock Life in his chart-busting single Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem).

Nepotism, not just for white people anymore.  The fact that I didn't even know Will Smith had a daughter, yet news that she'd be starring in this film didn't even make me blink.  My mind just kinda said "oh, that figures" and moved right along.

I'm more curious about how drastic this "re-imagination" is going to be.  Is it going to be all urban, like this time Annie is named Aniequa or Anniesha, and instead of leaving behind a life in the foster home she's dreaming of leaving behind life in a crack den in inner-city Baltimore for a life growing up with a rich rapper father figure?

Does anyone know if they've contacted mini-me and Dr. Evil to reprise their duet for the soundtrack to this film?

By the way, Will, I change the channel every time that "Whip My Hair" song comes on...I guess the apple does fall far from the tree every now and then.  I'm going to continue to pretend I don't know she's your daughter as not to tarnish my memory of you.

Walgreens Selling Their Own Brand of Beer

Walgreen Co. has quietly rolled out a private label brew. The product, Big Flats 1901, will carry a suggested retail price of $2.99 for a six-pack of cans and $11.49 for a 24-pack, the company said...“In just the first few weeks of sales consumer feedback has been very positive, as beer drinkers across the U.S. are thrilled to have such a quality brew at a value price,” Kathleen Burns, senior marketing manager at Novato, Calif.-based Winery Exchange said in a statement.

Brilliant move by Walgreens. I can't help but wish, however, that Kathleen Burns hadn't beat around the bush and had come right out and stated what their real plan is:

"In just the first few weeks of sales consumer feedback has been very positive, vagabonds and indigents across the US are thrilled to have quality swill for a price affordable on a dumpster diving budget"

 What better way to take advantage of a prolonged recession than by offering a dirt cheap beer to the alcohol businesses best customers, homeless drunks.  Sure Keystone and Natty-Light are cheap enough during regular times, but times are tough right now.  With more and more foreclosures each day the competition for recyclable cans is tougher than ever, $13 for a 30-rack of beer is just too rich for most bums blood...alcohol that is.  

Your Grandparents are Still Paying for AOL

PC Mag - Today, AOL has just 4 million subscribers. But here is the kicker—those people are still paying. AOL.com, of course, is free. It used to be a pay service, but has been free for years. You can access the AOL.com, read all of its content, and check your aol.com e-mail without paying a dime. If you already pay for an account, however, AOL will continue to bill you. And evidently, that makes AOL a LOT of money. What's more, Auletta estimates that these subscriber revenues generate 80% of the AOL's profit. How much is that? In the third quarter of last year these suspect subs generated about $244 million! All because AOL subscribers don't know they don't have to pay anymore.

This can't be. I'm not mad that they may be scamming old people and idiots alike, thats common practice and I don't have time to look down disapprovingly on every company or person that scams old people for financial gain, it would be exhausting.

My issue is that I haven't received one of those fancy CD-Rom discs in years, despite the fact that the business is still running. I honestly just figured AOL was just AOL.com now, didn't realize they still provided service.  I used to check the mail every day waiting to see if a new version of AOL had come out.  I'd run into the house and install that shit and then troll around chat rooms acting superior to everyone who hadn't upgraded yet (yea I was living in fast times back then). The only thing that sucked was I usually had to re-download all my punters. If you're reading this AOL send me a goddamn disc, you're missing out on a potential customer.

Man Stands Down Water Cannon In Egypt (video inside)

Is this the kind of technology we're up against over there in the Arab world? A school bus fitted with a water cannon and citizens armed with rocks?  Remind me again why we haven't just colonized the Middle East as of yet?  

The police at UMass used to bring out heavier artillery any time the Redsox were in the playoffs, using gas and bean bag guns, and that didn't stop the students from flipping cars and tearing down light posts.  I fail to see what is so impressive about standing up to a Super-Soaker.  Inner-city kids play with open fire hydrants for fun in the summer.  How is what this guy is doing any different?

Boston Area Snow Budgets Already Broke?

Pretty soon this is all local cities and towns will be able to afford.

Boston Globe - As forecasters predict between up to 10 inches of snow between this afternoon and tomorrow, Peabody has almost reached it's budget capacity for snow removal, the town's Department of Public Services director said. The city has spent all but $20,000 of the $540,000 budgeted for this winter's snow removal, said Robert Langley, Peabody's public services director. "We've had so much snow, we basically took up about a year's worth the budget," Langley said.

Look, I just don't get this. Who is running the budgets in the cities around here? And don't give me that crap about we've already had so much snow, its the same shit every year.  The only difference is cities and towns are running this story in January this year instead of a week or two into February.  Same story every year.

This is New England people.  You did grow up here right? Maybe you want to budget for more than 2 or 3 freaken snow storms?  Snow doesn't just stop falling because we're in a recession. It's almost as if the people running these budgets have no financial planning or accounting background at all. 

What makes it worse is that you know the Mayor of Boston is going to be on tv tonight urging all "non-essential" employees to stay home tomorrow (Menino included, guy has a hard enough time not falling down when its a dry sunny day, never mind throwing snow into the equation).  So cities and town are taking a double whack, paying for snow removal, and paying for all the lazy government workers to stay home sipping hot chocolate and watching Maury. 

Well here is an idea, instead of paying them to stay home, how about taking the days salary of anyone who doesn't show up and putting it towards the snow removal fund.  Still not mandatory for them to work, but don't pay them if they choose not to.  This is the real world and they're adults.  I went to college, got a good job in the private sector and I still have to work on snow days, I don't think its too much to expect the guy GED equivalency degree that works the toll booth to show up to work in the snow.  You're already vastly over paid and have a better retirement fund than I'll ever have, you can handle shoveling out your car and commuting to work. 

Social Media Creates Higher Work Productivity? Yea and Smoking Breaks Help Too

If you want to see the full sized graphic click on it

 Soshable - Do 54% of businesses have it wrong? The majority believe that allowing your employees to visit social media sites like Facebook and Twitter while at work will decrease productivity. Apparently, they’re absolutely wrong...Depending on which study you look at (and there are several that yield opposite conclusions) you can make a case for either side. We’re sticking with this one from SocialCast, probably because it looks really nice and the facts make sense. Before you dismiss it, think about it. If employees are allowed to relax a bit at work and stay on top of their social profiles, they time they spend doing work should increase in efficiency.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love if someone shared this with management at my job, but I don't think its 100% accurate.  

Of course workers are going to say they're more productive if you ask them.  We lie through our teeth all the time.  How could me spending even more time on the internet than I already do increase my productivity?  As of now I'm strictly on a 10 mins on, 10 mins off work schedule. If they allowed me access to Facebook all bets are off. I'd waste more time than your average smoker employee taking 12 breaks a day to work on their cancer development.

I'm productive and all, but there is no way I'm at my peak productiveness with all the browsing I do, and that's without Twitter and Facebook.  

I can't even imagine how much less work I'd get done if I didn't have to take a cover-ops style trip to the stair well or bathroom stall every time I wanted to tweet a new blog from my phone.  Its like a Bourne Supremacy drill, in and out in 3 minutes before anyone knows I'm gone. I think people are starting to get curious about who the guy is that occupies the stall but doesn't wipe or flush though...

Defendant Tells Judge and Jury to "Suck My Dick"

Village Voice - "With all due respect, and from the bottom of my heart, suck my dick!" That was the message convicted killer Zaire Paige had for Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Vincent Del Giudice yesterday afternoon as he was sentenced to four consecutive 25-to-life sentences that will keep him behind bars for at least 107 years.   "This whole trial, y'all been sucking' each other off. I'm sorry I didn't get my dick sucked," Paige said when Del Giudice asked him if he had any statement to make. "Whatever happened to y'all, it's bad," he said to the victims, who included a couple of women who were in the salon and were hit by stray gunfire. "But I don't feel sorry 'cause I didn't do it."

At least he said with all due respect though...

Wow, with apologies to "The Merchant of Death," I think we just found the new title holder for the biggest bad ass on earth title. 

And I kind of respect Zaire.  Not for murdering people, that wasn't a great choice, but for sticking to his guns (distasteful pun?).  Too often criminals go back on their hard line stance once they've been sentenced. Praying for forgiveness, promising to find a higher power, pleading for solitary confiment to avoid a life of sodomy.  Not Zaire. This guy is begging for a dick sucking.  I guess you can't blame him, sitting through the whole trial watching everyone else suck each other off, its enough to make anyone snap out of jealousy.

And yea, people usually sit silently through the victim statement, or offer apologies.  But I'd prefer Zaire's honesty.  If someone just murdered my relative I'd want to hold that hatred in my heart.  I don't want the responsibility of forgiving some ass hole because he's promised to find god.  Fuck that, I'd rather hate you for the despicable human being that you are.  Thank you Zaire, for a refreshing taste of  honesty, and for playing the role of the villain in a world full of pussies.

Pope Says Not Everyone Has Right to Be Married...Even Straight People

First action as Pope CEO, get him some business cards

Politicus USA - Making a speech on January 22, 2011 to the Roman Rota, which is the tribunal within the Vatican that decides marriage annulments, Pope Benedict XVI said that “no one can make a claim to the right to a nuptial ceremony.”  The problem, of course, is annulments, those little pronouncements that make a marriage as if it had never been. The Pope feels too many are being granted, especially in the United States (in 2006 the U.S. alone had more annulments than every other country combined). Therefore, priests must do a better job to make sure people are ready to be married and “qualified” I suppose one would say, for nuptials. 

Gee, you'd think during a time where Catholic church going numbers are dwindling by the day the Pope would be all about throwing religious parties and bringing his strays back to the flock, guess he's chosen to go a different route though. 

I'm pretty sure at this point the church needs to bring in a hired CEO consultant of sorts to help them out on the business end of things.  I'm no expert but I'm fairly certain insulting people and refusing to provide services is no way to endear yourself to potential customers, and that's really how this needs to be looked at. Churches are closing at a rapid pace, I'd think pushing marriage licenses on people would be the plan.  Collect for the marriage upfront and then collect on the back end for the annulment.  That's a nice guaranteed 50% cash flow based current divorce statistics. 

The church, by and large, is selling a service.  They're selling morality, inner peace, and entrance to heaven.  It may be taboo or outdated to say that, and maybe the church doesn't go around broadcasting this like it used to back in the days of tithing but it's still very  much the case.  You're always going to have a religious core to attend your services and spread your gospel, but you've lost the majority of the public who were just looking for a nice convenient way to ensure an eternity of bliss.  A few bucks in the collection plate, an envelope of cash for performing a few religious services (marriage included) and an eternity of ice cream, pizza and couch potato activities (yes I'm lazy even in heavenly fantasies).  

You want me back? Start charging an entrance fee (come on, too many people go and just conveniently pass the donation plate without dropping in their share, collect that fee up front), get some comfortable couches in there (who sits on wooden benches? what am I, Amish?)  Throw up a big screen in the back with a ticker scrolling random bible passages, made up statistics about heaven, and sports scores and you've got me back. 

Until then I'll continue to enjoy sleeping in on Sunday.