The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow’s Headlines available at Amazon » .
Comment by Christopher Warnock:
Loren Coleman’s “The Copycat Effect” is a well researched and compelling account of how media accounts of suicide trigger off further deaths. Coleman, a well known and respected authority on suicides and the author of “Suicide Clusters” goes into exhaustive detail and carefully documents the phenomenon of copycat suicides, giving examples from Ancient World up to the Kurt Cobain, Columbine and “The Deerhunter”.
After reading the extensive documentation …

Can Google become the next ad broker for television, radio and print in the US and eventually in the Philippines? At the same time, would it be able to threaten AGBNielsen in the field of viewer metrics? Give it five years and if the Kapamilya-Kapuso network wars were still present, then the delusional fans would be saying bad words to Google Metrics or Google Adwords Offline or whatever its going to be called.
Google turned targeted online ads into a $10.6 billion business, and it has been pushing into offline advertising …

It’s hard to find information about PLDT Landline Plus — a landline over cellular network combo — but I found about Globelines Speak n Surf and Bayantel SPAN. And Digitel MANGO.
Globelines Speak n Surf
For P700 or P800 a month you get a wireless landline and wireless internet connection! Neat!
Bayantel SPAN
This service runs on CDMA standard at P750 a month with unlimited calls and TXT messages with the SPAN network. A neat way to launch their mobile service. Nagsimula muna sa landline. Available in Metro Manila and selected provinces. My guess …

The reason why strong contenders don’t stay long:
To win praise this past week, Sanjaya merely had to improve a little bit from his previously weak performances. To earn criticism, Melinda only had to stumble slightly from her previously strong performances. Sanjaya didn’t become a singer of Melinda’s caliber overnight, nor did Melinda become a performer on Sanjaya’s level.
The audience’s diminished expectations for Sanjaya have, therefore, made his potential for growth unlimited, while viewers’ exceptionally high expectations for Melinda have made her potential for failure much more possible.
By underwhelming viewers and …

No installation needed. Just sign up, and pay P499 (that’s a cute P500) for monthly dues and less than P200 for the monthly handset installment payments.
It’s still a cellular phone because it takes advantage of SMART/PLDT cell sites. But the phone won’t fit inside your pocket since it looks like a regular home phone minus the wires. You also have the landline area codes like 074 for Baguio / Benguet / Mountain Province instead of the 0918- / 0919- / 0920- / etc prefixes.
That means cheaper calls. I’m thinking I …

Google starts testing its shipping business by introducing Google Paper. Your GMail copy via snail mail. Later, Google will be offering to ship the goods you ordered via Google Checkout. Sigh, I still want my Google Gulp. But all you get are ads at the back of your paper mail or the full color photos (on photo paper). No free drink on a bottle with a brim that can analyze your saliva and tell you what kind of person you are with matching AdSense.

Sad part: Service is offered in …