Some additional information behind the MSN "Breaking News" story. The background on the founder's location -- a small town in The Netherlands -- couldn't be more 'flat earth'.

Motion artwork video from visual artist Takuya Hosogane. There isn't much info here or on his site about the methodology, so I'm assuming it's all directly his design work, and not generated algorithmically through the sounds.

The Guardian had 40% growth in 2009. It's has more readers than the LA Times. And they've only spent $34k in marketing in the US for the past 10 years. Rusbridger imagines start-ups that “begin each day with a prayer session for all national newspapers to follow Rupert Murdoch behind a pay wall.

If I owned Twitter, I'd be far more interested in the overall usage stats than just uniques. I understand the importance of uniques for overall growth, but reading most of the complaints, it's not that the service offers no value, but rather it's the perceived lack of filtering. People will eventually figure out lists, and other ways of filtering the data. And Twitter's open source approach should continue to ensure that a very large community of developers and entrepreneurs will continue to find new ways of expanding Twitter's utility.

The blend of humor and insight at Fake Steve Jobs never fails to inform and entertain. It's been said before that the iPad is the newspaper industries last hope for survival. And this post delves into how Jobs wants to redefine the multimedia experience. I also like his unrestrained assault on the Kindle. I've always been a big fan, but this week has really exposed it's vulnerability, imo.

I'm certainly not throwing down $$ on this yet, but will definitely be in line to try it at the Apple store. The most interesting thing is the position as an ebook reader. It's certainly easier to draft off the Kindle than define a new market. And when positioned against that, it makes a lot of sens

I like to imagine Jonathan Ive and James Dyson -- tank-topped, schnapps-drunk, and enthusiastically slap-fighting over who's fancier.

This app is a fun way to change the background of your Twitter page. It reminds me a little of Kuler, Adobe's color palette tool. The UX is a little confusing, and while a lot of the designs have a similar feel, importing a photo gives you obvious more dimension. From there, the tool makes it easy to modify the surrounding page design elements on the fly, and save.

At TEDIndia, Pranav Mistry demos several tools that help the physical world interact with the world of data. Minority Report, here we come. But what's best about this IMO is that it simply looks fun. And what better way to sell a new technology? Note that he's making his technology Open Source to accelerate innovation. Also note the great stage set.

This is one of those unfortunately rare times when a new ad platform actually adds relevance and value to a user experience. When you're using Google Street View and see a billboard for a movie that hasn't been in theaters for 12 months? Imagine that instead it's for a movie now playing just around the corner.