Revolution 3.0: Sandmonkey on Egypt, the Internet and the Connected Fight

Egyptians hold shoes up high following Mubarak's speech on February 1. Showing the sole of your shoe is "a grave insult in Arab Muslim countries," sayeth MSNBC. Weird, no Kenneth Coles in sight.

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The revolution will be retweeted.* We’ve brought you a very special show this week. Renegade freedom blogger Mahmoud Salem (on Twitter as @sandmonkey), takes a good hour out of his revolution schedule to give us the skinny on what’s going on in Egypt (which is here, not here).

Salem was thrown into prison last Thursday for carrying medical equipment to injured protesters at Tahrir Square in Egypt. That same morning, he'd published this incendiary piece of blogging magic, and his blog was consequently shut down most of that day. After a hefty beating and the destruction of his goods (including his car), he was released when the police failed to put two and two together identity-wise.

As he says in the interview, “Every generation has a moment.” To that point, we dive deep, past Elliot Spitzer’s CNN segment on him to where this all started.

AdVerve 63: Cryptomeat, Revolution + Still No Jetpacks

No answers yet to why this is not our reality. Or yours.

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Dave Wilkie of Where's My Jetpack? (@jetpacks) and Radio Free Babylon joins us for some good-natured ad blogger fun. And there's a lot of that to be had in this king-sized episode. We cover your questions, Old Spice Guy redux, revolution in Egypt, Taco Bell’s iffy meat situation, sexy robots ... and, hell, for the very last time, why we still don't have an even distribution of jetpacks in the world. (There may be in Japan. Can somebody check?)

We even squeeze in an outright Social Media State of the Union, as it were. (And yes, we know it’s the GEICO gecko, not lizard. Listen to see what THAT means.)

Linky do-dahs:

- The Community Maturity Model - the chart to which Angela refers when she talks about how corporations can benchmark where they are in terms of openness and how far they have to go.
- Old Spice Guy is back! Let's slip into his milky brown eyes together.
- Gitanes, the cigarettes of patriots. (French ones.)
- Don Marquis' Archy & Mehitabel.

AdVerve 62: Snookapocalypse

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We whip out an old standard: Five for Five, which takes us from life with two suns to Starbucks' fun-packed new iced drink size, Trenta (a whopping 16 ml bigger than the average capacity of the adult human stomach! Although nowhere near maximum capacity as this handy illustration shows).

Somewhere in there we manage to make (too much) time for bestselling author Snookie and her homies on The Jersey Shore. Is there hope for mankind? Ask again in 2012. If we're slathering on the sunblock at 10:30 PM, then the answer is no.

Clarification: On the show, Angela is uncertain whether it's melanin or melatonin that controls human sleeping and waking cycles. It is melatonin. Melanin is for skin and hair colour. (Albinos, for example, generally have none.)

Tinky-linkies:

- Will the Earth have two suns by 2012?
- True Grit (which Bill needs you to see on pain of death).
- Snookie joins ranks of Hemingway and Salinger (and she loves us all!) and parties.
- Wikileaks’ journalistic partners in crime.
- Trouble sleeping? Cue up Insomnia, One Hour Photo or The Fisher King.
- Starbucks’ Trentas Gigantus.

AdVerve 61: A Grand Communications Condom

But will it protect them from pop-ups? Via.

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Theoretical artist Ben Kunz (@benkunz) of Thought Gadgets and Media Associates kicks off the year with us in a conversation about what the cool kids are after: Quora, curation, and a bigger TV in the basement.....?

We also squeeze in some ruminations on the future of the postal service, Netflix and Ben's suspect affinity to the youngest son of the 12 sons of Abraham. Trust us though, it all comes 360° and wraps nice-and-tidy into the title which drew you hither: users manifesting a profound subconscious need for a communications condom.

AdVerve 60: Holiday Edition

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Aka, our Holiday Bonanza ’Stravaganza. Wrappin’ up the year like no other. (Not really. For a proper year-end wrapup, GET YOU SOME BEANCAST! Bob's two-hour special features John Wall, Ken Wheaton and US TRULY.)

We do a quick run-through of holiday likes and gripes, including agency cards, holiday traditions, films, ads and music. There's also a brief but beefy manifesto on why we hate flashmobs more than anything else made by man. It's a lot, so we stretch it out to 45 whole minutes. (Dig 45 minutes better than 30? We're kinda likin' it, but tell us what YOU think.)

Also, Bill goes off on a tear about hateables on Twitter. It's a riot times 10, and all the better for sending you off on your way toward 2011.

Link sausages:

- Stupid Dell XPS laptop flashmob in apathetic café setting.
- Burberry's bohemian holiday folk track.
- Modea's Buzzword Bingo.
- Help Luckie decide where to give.
- Have a half-assed crowdsourced Ducati Christmas.
- BONUS: A Christmas Story gangsta remix.
- BONUS: Chinese dude claims having sexual tryst with alien. (In French, but Google Translate that bad-boy.)

Image credit: Culturemob, for A Christmas Story: the Musical.

AdVerve 59: Psychedelic Curation Station

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Guillaume Decugis (@gdecugis) of Scoop.it joins us to talk about the curation age, what makes the HuffPo model “special,” protecting journalists while serving users’ desire to share, and Silicon Valley versus the French tech scene. (Email us for a Scoop.it invite: advervepodcast [at] gmail [dot] com.)

That’s a lot to cover in 30 25 minutes. Hold onto your hats, cowpokes.

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AdVerve 58: How (Not...?) to Get Ravished at Tech Conferences.

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Aka, tech conference date rape. We had other things on our minds what with the wrapping of LeWeb 2010, but as often happens one big topic dominated the score: those whose hands traverse the endless expanse of your inert spinal cord after a watered-down cocktail or two. What to do? Do you out them? Or do you play it cool, like Sam L. Jackson?

Second big topic: we WikiLeak all over the place on why Julian Assange is both hero and villain.

That, and myriad little else, in another superfast 30-minute show. (Are you liking this BTW? WE GOTTA KNOW.)

Linkage:

- Google tech conference dating fun.
- Julian Assange doesn’t like to pay?

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AdVerve 57: Putting the “Me” in Media

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And the I. That picture is the self-promotional Apocalypse, innit? Never have so many done so much with so little. We’re not hatin, we’ll take any endorsement deal. But ya gotta draw a line, no? Unless these three are just doing what we expect the rich and fabulous to do. NAMELY BE RICH AND FABULOUS.

Along the way we rail against the Man™ for not giving us the Super Funkadelic All-in-One Viewing Device so we never have to leave our couches. Angela dishes on her Scoop.it love as we go off on curators as the new... oh, and Justin Bieber’s manstache. We also try out a new shorter format. Think of it like AdVerve concentrate.

It’s got linkability too:

- Kevin Bacon’s Logitech Revue.
- La Senza bra choir.
- Michael Bay’s Secret.
- Kardashian Kredit Kard Kaput.

AdVerve 56 - Get Whirled with Joe Sabia.

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Joe Sabia of SF-based Whirled,  of Rockmelt demo vid, zombie speeding and Mad Men cigarette fame, joins us for some good clean all-natural fun. What’s the difference between Vimeo and YouTube? Why plug a manifesto? What makes Tumblr so awesome?

We get to the heart of what makes something catch an audience's eye, why mediocrity might not be so bad ... and why the internet may be the best thing that ever happened to really boring people. Also, Joe busts out the Morse Code chops. It's a riot in dots and dashes.

AdVerve 55: Tryptophan! Santabration! ...and Airport Frisks.

That yearly bacchanalia of peace on earth and goodwill to men.

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We get you in the holiday spirit with the curious origins of Thanksgiving and some pre-Christmas foreplay. Also, Bill manages to squeeze in a full-sized rant about the new TSA body scans while Angela tries desperately to reel the conversation back to tinseltown and the roots of the Christmas stocking. (Not what you learned in school! But probably even less true.)

We sorta do never quite do get around to making that “thankful” list. (Although Santa knows we tried.)

Also in the confession booth: the worst Christmas presents we ever got. Email us yours!

Linkle-toes:

- The alleged origins of the Christmas stocking.
- Muslims Wearing Things.
- Full-body scanarama! A gift from a grateful nation.
- There used to be two Black Fridays.
- Deep-fried Thanksgoodness!
- Watch out for fire though.
- TSA scanner man.
- Battle: Los Angeles.