Okay, the definition of “star” is getting stretched a bit thin on Dancing With the Stars this season …

The eleventh season of Dancing With the Stars kicks off on Sept. 20th and this latest round of “stars” leaves a lot to be desired.  The Spring 2010 season at least had a few more people I’ve heard of, or at least considered “stars” of some definition as opposed to “daughter of famous person.”  That isn’t to say I’m commenting on their family in any way, but seriously, how do you define her as “a star”?  I have to say I’m puzzled by that one.

Anyway, here is a list of all the stars and which professionals they are teamed up with.

Update 9/1/10: Updated the dancers to the official list.  Edyta Sliwinska has left the show.

Some quick facts on each:

• Michael Bolton is probably best known for being the butt of jokes about the music industry as opposed to being known as a musician.
• Margaret Cho is a well-known comedienne with an extremely dirty mouth.
• Rick Fox is a former basketball player and is currently dating Eliza Dushku of Buffy, The Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse.
• Jennifer Gray was in Dirty Dancing.
• David Hasselhoff … come on … you know who he is.
• Florence Henderson was Mrs. Brady on The Brady Bunch.
• Kyle Massey … a rapper supposedly, never heard of him.
• Brandy Norwood had a big singing career in the 1990′s.
• Bristol Palin … I’m still trying to figure this one out.
• Audrina Patridge was on The Hills.
• The Situation is from The Jersey Shore on MTV.
• Kurt Warner was a football player.

This has to be the least interesting cast in ages.

Ah, Monday … the day Steven torments me to the point my brains pour out of my ears.

• Hair Dryer Made by Ferrari Engineers – Neatorama
• Cell Phones for Babies – Random Good Stuff
• Twournal: Turn your Twitter stream into a printed journal – The Next Web Apps
• Tapi, So You Don’t Have To Drink From The Faucet Like A Cat – CrunchGear
• Nose Flute – Random Good Stuff
• SnazzyNapper: Use It While Driving To Clear Out the Gene Pool! – CrunchGear
• Flamethrower Trombone – Neatorama
• Dog Yoga – Neatorama

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And the added bonus image …

The 2010 Emmys have come to an end and … I tried to watch live, couldn’t stand Jimmy Fallon and ended up waiting until the show was over and fast forwarded through any time he was on screen. It made for a more pleasant viewing experience.

So the network tallies for this year, including the Creative Arts Emmys from last week, are:

• HBO – 25
• ABC – 18
• Fox – 11
• CBS – 10
• NBC – 8
• PBS – 7
• Showtime – 7
• AMC – 6

The tallies for series/specials go as follows:

• The Pacific – 8
• Temple Grandin – 7
• Modern Family – 6
• Disney Prep and Landing – 4
• Glee – 4
• Mad Men – 4
• SNL – 3
• 24 – 2
• Breaking Bad – 2
• CSI – 2
• Dancing With the Stars – 2
• Dexter – 2

You can look back at the complete list of nominees here, as for the primetime winners, check them out at the “Continue Reading” link.

Continue Reading ->

This week brings you 48 posts from the desk of Sean P. Aune … it’s true, my desk writes all of my posts.

FiveMinutePhotographer.com

• Don’t Buy Too Much Camera

FunJug.com

• Drunk History vol. 4 – Featuring Paul Schneider
• 2 Fails Cancel Each Other Out
• Weather man gives everyone the finger
• SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE MATRIX
• Pee-wee Goes to Sturgis
• You Again Cast Fight
• True Blood in 60 Seconds

Mobile.BLORGE.com

• Top 40 best free iPhone 4 games

Photo.BLORGE.com

• Sony introduces A560 and A580 DSLRs with HD video shooting

RememberingChristmas.com

• Pandora Adds Free Christmas Music All Year Round

SeanPAune.com

• 2010 Emmy Winners List: Creative Arts
• Philadelphia Targets Bloggers For Licensing
• The Walking Dead Trailer
• New iPods Coming Sept. 1st
• The Braindead Techcast Ep. 131: Yes we’re still alive
• James Cameron Is An Ass
• Braindead Techcast Ep 132: Smokin’ the double rainbow
• Scattercast #110: Sexycast
• Braindead Techcast Ep 133: Techmeme Friday stretching it for the funny
• Teacher That Pled Guilty To Inappropriate Touching Returns To Classroom

SpookieBits.com

• Why Isn’t There More Halloween Music?

Tech.BLORGE.com

• Kevin Rose spills possible details on Apple’s iTV
• Apple may be adding iOS to Macs
• Rumor: Apple striking deals for TV episode rentals
• What to expect from Apple’s Sept. 1st event
• Facebook wants to control the words “Face” and “Book”

TechnoBuffalo.com

• John Mellencamp Compares The Internet To An Atom Bomb
• Avatar Re-Release Is The Ultimate Argument For The Death Of Physical Media
• An Inforgraphic: Google Flops & Failures – The Failed Google Graveyard
• Rumor: Kevin Rose Lets Loose With iTV Details
• Report: Virgin Mobile Getting Unlimited Pre-Paid Broadband
• Report: Apple Files Patent In Europe For iMac Running iOS
• Blockbuster Is Delusional About Its Future
• Dish Network Launching Streaming Content
• Paid TV Subscriptions In The U.S. Drop
• Pandora Adds Genre Stations
• Report: Apple To Rent TV Shows For $.99
• Apple “Special Event” Coming Sept. 1st
• Gmail Gets Google Voice Integration; Is Skype Scared Yet?
• Toshiba Working On Glasses-Free 3D TV Sets
• Netflix Comes To The iPhone And iPod Touch
• Facebook Suing To Control The Word “Book”
• Google’s Android OS Is A Mess
• Flashback Friday: Apple Introduces The iPod Shuffle
• Blockbuster To File For Bankruptcy In December
• Rumors Of iPod Redesigns Circulate Before Sept. 1 Apple Event
• iTunes App Store Passes 250,000 App Milestone

Apparently these is absolutely no limit to what governments think they can tax, but when a state passes a tax that is so obviously directed at one city, it just becomes insulting.

State legislators in Albany, New York decided to classify a sliced bagel as a “prepared food”.  This means that if you go into a bakery and buy a bagel whole, there is no tax on it, but if you ask them to slice it for you it turns into a prepared food and that means it will receive roughly $.08 in tax.  If you choose to eat the bagel in the store, sliced or un-sliced, that is also an $.08 tax.  However, if you buy a loaf of bread from bakery and have it sliced … no tax.

Huh?

How is slicing a bagel different than slicing a loaf of bread?  Well, I’ll tell you how, and it is what really got my ire up even more so than just the tax.

When you think New York City, bagels almost immediately pop into mind.  It is one food that is almost synonymous with the city, just as is their pizza by the slice.  However, if you go into other parts of New York state, sure you can find bagels, but there is no where near the proliferation you will find in the city.  Now, loaves of bread?  Well, those are sold everywhere under the sun and … you get the idea.

Essentially New York state legislators just taxed New York City for its love of a food that it is known for.  Yes, there will be instances of it happening outside of the five Burroughs, but nowhere near the amount of tax that can be collected just off of the city proper.

Way to go New York, you almost rank up there with Philadelphia now with its blogger license.

Wouldn’t you think that a teacher that pled guilty to multiple counts of inappropriately touching his female students might lose his job? Well, you’d be wrong it seems if he’s a teacher at Morton Middle School in Morton, WA.

Michael Moulton, a History and Study Skills teacher, returned to the his classroom this week to get ready for the school year.  The problem is that Mr. Moulton was recently fired after he pled guilty to inappropriately touching four female students, and then served 20 days in county jail.  Court documents demonstrated that Mr. Moulton had had complaints filed against him as far back as 1997, with more complaints in 2005 and a disciplinary letter in 2008 with his final number of complaints against him for inappropriate touching coming to a dozen.

With his jail time served it would seem all was done, but then he decided to appeal his firing and it was ruled that the punishment did not fit the crime and the school was forced to rehire him.  Two families have moved out of the district over the situation and 23 other students have had their families pull them out of his class.

The Office of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction is investigating this case, and they could dismiss the case against the teacher, discipline the teacher or permanently revoke his teaching credential.

Well, here’s an idea, when the teacher pleads guilty, and there is even documentation of a girl being sent to detention for screaming to “get his expletive hands off of me!” when he wanted stop rubbing her shoulders even after she asked, you fire the man.  And, I’m sorry, but he pled guilty, to me that is immediate grounds for dismissal.  He pleads guilty, and serves time, for one of the worst things a teacher can do to his students and he gets to come back because some panel decides his punishment was too harsh

I’m sorry, but you are flipping morons.  He pled guilty … how many different ways can I say this?  This man does not need to be anywhere near a classroom ever again.  This is one of those situations where you get one strike and you’re out.  Not two, not three, but just one as this man should never be allwed another chance to make a student uncomfortable.

He is scum, and he must be removed from the classroom immediately.

(Hat tip to Jo for pointing this out to me)

This had to be the most boring week of Techmeme Friday ever, but it isn’t our fault the headlines all sucked.  We made the most of it we could … and did a good job if I do say so myself.

• Paul Allen Sues Apple, Others Over Patents – Wall Street Journal
• Google buys Angstro and hires founder to help build social networking service – L.A. Times Tech Blog
• Find out what’s hot on search with the Google Beat – Official Google Blog
• Condé Nast, I’m publicly offering to buy Reddit. – Ben Huh
• In protest, Reddit rolls its own pot ads – CNET News
• Fennec Alpha Released for Android and Nokia N900 – Mozilla Blog
• Six Things Google’s Free Phone Service Can’t Do (and One It Does Very Well) – Gadgetwise
• Digg Responds to User Outrage: Upcoming Stories Will Return – ReadWriteWeb
• Einstein Would Have Used a Mac.  John Lennon, Too. – Digital Daily
• Patent Suit Day Continues: Microsoft Takes Fight With i4i Over XML To The Supreme Court – TechCrunch
• Clearwire Confirms New ‘Pay As You Go’ Service Is Coming – mocoNews
• Are Wikileaks Activists Finally Realizing Their Founder Is a Megalomaniac? – Gawker

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It’s episode #110 of Scattercast and I’m bringin’ … oh you know the rest.

AC is still broke, but I get back to a bed finally.

Tech, tech and more tech this week.

I know the sound is a little off this episode, but I just changed computers and I need to do some adjustments. Will hopefully have it sorted out by next week.

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subscribe to Scattercast via iTunes.

It’s a very double rainbow kind of night where we discuss pot, faces and books … and, oh yeah, pot.

• Social media for pot smokers – Jason Kottke
• Yahoo Sells Hotjobs To Monster, Protects Their Users – gHacks
• Guess Who Is Trying To Trademark The Word “Face”? (And Guess Who Is Trying To Stop It?) – TechCrunch

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You know, there comes a point where milking your audience for possible cent reaches a point of absurdity.

James Cameron’s Avatar broke every box office record, and when it came to DVD in April it followed suit selling record numbers.  If you just wanted a copy of the theatrical release, good for you, but if you wanted more features, here they come.

The extended edition of the film in theaters this weekend contain 8.5 minutes of extra footage.  One of the scenes is the much discussed sex scene, which is not at all graphic, but it does show show how the Na’vi share intimacy.  This scene alone may drive people to the theater.

So, of course there should be another DVD coming, right?  Yep, in November.  Oh, and it will have the 8.5 minutes of the special edition, and almost another eight beyond that for a total of 16 minutes.  So, if you see the new version in the theater, you still will want the DVD for an even more complete version.  Then a 3D disc is expected sometime in 2011 bringing the total of home video releases to three.

People say Star Wars creator George Lucas is bad?  I don’t think he’s ever released three different home video versions in about a year and a half.  Nope, that’s all a new James Cameron ploy.  Apparently he thinks his fans are made of money.

Oh well, still happy I haven’t seen this movie nor do I plan to.

After two nights off due to illness, we’re back … sorry, you don’t get rid of us that easily!

• Video: Meet Hexapedal Running Robot Phasma – CrunchGear
• Incredible race simulator makes all others look like toys – DVICE
• Digg Version 4 – Digg Blog
• Call phones from Gmail – Gmail Blog
• Is this Microsoft’s new Internet Explorer 9 interface? – Mary Jo Foley
• Nice IE9 image but is this what we’ll see come Sept. 15? – WinExtra

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It’s that magical time of year again when Apple is set to unveil its new iPods and make all of us cry a little over the ones we already own.

For the past several years Apple has held an event in Sept. to announce the new line-up of iPods.  It is pure coincidence this happens just shortly before the holiday shopping season, I assure you.  The invites went out today to the media for the event to be held on Sept. 1st, and not a lot else was said except for the picture of the invite you see to the right clearly indicating that this year’s event will include information on the iChisel for all of your wood carving needs.

Something I’ve always wondered about Apple and its events is that the invitations always go out about seven days before hand, and yet all of the media is expected to be there.  (Note: I have never received an invite, nor any of the blogs I work for, apparently we aren’t cool enough)  Does everyone realize how expensive it is to book a flight this close to departure?  I know companies cover it in their expense account, but seriously, unless you are a video-based site, just stay home and follow the umpteen live feeds of the event.  You’ll get the story out faster, you’ll save yourself the money and you’ll be free of a lot of stress.

As much as I would love to go to one of these, my practical side would win out pretty darn quickly when I figured out the costs of getting me there at the appointed time.  Am I really going to get enough traffic to make in revenue what I just lost in expenses?  Doubtful.  Just a big old mystery to me.

All that being said, expect the big announcements to be the iPod Touch getting video chat via the FaceTime app, and possible the relaunch of Apple TV as the iTV.  I’ll be covering everything that day over at TechnoBuffalo.