Dorothee is back from a whirlwind tour of Las Vegas for BlogWorldExpo 2008 (otherwise known as #BWE08). Let’s just say there were Elvis impersonators, lions, drunk bloggers and a pool involved…

No really though, friends were made, Twitter hashtags employed and lots of SEO advice shared. Dorothee got a chance to party with the Evolution of Dance guy, made it into the Girlz of Blogworld album at AspenSpin and even had some of her adventures chronicled in a blog post by her new friend @thinklynsen. Fun times!

First two photos via Adrants

As an enthusiastic fan of the McGlaughlin Group, I can’t help but find this clip charming and amusing. According to the YouTube description, public radio’s Faith Salie asked rock star Andrew WK to put the McLaughlin Group to music; and these are the results! The very cool animation is done by Scott Bateman of Salon.com’s Video Dog series.

Project 10^1000 is a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible. Not only that but winners of the project will receive cash money toward making those ideas a reality!

From the website:

If you have an idea that you believe would help somebody, we want to hear about it. We’re looking for ideas that help as many people as possible, in any way, and we’re committing the funding to launch them. You can submit your ideas and help vote on ideas from others. Final idea selections will be made by an advisory board.

So kids, get those thinking caps on and submit your ideas to Project 10^100.

Today is One Web Day, which many people like to call “Earth Day for the internet”.

The idea behind OneWebDay is to focus attention on a key internet value (this year, online participation in democracy), focus attention on local internet concerns (connectivity, censorship, individual skills), and create a global constituency that cares about protecting and defending the internet.

Michael Maranda (who writes wrythings) interviewed Dorothee Royal-Hedinger about her work at See3 in the context of One Web Day at a Chicago Net Tuesday meetup:

Riding the success of CSPAN’s convention hub which featured twitter feeds about both the DNC and RNC (shout out to the Twitter Queen @leslieann44), Current.com is getting hip to the social media community with Hack the Debate.

From their site:

Current is partnering with Twitter to give your feedback and voice a home — on TV as the various candidates debate. There will be four debates total, and we’ll be broadcasting them live on Current TV as well as live streaming them on Current.com.

As one commenter mentioned on the website, Current.com is not using “hack” in the conventional sense. I guess in this context “hack” is just meant to bait politically active social network types into participating. Which they will, as long as Current lays off the “look at us, we’re so edgy!” vibe. You can follow Current at: http://twitter.com/current

Have you every wondered what happens to things like cell phones and paper before and after you use them? That’s the premise of The Secret Life Series which takes ordinary objects and investigates their “life-cycle” in an attempt to raise awareness and educate the public about what they consume.

Where does paper go when you recycle it? Why should you change your paper habits? What alternate types of sources are used for papermaking? What can you do to reduce your paper footprint? How do I recycle paper?

Where do old cell phones and mobile devices go when you recycle them? Why should you take those phones out of your sock drawer and take them back? What toxics are in a typical cell phone? How much gold and silver is in a cell phone? How do I recycle my cell phones and mobile devices?

For more information about the people behind The Secret Life Series, visit INFORM.

Unsuccessful Job Application Video by Orange Raisin (otherwise known as Michael A. Charles), is a hilarious poke at the arts industry and the people who want to be a part of it. It’s also a brilliant ploy to bring attention to his band Sea Water Bliss which does in fact appear to be a real despite their slogan, “At first you might think it’s children’s music, but then you listen more closely and realize it’s not meant for children at all.” Listen to them here.

With all this talk about Sarah Palin’s speech and the fact that Obama has raised so much money since her attacks, I couldn’t help but post this hilarious skit from host/blogger/comedian Sarah Benincasa who channels Gov. Palin behind the scenes before “before nailing the hell out of the greatest speech in the history of politics, ever.”

In the increasingly complex world of online video (YouTube’s interactive plugins, I’m talking to you!), this simple sand animation is strangle touching. It was made by artist Sigrid Astrup whose post-it series will also brighten up your day.

And now for the classic short film, The Wizard of Speed and Time by Mike Jittlov, which was created in 1979 with an animation technique that uses live actors as stop-motion “puppets”. Yes, they did this long before the internets and digital video!