Culturite

Let’s not fool anyone. You can do your job without using Twitter. You can get through any number of days without blogging. You don’t need to consume podcasts to perform your daily duties. Everything on your desk and in your calendar and piled high on your task list doesn’t require the use of Facebook, Friendfeed, Myspace, to get the work done. You don’t need RSS, nor do you need to know the name of even one popular blog.

MILLIONS of people all over the world get by just fine without these tools. Every day. Pick the small town where you live, or even a decent sized city space, and ask a random assortment of people whether they do any of the above. (Starbucks’ denizens don’t count, because we all know most Internet startups live in Starbucks and Panera).

Unless you’ve engineered your role to be wholly dependent on these technologies, you could go about your business without them and live a full and productive life until death.

So why, then, and I’m asking YOU this question, do millions of us thrive in this environment? Why are we threading the social web? Why are we spending hours a day reaching out, building connections, cultivating relationships, producing and consuming media that only a sliver of the world is even noticing?

As if plastic guitars, drums, basses and microphones weren’t enough, “Guitar Hero” publisher Activision Blizzard is also working on a DJ-based music game called “DJ Hero,” a source confirmed to MTV News.

On Friday, gaming blog Kotaku reported the first alleged details on a new Activision Blizzard music title, currently called “DJ Hero.” MTV News has separately confirmed the existence of “DJ Hero,” with a source that chose to remain anonymous.

Our source has seen “DJ Hero” and confirmed Kotaku’s description for the basic gameplay mechanics.

An Activision Blizzard spokesperson declined to comment on this story.

Scarlett Johansson is returning from a four-day trip to the African nation of Rwanda, where she visited AIDS clinics.

The actress, 23, made the journey with (RED), the initiative to help fight AIDS in Africa through business and consumer power.

“It was important for me to come here and see the issues we’re up against firsthand,” Johansson says in a statement. “I came here with an open mind, wanting to listen, understand and learn; I leave with the overwhelming understanding that the small action of making a (RED) choice in your purchases … has an enormous impact on the lives of people in countries like Rwanda.”

[A]ccording to multiple online reports, including TMZ, former Death Row recording artist Nate Dogg suffered a stroke 11 days ago — his second in the past year — but is currently in stable condition.

TMZ reported that Nate (real name: Nathaniel Hale) is hospitalized and is using an assisted-breathing tube — not because it is required, but because it makes breathing easier for him. The site also said reports that the singer suffered brain damage are untrue, and that Nate is currently under sedation.

The site reported that it is too early to tell how the stroke will affect Nate’s use of his limbs — his arm and leg were hampered by the first stroke — but he is not able to move much below his neck.

MTV News was unable to reach any reps for Nate at press time; much of the Dogg Pound’s crew is currently on tour in Europe with Snoop Dogg.

Late last year, Nate was paralyzed on the left side of his body after suffering a mild stroke over the holidays, his manager, Rod McGrew, told MTV News at the time, and was placed in an occupational rehab facility.

More than 3 million homes and businesses remained without power in eight states on Tuesday after Hurricane Ike, federal officials said.

Those in the Midwest are expected to be reconnected within days, while many Texans will have to wait weeks, according to utility companies commanding armies of employees working around the clock.

The biggest utility in Houston, the metropolitan area with the most outages, made significant progress by Tuesday. CenterPoint Energy said it had restored 667,000 customers with electric service, leaving about 1.5 million homes and businesses without refrigeration, air-conditioning, and roads without traffic signals.

More than 2.1 million CenterPoint customers, or 99 percent, lost power after the storm made landfall early on Saturday. CenterPoint has warned that it may take weeks to reconnect all customers.

About 3.9 million customers in eight states were without power Tuesday morning because of Ike, the U.S. Department of Energy reported. That figure was issued before CenterPoint and Midwestern utilities updated reconnection figures.

More than half of the DOE total was for outages in Texas — more than 2 million — and Ohio was next, with about 1 million outages, the DOE said.

Ike caused the largest single power outage in Texas, according to state regulators.

Google filed its most interesting patent application to date, notes the Independent: “The company is considering deploying the supercomputers necessary to operate its Internet search engines on barges anchored up to seven miles offshore.” It’s true! This is smart, using the ocean to cool their “supercomputers” and stuff. But! Hmm! Just seven miles offshore, you say? Now, most nations’ territorial waters end at 12 nautical miles from shore. Their “exclusive economic zone” extends much further—but does not forbid “loitering,” even “belligerent” loitering, in that zone. IS GOOGLE STARTING A MICRONATION????

Google may take its battle for global domination to the high seas with the launch of its own “computer navy”.

The company is considering deploying the supercomputers necessary to operate its internet search engines on barges anchored up to seven miles (11km) offshore.

The “water-based data centres” would use wave energy to power and cool their computers, reducing Google’s costs. Their offshore status would also mean the company would no longer have to pay property taxes on its data centres, which are sited across the world, including in Britain.

In the patent application seen by The Times, Google writes: “Computing centres are located on a ship or ships, anchored in a water body from which energy from natural motion of the water may be captured, and turned into electricity and/or pumping power for cooling pumps to carry heat away.”

Data centres consumed 1 per cent of the world’s electricity in 2005. By 2020 the carbon footprint of the computers that run the internet will be larger than that of air travel, a recent study by McKinsey, a consultancy firm, and the Uptime Institute, a think tank, predicted.

After ten years on the air, the show that thrust Carson Daly upon us will go off the air in November — considering ratings peaked in 1999, it’s remarkable that they’ve waited this long to let the ol’ girl go. But what of all the artists who have benefited from TRL’s platform? “In a statement, Eminem said: ‘I’m going to miss TRL … Where else will I be able to start feuds, defend my honor vigorously and act like an angry teenager on national TV? Oh wait … The VMAs!’”

MTV is to drop its flagship US show Total Request Live in November after 10 years on the air.

Executive producer Dave Sirulnick said he wanted to “rest” the show, which comes live from New York’s Times Square, after a two-hour special.

“We want to close this era of TRL in a celebratory way, and 10 is a great number,” he said.

How does Barack Obama lure wealthy donors to a big-money fundraiser in Hollywood? Bring in Barbra Streisand as the headline performer.

The Oscar-winning singer and actress was to perform Tuesday night on Obama’s behalf in Beverly Hills. It was to be a two-step evening with a reception and dinner costing $28,500 a person followed by a later event featuring Streisand at $2,500 a ticket.

Obama was flying to Los Angeles after an appearance Tuesday morning in a Denver suburb.

The wealthy fundraiser comes on a day when the crisis in the U.S. economy remained an urgent issue for many Americans. Monday’s sharp sell-off left the Dow Jones industrials and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index down by more 4 percent, eroding the value of individual retirement and investment accounts, for example.

Streisand originally backed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton but switched to Obama when he emerged as the Democratic presidential nominee.

Amazon.com said on Monday that its subsidiary, Internet Movie Database, would allow users to watch feature films and TV shows for no charge on its Web site, imdb.com.Over 6,000 titles will be available, the company said, citing recent episodes of popular television shows like “24″ and “Heroes” or classic films like “Some Like It Hot.”

IMDB also said that the first episodes of new fall television shows like “Lipstick Jungle” and “30 Rock” will be available for free viewing before their first air date.

Amazon, best known as the global online retail giant, has been pursuing deals to increase its footprint into digital media. The company already offers downloadable films and television shows from almost all the major Hollywood studios and television networks on its own web site.