You Don’t Know Who’s on the Other End: This is a really sad story. Paula Bonhomme, a woman from Los Angeles, left her husband to go live with the man she thought she knew and loved whom she had met online on a message board for the HBO series Deadwood—really random and weird, I know, kind of already asking for trouble. But anyway, after finding out the news that her online lover Jesse James died suddenly, she was obviously devastated, but not as devastated as when she found out the whole thing was a hoax. Jesse James and all of the interactions that he had with Paula were fabricated by a woman named Jana St. James, a lot like what happened in the documentary/movie Catfish that came out last year. Anyway, moral of the story is be careful when it comes to online relationships, and probably don’t leave your husband for someone you met on a message board for a show about life in 1870s South Dakota. Chicago Tribune
Out With the Old: Yesterday it was bye-bye Friendster, today Myspace. News Corporation is selling the passé social network at a deep discount. The starting bid is still $100 million—that is $480 million less that what News Corp bought it for. Yeah, wow, $100 million doesn’t sound like a lot compared to Facebook’s $80 billion valuation. domain-b
Text to Divorce: Apparently in Tajikistan husbands can divorce their wives by texting “taloq taloq taloq,” which translates to “divorce divorce divorce.” You know, three is the magical number. At first I thought this was crazy, but it may be a great idea for here, but it would have to work both ways of course, not just for the husbands. People could save some legal fees and avoid those tough conversations, right? No, just kidding it’s definitely crazy-ridiculous! Gawker
Cuteness of the Day: Knock, knock. Who’s there? Not who you thought. Cute.
Social Vending Machine: Everything is about social these days, haven’t you heard? Pepsi has, and now they are launching a “PepsiCo’s Social Vending System.” What does that even mean and how does it even work? Pepsi said something about gifting a friend blah blah blah, I’m not really sure. If it means I get free Diet Pepsis all of the time, I’m into it. Techland
More in Media
The Rundown: Google has drawn its AI payment lines — and publishers’ leverage is narrow
For publishers trying to navigate AI licensing, the message was blunt: Google is willing to pay for access, but not for training – and it remains unwilling to define AI Overviews as a compensable use of journalism.
Media Briefing: Google’s latest core update a reminder that pageviews can’t remain the primary metric
Google’s latest core update signals pageviews can no longer be the primary metric, favoring intent-solving publishers over scale.
After an oversaturation of AI-generated content, creators’ authenticity and ‘messiness’ are in high demand
Content creators and brand marketing specialists on how 2026 will be the year creator authenticity becomes even more crucial in the face of rampant AI-generated “slop” flooding social media platforms.