Dennis Rodman is back from a rather foggy Asia visit, Google is remembering a civil rights advocate, and Mitt Romney wishes he were president. Welcome to your post-weekend online trends report for Monday, March 4.
Romney appeared on Fox News Sunday with wife Ann, who said among other things that "I totally believe at this moment, if Mitt were there in the office, that we would not be facing sequestration right now." The sequestration deadline was passed Friday, triggering large, mandated cuts to Federal government programs.
Meanwhile, China is navigating a much slower transition of power, trying to do away with a Maoist holdover: Forced labor camps. In one of the bigger understatements so far this year, a delegate from Huaqiao University in Fujian Province is quoted in the New York Times as saying that "The reeducation-through-labor system to a certain extent makes citizens live in fear." Reaction to Dennis Rodman's visit to neighboring North Korea are also continuing to get attention from search users. Like many would-be diplomats, he managed to make a factual blunder or two while he was there, tweeting about wanting to meet a South Korean pop star. Like Romney, he also fed online dialogue a bit on the Sunday morning talk show circuit.
Google, on the other hand, does not need a talk show to get its message out. The company is remembering singer and activist Miriam Makeba, honored in a doodle today.
||TRENDING ONLINE||
HIV
(Twitter)
A Mississippi infant born with HIV has become the first child cured of the deadly virus, leaving hope that the disease can be eliminated in the youngest patients, scientists from Johns Hopkins Children's Center and other institutions said Sunday.
[Baltimore Sun]
Dennis Rodman
(Google search, Digg)
OK, here's the pitch. A shambling pincushion who used to play professional basketball gets caught up in political intrigue. He goes to some corrupt banana republic run by a tubby little weirdo — we're thinking Jonah Hill doing Dr. Evil — and manages to start a nuclear war. The catch is — you're gonna love this — he doesn't even know what country he's in.
[Toronto Star]
Miriam Makeba
(Twitter)
The birthday of Miriam Makeba, the late singer and civil rights campaigner, has been commemorated with a Google doodle.
[The Guardian]
#WBC
(Twitter)
This week, Chris Robinson will go from buried on the Orioles' organizational depth chart to starting catcher for Canada in the World Baseball Classic. When the Orioles' 40-man roster was finalized this offseason, the team had four catchers on the roster. The 29-year-old Robinson, who played 52 games last year at Triple-A Norfolk and has never played in the major leagues, wasn't one of them.
[The Baltimore Sun]
China
(Twitter)
Amid lots of Communist red in the Great Hall of the People on Beijing's Tiananmen Square, China's Parliament, the National People's Congress, opens Tuesday with some delegates issuing strong calls to end the country's re-education-through-labor camps.
[The New York Times]
Macklemore
(Google search)
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis rolled out some snappy threads and hyperkinetic moves for their musical guest appearance on Saturday Night Live last night. With vocalist Wanz singing the hook on their YouTube-aided multiplatium hit "Thrift Shop," the Seattle duo (and their horn section) brought a high level of energy to their ode to second-hand treasure.
[Rolling Stone]
Australia
(Twitter)
The latest report from the Federal Government's Climate Commission says the weather extremes experienced around the country this summer were made worse by climate change.
[Radio Australia]
Mitt Romney
(Digg)
In his first television interview since the election, the former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential nominee told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday" that he was convinced he'd win until Ohio's vote came in, and that he damaged his campaign by failing to attract black and Hispanic voters and speaking too freely in his infamous "47 percent" comments.
[Politico]
Black Flag
(Twitter)
The next chapter of Ubisoft's popular adventure series Assassin's Creed is embracing the pirate's life. The publisher confirmed Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, launching this fall for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii U. A version for Sony's upcoming PlayStation 4 is also in development.
[USA Today]
#TheBible
(Twitter)
A former military paratrooper who made his name in Hollywood with back-biting, take-no-prisoners programs such as "Survivor," now in its 26th season, and "Celebrity Apprentice," is tackling the Bible in a 10-hour miniseries that marks his first foray into the scripted genre.
[The Baltimore Sun]
#TheWalkingDead
(Twitter)
This episode was kind of a departure from the norm because it didn't really address the Woodbury-Prison storyline at all, and it really only featured four characters: Rick, Carl, Michonne and ... Morgan! Oh, and that hippie hitchhiker guy.
[B Weekly]
|| RISING LOCAL SEARCHES ON GOOGLE* ||
facebook
Breakout
myspace
Breakout
youtube
Breakout
craigslist
+3,800%
gmail
+450%
google
+400%
amazon
+190%
walmart
+170%
mail
+150%
yahoo
+140%
*Last seven days