Web Monitor
16:19 UK time, Tuesday, 5 May 2009
A celebration of the riches of the web.
We've been tirelessly searching the web to recommend the most interesting links for you right now. If you find something you think should be shared here, comment in the box to the right of this or recommend it to us on Delicious - we're called 'bbcwebmonitor'.
• Right, well, where to start a new week? How about with a millionaire who has taken to wearing a model as his coat... for the Huffington Post. The most popular question, submitted and chosen by users of bookmarking site Digg, asked when money becomes immaterial:
"If you're lucky enough to have a few hundred thousand dollars in a bank account, that should be sufficient for your own personal needs and anything after that you have to put to good use."
The second most popular question was about a recent Italian Vogue photoshoot where a naked model clung on to Branson's back while kite-surfing:
"Being an English gentleman, I decided not to object...I'm a great believer in life in saying yes and not saying no and hopefully making people smile and having fun in life... I'm certainly not embarrassed about having a beautiful nude woman, one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen, on my back."
• As the future of the Royal Mail is being debated in the UK, the US Postal Service is looking at a possible $9bn deficit this year. If only technology could find a way to deliver mail more cost effectively. used to deliver mail in the US over the years. By far the most exciting is 1959's Missile mail, which never took off. Slightly slower is the mule mail through Arizona, which is still operating.
• Lily Allen revealed in an interview with DJ Annie Nightingale on Radio 1 that her turning point away from unruly child was on her first ever performance, in school assembly, where she said she made everyone cry, as she explained:"No-one had ever seen me succeed at anything before apart from being disruptive."
• eclipsing Hollywood's dominance in the entertainment industry. Here, they take us through the impressive graphics of biggest selling games, number one being Grand Theft Auto.
• about the problem of being a celebrity charity spokesman:
"It's a bit like being on a promenade, pulling around a great big bunch of multicoloured balloons - something inflated and distracting that follows me wherever I go. So, if I happen to be shouting about HIV or poverty or torture, I cannot blame people for asking themselves why I'm shouting about that when I'm clearly selling balloons."
• A about torture and being posted onto YouTube is one of those moments when you realise how far we've come technologically in the past ten years. Rice answered the questions about Abu Ghraib:
"Unless you were there, in a position of responsibility after September 11 you can not possibly imagine the dilemmas faced in trying to protect Americans."
, a blog about technology in politics, was taken aback about this interview as he wrote what he thought it showed:
"...using YouTube and citizen media to scrutinize our leaders on the issues, not gaffes."
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