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So, as I mentioned, “Six Feet Under” ended, in a melancholy blaze of glory (spoiler alert). They added a wonderful coda to the show’s Web site (soooooo many spoilers) for anyone who saw the final episode. The song that had us all in tears, by the way, was “Breathe Me” by Sia.

Awesome interview with Ira Glass from CJR Daily. Also, awesome story from the L.A. Times about the “This American Life” television show (!). “Television is the medium of our time,” he says. Wait, why does that sound so familiar?

Very fun music video from OK Go. Via MF.

And just to toss in another random link, check this out, from Things Magazine.

Great bad review (via). Even better bad review (via).

(PS: Crash Bonsai!)

Adrian Holovaty reports that the Lawrence Journal-World has just made it “stupidly simple” to add Google Maps to its news stories online. This is something that Friend Of Snarkmarket Larry Larsen has been stumping for for quite some time.

I’m seeing this Reuters article everywhere, talking about how Jimbo Wales of Wikipedia has issued an announcement that the site will be tightening its editorial controls, freezing some content to prevent vandalism.

The article is wrong. Reuters should issue a correction. Wales has clarified that he was talking about creating a static snapshot of the site, with verified information, which would exist alongside the dynamic content. They’re calling the project Wikipedia 1.0, and they’ve been talking about it since at least last year.

Besides, Wales says, Wikimedia doesn’t really work by making “announcements.” They effect change through discussions and concensus-building. He’s calling for tighter editorial controls on Reuters (and Slashdot), though.

Update: Well, here’s one correction, from Steve Outing at E-Media Tidbits. Still waiting on Reuters.

I just posted a looooong item on morph advancing the argument that the Internet has not (just) sped the news cycle up, it’s slowed it down considerably. I’d love to hear your thoughts, if any strike you. (Except for your comments on my use of the profoundly dubious phrase “hot breaking scoop.”)

It’s common knowledge that since the advent of 24-hour news networks, the cycle of news has sped up considerably. With the rise of the Internet, it’s gotten even faster. In this world of up-to-the-nanosecond news, we’ve learned, facts and context are thrown to the wind as our information train wreck speeds down the tracks.

Right?

Let’s play devil’s advocate.

My argument: The Internet is slowing the news cycle down. Way down. It’s so slow, it’s turning the clock backwards.

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Is it just me, or was the news storm swirling around this weekend’s bombing in Egypt a good bit more humble than the one around the London bombings? Since I was out Friday night, I didn’t get the word until checking the papers Saturday morning. By that point, the news cycle was revolving around the fact that the terrorism-related death toll of the innocent in London had belatedly risen to 53.

I know terrorism-related deaths aren’t quite as alien to Egypt as they are to Great Britain, but shouldn’t news outlets strive for at least a pretense of parity in their coverage of each disaster?

I might also be completely wrong in my assessment of the relative play given to each story, but nothing in the Egypt coverage leads me to suspect the bombings there will still be getting front-page mentions in the national papers two-and-a-half weeks from now. Call me on this if it’s not so.

To be fair: The editors may just be accused of going where the readers are. First and only Metafilter thread on Egypt bombings: 37 comments. First of at least a dozen threads on the July 7 London bombings: 712 comments. There are probably many more British MeFites than Egyptian ones, but dang.

Forest Grove is a haunting, beautifully shot Web narrative based on John Cheever’s short story “The Swimmer.” You might want to watch it before you read the rest of this, ’cause I think it might help to be a little bit unspoiled. (Warning: When I say “Web narrative” I don’t mean it’s some frothy little 8-minute distraction. Forest Grove runs about 45 minutes altogether.)

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