It never, ever, fails. The moment you have some new social network that pokes its head up into the Web someone out there will take the time to setup a fake account of a prominent person and then go all satirical with it.

In this instance the social network was the still in beta-invite only network Pinterest and the target of satire was none other than Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. The account on Pinterest was originally called MittRomneyGOP and in the fashion of Pinterest you could find such items as Pellegrino and expensive caviar pinned to the wall.

Well apparently this didn’t sit too well with the Romney campaign who within 24 hours of finding out about the Pinterest account contacted the company to deal with what they perceived as being a ‘identity’ problem in that the account was very misleading and a request to have the name of the account changed to fakemittromney.

Eric Spiegelman, the humorist behind the fake account, apparently resisted any attempts to agree to the change at which point Pinterest went ahead and made the change anyway, which as Spiegelman pointed out totally destroyed any of the links from before the change.

Here is the email exchange between Eric Spiegelman and Enid Hwang Community Manager for Pinterest about the matter (courtesy of Gawker).

First up the letter to Spiegelman from Pinterest

From: Enid Hwang
Date: Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 9:51 AM PST
Subject: Pinterest: “MittRomneyGOP” username
To: Eric Spiegelman

Hi Eric,

I’m Enid, the Community Manager at Pinterest. As you might have guessed, I’m writing regarding your username “MittRomneyGOP.” We were recently contacted by officials from Mitt Romney’s campaign because they feel it’s very misleading and they’re requesting that it be changed to “fakemittromney.”

We actually really appreciate political commentary on Pinterest – and I know your account is clearly satirical – but we’re a young company so we don’t have a feature/process in place for “verified accounts” (such as Twitter) which would make the purpose of your account immediately obvious to any user on the site.

If you don’t mind changing your username, let me know. Or, you can just go ahead and make the switch yourself at: https://pinterest.com/settings. We’ve been brainstorming alternatives and unfortunately we feel changing your profile picture or adding a byline on your “bio” section on Pinterest may not be sufficient because that information isn’t included with all pins that propagate through the site.

We’re also really open to discussing the issue more with you, so you can reach me directly at [REDACTED] if you have any questions.

I’m sorry for the trouble and again, don’t hesitate to call if you’re concerned about this!

—
Enid

community manager . pinterest.com/enid . @pinterest

This is Eric’s reply to that above email

From: Eric Spiegelman
Date: Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 10:14 AM PST
Subject: Re: Pinterest: “MittRomneyGOP” username
To: Enid Hwang

Hi Enid,

Obviously I understand your concern. And I can imagine as a new company (one that’s really doing a great job), you’d prefer not to have hassles like this. But at the same time, you’re a publishing entity that’s more or less open to the public, and I can’t in good conscience change my parody at the request of the subject of that parody. It should be obvious to the Romney campaign that nobody sees this as official, and that I am exercising my Free Speech rights in making fun of Gov. Romney’s utter tone-deafness when it comes to matters of privilege and class inequality.

That being said, I understand that you are well within your rights to delete my account. But I really hope you choose not to.

You have a wonderful service in Pinterest, and I wish your team all the best, however you proceed with this.

Best,
Eric

Enid’s followup email to Eric

From: Enid Hwang
Date: Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 10:24 AM PST
Subject: Re: Pinterest: “MittRomneyGOP” username
To: Eric Spiegelman

Hi Eric,

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly: We have no intention of deleting your account. It’s satire and it should stay! We’ll change the username (this doesn’t affect your boards, pins, or anything else about your profile settings) and we feel that’s sufficient. Once we institute verified accounts this, and any future issues, will be taken care of universally. That’s our responsibility so sorry again for having you caught in the middle of it.

I really appreciate your note (and compliments!) and thanks so much for your understanding,

Enid

And Eric’s final email back before Pinterest went ahead and changed the account name anyway.

From: Eric Spiegelman
Date: Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 10:40 AM PST
Subject: Re: Pinterest: “MittRomneyGOP” username
To: Enid Hwang

No, I mean, I’d prefer you don’t change my username either.

I have a sneaking feeling this might not be done with yet but we’ll see.

Pinterest’s first satire account raises the ire of Mitt Romney’s campaign is a post from: The Inquisitr

It seems that as we head into every new year we want to find someone, or something, to blame for all the bad crap that has happened over the last year. After all it can never be us doing anything wrong, right?

Well, New Years Eve is just around the corner and as everyone gets primed up for the hottest party night of the year word has gone out – fine out who is to blame for everything that went wrong during 2011 and do it quickly.

Thanks to the folks at CableTV.com (not that they aren’t up for some of the blame of course) have managed to slice and dice all the bad stuff and come up with a culprit to blame it all on.

Yes folks, it is Twitter’s fault.

Yup. Twitter.

See, the infographic says so. No shooting this messenger.

via Geekosystem and AllThingsD

Finally! We have proof that it is all Twitter’s fault [Infographic] is a post from: The Inquisitr

That blessed morning cup of coffee. Trying to start a day without it would be nigh impossible, and besides who would want to go without that morning jolt of caffeine to help you claw your way through the morning fog of semi-consciousness.

Due to our infatuation with that cup of java there has been more than a few studies done and depending on which study you place any stock in the results can vary greatly. On one hand you’ll have one set of researchers tell you that coffee is the worst thing that you could be putting into your body. then on the other side you have researchers telling you that like with anything else drinking coffee in moderation can actually be beneficial.

Well to help further our confusion the good folks over at Espresso Machine Advisor have put together this infographic to help clear up any confusion you might be experiencing – or not.

via Bit Rebels

Thought you knew everything about that morning cup of coffee? Think again [Infographic] is a post from: The Inquisitr

While the idea of having an iPad 2 that you are willing to apply duct tape to is one thing but how about taking two of them and making it look like you have a gaping hole in the middle of your torso – sort of.

Courtesy of a guy by the name of Mark we get this quickie, albeit rather expensive Halloween costume using nothing more that two iPad 2′s, duct tape, and some red liquid for color and effect.

I went to a Halloween party tonight and had tried out my costume idea of using 2 iPads with a Facetime chat to make it look like I had a huge hole in my stomach. Everyone was seriously going nuts and 2 people said it was “the coolest thing I’ve ever seen”. I thought your readership might appreciate it especially if they still don’t have a costume

This idea is 100% original as far as I know and I came up with it as soon as I saw the iPad2 had Facetime.

via Geeks are Sexy

Got a couple of iPad 2′s then you have a Halloween costume is a post from: The Inquisitr

This morning I got a rather fun email from Andrew Riker at Wordstream letting me know that they had just published a brand new infographic detailing the failures and missteps committed by Facebook. So without any further ado put on your reading glasses, or click through to a bigger view, and spend some time checking out some Facebook #FAIL.

A glorious infographic of Facebook and its failures is a post from: The Inquisitr

Hmm… one might also be tempted to say that the house frequently wins.

Marriage… is a post from: The Inquisitr

Most of the time judges are either downright moronic or they are aa dry as a mouth trying to spit in the middle of a sandstorm in the Sahara Desert.

This isn’t the case with Judge Sam Sparks from the US District Court in Western Texas (not Eastern Texas which is the home to moronic judges) who has gained a certain amount of fame when it comes to his criticizing the lawyers who appear in front of him. So much so that they have come up with a term for his creative comeuppance – benchslapping.

The most recent example of his awesome humor was when he became more than irritated with the actions of some lawyers and decided that he would invite them to a “kindergarten party”.

Here is the official order:

Now just in case you had a hard time making it out here is the text in a more legible format:

Greetings and Salutations!

You are invited to a kindergarten party on THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2011, at 10:00 a.m. in Courtroom 2 of the United States Courthouse, 200 W. Eighth Street, Austin, Texas.

The party will feature many exciting and informative lessons, including:

• How to telephone and communicate with a lawyer
• How to enter into reasonable agreements about deposition dates
• How to limit depositions to reasonable subject matter
• Why it is neither cute nor clever to attempt to quash a subpoena for technical failures of service when notice is reasonably given; and
• An advanced seminar on not wasting the time of a busy federal judge and his staff because you are unable to practice law at the level of a first year law student.

Invitation to this exclusive event is not RSVP. Please remember to bring a sack lunch! The United States Marshals have beds available if necessary, so you may wish to bring a toothbrush in case the party runs late.

Like I said – awesome judge, as long as you don’t piss him off.

via Techdirt

Your new word of the day: benchslap, and the awesome judge responsible for it is a post from: The Inquisitr

Earlier this week the social media world was all-a-twitter over a new Twitter account that had started posting humorous little messages about conversations overheard in the Elevator on the way to and from the Conde Nast offices.

As people tried to figure out who was behind the account the messages kept coming – until today that is. It seems that those doing the guessing were either getting to close or the bosses at Conde Nast failed to see the humor and began trying to figure out who the loudmouth was; because today the person, or persons, behind the account posted their last message.

Whether or not this is truly their last Twitter message remains to be seen but I am sure that someone out there will care enough to let us know if it isn’t

via Huffington Post – Media

Good-bye Conde Nast Elevator Twitter person, we hardly knew you. is a post from: The Inquisitr

Want to give your friends the ultimate gift to remember you by?

How about a Stormtrooper with your head under the helmet?

Or, how about your head on Steve Jobs’ body?

Well you can thanks to a Japanese company called Clone Factory thanks to some fancy multi-angle photography, face mapping, and custom 3D printing.

This level of creepiness will end up costing you around $1,700 but really you gotta think of the look on the faces of your friends as they open up your present.

via Geekosystem

Never mind that silly Steve Jobs doll. Get one with your own face on it. is a post from: The Inquisitr

It never fails but at some point or another you’ll hear the term that Internet time is faster than offline time. Everything happens at a faster pace the moment you open up your browser and head off into the wild web for another daily dose of Facebooking, Twittering and now Google+’ing.

Up until now though there has been no real prove that this is indeed the case but now thanks to the folks on reddit and Tastefully Offensive we have graphical proof that this is the truth.

Thanks guys but if you’ll excuse me I’m late getting caught up on my Google+ stream.

Finally, proof that Internet time is different that real time is a post from: The Inquisitr

A London-based website has polled 30,000 people across 15 countries to find out which countries are perceived to make participants laugh the most often, and which nations fell flat in the humor department.

Americans came out on top, with Germans bringing up the rear in the poll conducted by UK media and dating site Badoo.com. Spain came in second, and Italy at number three. The UK itself was only seventh in the poll- which makes one wonder if Father Ted was distributed all that well outside Britain.

The poll controlled for bunches of Americans who think they are incredibly funny skewing the results, although the effect of pervasive American media worldwide probably influenced the response. Participants were asked:

“Which nationality — excluding your own — do you feel is the funniest and/or best at making people laugh?” and “Which nationality do you feel is the LEAST funny and/or good at making people laugh?”

Badoo’s Marketing Director Lloyd Price commented in a press release on the findings:

America is a worthy poll winner, says Price. “It’s the world’s only comedy superpower.” Americans are the folks who gave us sitcoms including Friends, The Simpsons, Frasier and Seinfeld, plus any number of great comedians.

The British, who brought us Monty Python and The Office, pride themselves on their humor but learn from the Badoo poll that they’re not as funny as they think. They placed just seventh of 15 – behind the Brazilians, French and Mexicans.

If you’re not American, do you find Americans to be the funniest country? (Excepting our politics and politicians.) Which nation makes you laugh the most?

Americans Funniest in Global Poll, Germans Come in Last is a post from: The Inquisitr

They say that beer is one of the oldest alcoholic beverages known to man, or is that wine? Oh well never mind because this great ad traces the process of making a super dry beer and definitely make you rethink how our favorite beverage is made.

Maybe, or perhaps you’ll just have a good laugh over it.

via Geeks are Sexy

An absolutely hilarious and awesome beer ad [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

I realize that for the most part us Canucks (Canadians to the rest of ya) are a pretty laid back bunch of folks who take our time to warm up to new and cool things but it seems that we are only now joining our neighbors to the south in their love for all things smartphonie.

This is according to a new survey from Ipsos Reid where they are reporting that 31% of Canadians now own a smartphone, which is a jump of more that 50% over last year.

Not only are more of us owning the things but we’re doing more things on them than we ever have in the past.

“For several years, smartphone growth was incremental at best, but in 2011, it’s been exponential” says Steve Mossop, President with Ipsos Reid’s Western Canada practice. “A combination of device enhancements, Android, and the explosion of apps has resulted in a significant uptake of smartphones among Canadians to the point where usage levels are competing television viewing and internet browsing in terms of hours spent.”

Not surprisingly, smartphone ownership is significantly higher amongst younger Canadians; in particular, 46 percent of those online Canadians aged 18 to 34 own a smartphone, and their usage (21 hours per week) is significantly higher than older Canadians.

And for the first time ever, the majority of smartphone usage (54 percent) is for activities other than talking (you know, the original purpose of a phone back in the 1900s). Smartphone users take photos (70 percent), send or read email (70 percent), check the weather (52 percent), and send or receive IM’s (52 percent) with their device. The most drastic increase in smartphone usage rates is connected with social networking (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), with 48 percent of smartphone owners use their devices to check social networking sites, an increase of nearly twenty points since previously measured in the spring of 2010.

via TechVibes

I will say that it sure makes those long winter nights in the igloo a lot more enjoyable.

Apparently Canadians are jumping all over that new-fangled smartphone thing is a post from: The Inquisitr

via AllThingsD

Google Wallet might be cool but please people – think of the condoms is a post from: The Inquisitr

I’ve never been an intern nor have I ever hired one but I sure hope this isn’t a common experience.

hat tip to @pauloflaherty on this one

The intern interview from hell is a post from: The Inquisitr

Intel might have their rock stars but us geeks in general are apparently a kinky bunch who talk about RAM and hard drives while cavorting with sexy women clad in leather and carry whips.

via Geeks are Sexy

RAM in your hard drive – who knew geeks were so kinky is a post from: The Inquisitr

via Geeks are Sexy

Self-flagellation geek style is a post from: The Inquisitr

Rock On Geeks!

via DesignLov

Yay! Geeks Have Their Own Zodiac is a post from: The Inquisitr

Okay maybe it’s not as bad as being the end of the world but anyone who stumbled in through the doors of the Seattle Repertory Theater last night might have thought they were entering a nightmare, unless of course you were MG Siegler or John Gruber then this could have been the a dream come true.

You see the theater decided that to help celebrate the performance of Mike Daisey’s “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” that they would hold a Steve Jobs look-a-like contest. Thanks to Todd Bishop at GeekWire we have photographic evidence of the event.

The Apple Apocalypse Is Upon Us is a post from: The Inquisitr

via UrlyBits

OMG. Too Funny. AT&T gets punked is a post from: The Inquisitr