I've been intrigued by how the AP story from last Thursday (4/27) was disseminated to various papers. At last count, it was picked up by around 80 different newspapers pretty much verbatim, though there's some variation in what headline they chose. The most common ones were:

Da Vinci puzzle stumps lawyers

London lawyers turn code-breakers to decipher Da Vinci Code

London lawyers turn into code-breakers to decipher Da Vinci Code

London lawyers turn into Code-Breakers

Lawyers try to crack judge's code

Lawyers try to crack Da Vinci judge's code

Code in Da Vinci judgement

'Da Vinci' Judgement puzzles lawyers

A new code to crack

Solve this mystery message to crack Da Vinci decree

My local "St. Louis Post-Dispatch" listed it as:

St. Charles woman, others trying to break new "Da Vinci" code

And a few other notable exceptions, including two that wanted to add the word "fanatics" to the headline, were:

- London lawyers hit the books over code (Daily Breeze)

- London lawyers turn into "Da Vinci Code"-breaking fanatics(Boston Globe)

- London lawyers turn into "Da Vinci Code"-breaking fanatics to decipher 'Da Vinci' Code (San Diego Union Tribune)

If I was going to spend more time on this, I'd sort by how many papers used which headlines, but I hit my "time-wasting" threshold. ;) The list of papers that covered it though is as follows:

680 News, Canada
ABC News
Akron Beacon Journal, OH
Belleville News-Democrat, IL
Biloxi Sun Herald
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
Boston Globe, USA
Bradenton Herald, USA
Brocktown News, USA
Brooks Bulletin, Canada
Canada.com, Canada
CBS News
Centre Daily Times, PA
Charlotte Observer, NC
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, GA
Contra Costa Times, CA
CRI, China
Daily Breeze, CA
Duluth News Tribune, MN
Ely Times, USA
Examiner.com, CA
Forbes
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, IN
Fort Wayne News Sentinel, IN
Fort Worth Star Telegram, TX
Gainesville Sun, FL
Grand Forks Herald, ND
Guardian Unlimited, UK
Hartford Courant, USA
Herald News Daily, ND
Hinesberg Journal, Canada
Houston Chronicle, United States
Jackson News-Tribune, WY
Jam! Showbiz, Canada
Kansas City Star, MO
Kansas City Star, MO
Kentucky.com, KY
KSL-TV, UT
Macleans, Canada
Macon Telegraph, GA
Miami Herald, FL
Monterey County Herald, CA
Montreal Gazeete
Munster Times, IN
Myrtle Beach Sun News, SC
Ocala.com, FL
Olberlin, KS
Ottawa Citizen, Canada
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA
phillyBurbs.com, PA
Pierceland, Herald, Canada
Pioneer Press, MN
Regina Leader-post, Canada
San Diego Union Tribune, United States
San Jose Mercury News
San Luis Obispo Tribun e, CA
Seattle Post Intelligencer
Special Broadcasting Service, Australia
Sploid (satire)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, United States
StarPhoenix, Canada
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
The Kindred Times, Utah
The Age, Australia
The Columbian, WA
The Ledger, FL
The News Tribune, WA
The Tribune-Democrat, PA
The Westfall Weekly News, Canada
TheCelebrityCafe.com, NY
Times Picayune, LA
Vancouver Sun
Washington Post, USA
Wilkes Barre Times-Leader, PA
WRAL.com, NC
WTOP, D.C.
Wyoming News, WY

Elonka :)

Google News - Elonka and the Da Vinci story

At the AAAS conference a few weeks ago, some academics brought research to show that there's a clear relationship between native country and social-network-of-choice. Brazilians use orkut. Filipinos and Malaysians use another (Friendster maybe, I'm not certain). For American teens, the clear #1 choice is MySpace. It's hit critical mass, and even though everyone agrees that the interface sucks, it's still "the" place to go, so the other services are no longer really an option. The teens have to go where their friends are.

Here at the Game Developers Conference this week, I'm hearing the same buzz. No longer are my own peers talking about orkut or friendster or tribe.net (or at least, not much). Now, it's MySpace getting mentioned everywhere, with LinkedIn coming in second as a more business-oriented networking service. Everyone agrees that MySpace is ugly, MySpace is loud, MySpace is an assault on the senses and sensibilities -- but, MySpace is the (current) place to be.

Oh, and an update on hot games, from the award show last night. Game of the Year went to "Shadow of the Colossus". Other games getting plenty of great buzz are "Guitar Hero", "Darwinia", "God of War," and "Nintendogs". The "First Penguin" (historical innovator) award went to Crowther and Woods for the early text game "Adventure" (award given by Steve Meretzky and Bob Bates, wearing spelunking gear, which was appropriate). Lifetime Achievement award went to Lord British aka Richard Garriott, for his Ultima series. Community Contribution award went to Chris Hecker who gave a *great* acceptance speech -- very entertaining, and is probably going to draw "Will Wright" comparisons. Speaking of which, Wright is on the cover of "Wired" this month, and I've gotta run if I'm going to catch his keynote. Ciao!

Elonka :)

RE: Friendster lost steam. Is MySpace just a fad? (and GDC update)

] 1. NRTA/AARP Bulletin 21,703,580
] 2. AARP Modern Maturity 17,360,979
] 3. Reader's Digest 12,078,469
] 4. TV Guide 9,067,124
] 5. Better Homes and Gardens 7,605,204
 . . .
] 47. Woman's World 1,639,759

A list of the top 100 magazines, I assume in the United States, and their total paid circulation numbers.

Top 100 Consumer Magazines 2002

] Insight on the News is a national biweekly newsmagazine
] published in Washington by the Washington Times Corp. As
] Newsweek is the sister publication of the Washington
] Post, Insight is the sister publication of the Washington
] Times.

Insight Magazine

Get a quick idea of what is going on in the world by simply looking at pictures pulled from top stories...

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