Do you ever wonder why it’s always that one conservative aunt that forwards you those chain emails about Barack Obama‘s secret plot to turn America into a socialist utopia? Salon‘s perusal of internet rumors in the last decade shows that conservatives are both more likely to spread false rumors about liberals via fowarded emails that liberals are about their opponents.

If you can’t beat ‘em… after an off-color joke by Colombian singer Juanes led him to call it a “vehicle for terrorists” and a “current of conspiracy,” Venezuelan TV host (and part-time leader) Hugo Chavez has finally given up and vowed to join Twitter. This news comes shortly after his crusade to jail inconvenient bloggers ended with a promise to become one himself.

It was one of the biggest stories of last week, an irresistible metaphor-made-real. While Wall Street was having its way with the US economy, employees of the Securities and Exchange Commission were literally playing with themselves. What wasn’t widely reported, though, was that the story was several months old, and was revived by opponents of financial reform, who thought it would be an effective counter to news of the SEC’s fraud complaint against Goldman Sachs.

Fox News commentator Bernie Goldberg and Daily Show host Jon Stewart are in the midst of a little disagreement. You see, Stewart wants Fox News to “go f*** yourselves,” and Goldberg thinks Stewart is a hypocrite and a coward for this. Stewart replied with a literal gospel choir of “f*** you”s, and Goldberg told him to “man the hell up” today on America Live. We thought this would be the end of it until last night’s Daily Show. We were wrong.

Since the relaunch of GOP.com, the Republicans have found cyberspace to be the stomping grounds of merry pranksters ready to turn any part of their web identity– from an innocent URL shortener to their personalized header– into the next big meme. The internet’s latest victim is Maine gubernatorial candidate Steve Abbott, who was horrified to find his campaign ads replaced by videos of college students streaking.

C-SPAN has completed arguably the most exciting academic task since the founding of Wikipedia: they have uploaded 23 years of their video archives to a free, user-friendly database online. It’s a landmark in government transparency and a godsend to anyone embarking on an American history research project.

The internet has made definitive revolutionary changes in the way Americans consume their media and interact with their federal government– not exactly a shocking statement. But Michael Scherer at Time Magazine is now proposing that the most tech-savvy government in history is being hurt by its inability to control the flow of information (and misinformation) online.

If the money is right and Conan O’Brien is game, Rupert Murdoch would have him join the Fox family “in a flash.” This is the latest in the post-late night war odyssey of finding a new home for the displaced Tonight Show host and his unique brand of comedy. While Murdoch, speaking to Reuters, noted that there have not been any “real negotiations” with the O’Brien camp and that there are “different opinions” on the matter, with the right numbers he did admit he is interested in entering the world of late night entertainment.

When looking ahead at the next year, pundits turn into prognosticators. Bloggers covering all sorts of topics and industries are now giving their predictions for what’s to come in 2010. Conventional wisdom says to go the conservative route with these choices in order to avoid looking foolish when none of your projections pan out. At the same time, there’s a key difference between picking things that are realistically possible and those that are already on the road to happening. I’ve assembled my favorite predictions covering a variety of fields and what’s supposedly in store for the near future:

This week, the New York Times Magazine was dedicated to their newly traditional Year In Ideas thinkpiece. It’s always a fantastic collection of new discoveries, shifts in ways of thinking, and products that we’re likely to hear more about in years to come. It tries, in many ways, to be predictive; to isolate still-germinating concepts [...]

The new concerted effort by the Republican party to move online and skew younger keeps backfiring. First, the launch of GOP.com was met with mockery and meme-making, then the Republican National Committee’s Facebook page left racist and hateful images up for nearly a week without moderation.

We live in interesting times. Today, you can take the entire world with you in your pocket, but few can be bothered to get off the couch. Increasingly, applications on the web are making it more difficult to ignore the call of the wild. Some of the coolest apps on your phone right now encourage you to get off the web and get a life.

In a recent interview, Josh Tyrangiel, Time.com’s Managing Editor, was adamant that long form journalism does not work online. “It’s just too long,” he said bluntly. As a result, 95% of Time.com stories are original to the web, according to the editor. Tyrangiel knows shorter stories work better because he has the data to prove it. But is Time.com just trying to sell more magazines?

If you were wondering how former TV star Sen. Al Franken would begin his political career, we found out today in his Q&A with Judge Sonia Sotomayor: with TV references.

The newest U.S. Senator spent the first three minutes of his time reminiscing about what apparently was a favorite show of his and Sotomayor’s. Let’s watch!

Michael Wolff loves Sarah Palin! Deadspin F**king hearts Pixar! Seeing Eye dogs for the mind!

Plus! Other fun mostly non-media things we’ve come across during our day reaping the fruits of the Internet.