News of the Tweet: Rubbing one off is racing? Is the media blowing it?

By Seb Kemp

Last week I touched on the subject of Instagramification, which is the way in which many people aim to communicate, define or extend their identity through digital imagery that can be immediately shared or re-appropriated. This week I had planned to give you some findings from my off track explorations in photo land. However, my findings are inconclusive so I'm going to carry out snapping, tagging, captioning, applying filters and shifting the tilt for a little while longer.

Throughout the week I did receive a few links to various Tumblrs from tweeters. Here are some of them.

Musical and creative inspiration from Henry Rollins courtesy of @iamcolb.

Bicycle imagery via @okiecalvin

Pretty pictures of posh cabins via @apeshape.

Surf dude hilarity via @Sandy_Plenty.

You know what's fucking crazy? That someone never did this before. Via @gforcephoto

Classic Tumblrism i.e. rad pictures, cafe racers, and boobs. Lots of amazing boobs--NSFW. Via @AlexCogger

And finally, @_duncan finds the ultimate tumbler. The Winnie the Pooh novelty tumbler with lid and straw.

By the way, I thought I had invented the term Instagramification, but it turns out it is widely used, including for the title of this Tumblr. Looks like I don't need to stuff this one down your thoughts. Moving on....

This week there was a little Twitter rumble in the UK over the design and layout of several magazines' covers. Copycatting? Flattery? Necessary changes? Adapting to the changing print media climate?

When it comes to cover artwork no magazine comes close to The Albion.

A callout for the technology journalists: Imagine what they would have to say if they read most of the mountain bike websites each day? While we are all acting as the speeding fist to the brands, companies and businesses of mountain biking there is real story, character and color going overlooked.

I hope, for the sake of all those chaps who are paid the big bucks by media outlets, that Kabush wasn't really diving for unicorn tears. I expect the big scoop was that a bunch of guys who are paid to spend their whole life getting better at going around in circles very fast, did exactly that. Maybe one of them went a little faster than the rest and won the race. Really exciting stuff and I hope one day that this sport takes off so we can all sit in giant stadiums, drinking and placing bets on saddle jockeys. For results and a thrilling run down of the race click here.

I don't mean to trivialize racing, especially when we are in the year of our Olympic paymaster. Once every four years we mountain bikers get the opportunity to showcase exactly what our sports is all about to a global audience. London 2012 is here and it is the opportunity for a bunch of riders, who are essentially just muscles and lungs perched on two wheels, to market mountain biking to the man on the street.

The other big source of jibber-jabber this week has come from the World Cup camp. It is less than one week till World Cup kick off in South Africa so expect the next week of Twitter to be a frenzy of new bike and team kit unveilings, musings on line choice and other team rumors.

The big the announcement this week was that Red Bull Media House will be providing the live fed for UCI mountain bike events. Apparently, certain mountain bike forums had being going into meltdown before the deal was made official. There was lots of speculation and commentary by the well informed internet community that perhaps this deal wouldn't come about, but really, the only commentary that matters is that of Rob Warner.

Last but not least, as I scan my twitter fed reading brain bursts and mind farts, sponsor shout outs, personal conversations and peoples toilet habits, I start to wonder what the use of Twitter really is. Then like a dancing frog in a room full of burlap sacks a glorious tweet will stand out from the rest and provide me with some hope.

This justifies the daily procrasturbation that I called "researching tumblrs" this week.

If I ever run out of Tumblrs, this (sorta NSFW) will come in handy. Yes, I said handy.

Link here.

This helps for the short breaks between "work outs".

This is remarkable and kind of weird.

And thank you Cam Zink for bookending this installment of News Of The Tweet. On behalf of all the five readers of #NOTT I want to say that we are all rooting for you and a successful movement.