March 15, 2012

There were 6 posts published on March 15, 2012 (this is page 1 of 1).

On fracking: Faison opposed, Dalton supports with caution, Etheridge unknown | newsobserver.com projects

Hey N.C. Governor candidates: if you support fracking, I don’t support you. Clean water trumps jobs, every time. Please don’t bring this disaster to North Carolina!

Gov. Bev Perdue’s move Wednesday toward fracking is putting the Democratic candidates vying to replace her on the spot.

Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton’s campaign issued a statement Thursday trying to take a middle-of-the road approach. Dalton supports fracking but suggests it needs more study before moving forward to know if it can be done safely.

via On fracking: Faison opposed, Dalton supports with caution, Etheridge unknown | newsobserver.com projects.

USDOJ hid evidence in Sen. Stevens case

This is disturbing. I take back my joke about Sen. Stevens being a felon. He was wronged.

U.S. prosecutors in the case of the late Alaska Senator Ted Stevens repeatedly hid evidence that could have exonerated him from corruption charges, according to an investigative report released on Thursday that found misconduct by Justice Department lawyers.

The prosecutors intentionally withheld and concealed information from Stevens’ defense lawyers that included witness statements, key details that could have undermined prosecutors’ star witnesses and allowed false testimony to be presented during his 2008 trial, the report said.

Stevens’ main defense attorney, Brendan Sullivan, “was not aware when he gave his opening statement, and never learned during or after the trial, that the prosecutors possessed evidence that directly corroborated Senator Stevens’ defense,” the report said.

via U.S. prosecutors repeatedly hid evidence in Sen. Stevens case | Reuters.

Google search turns up many infographic mentions

This Google search on “infographic my team built” seems to find many of these spam emails posted on various websites.

Look closely and you’ll find a few sent by our friend Tony Shin, too. Here’s another, and another, and another.

Here’s a whole blog post of Tony Shin’s infographics. Here’s another.

Here’s another from Peter Kim. It was taken from the HackCollege.com website, which is (surprise!) also registered through Moniker:
Continue reading →

Mystery infographic email part of stealth SEO/marketing scheme?

Looks like I’m not the only one who’s gotten the mystery infographic emails. I found this post on blogger Andrew Gelman’s blog:

A personal bit of spam, just for me!
Posted by Andrew on 13 March 2012, 6:50 pm

Hi Andrew,

I came across your site while searching for blogs and posts around American obesity and wanted to reach out to get your readership’s feedback on an infographic my team built which focuses on the obesity of America and where we could end up at the going rate.

If you’re interested, let’s connect. Have a great weekend!

Thanks.
***

I have to say, that’s pretty pitiful, to wish someone a “great weekend” on a Tuesday! This guy’s gotta ratchet up his sophistication a few notches if he ever wants to get a job as a spammer for a major software company, for example.

Similar formula. It’s pretty slick, actually.

The real Peter Kim?

Peter Kim


A Google search shows that Peter Kim is a search engine optimization guru. Note his bio on Amazon.com for his soon-to-be-released book:

Peter is currently Chief Strategy Officer of Dachis Group.

He is a leading advisor on social business, working with clients on strategy formulation and driving global industry discourse. Peter has been quoted by media outlets including CNN, CNBC, NPR, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal and featured as a speaker at events including SXSW, Web 2.0 Expo, and Dachis Group Social Business Summits.

?Peter was previously an analyst at Forrester Research and head of international marketing operations, e-commerce, and digital marketing at PUMA AG.?? He holds degrees from the Darden School at the University of Virginia and the University of Pennsylvania.
This biography was provided by the author or their representative.

He also has a blog on seomagpie.com, as does Response Mine Interactive. I don’t know if this is the same Peter Kim who wrote me but it’s possible.

Update: SEO guru Peter Kim grew up in Atlanta, where Response Mine is located. I don’t know if they’re connected or not, however. I do know that his Twitter page lists his email address as hello@beingpeterkim.com, which is strikingly similar to the hello.pkim@gmail.com address that was on the email I received. I’m leaning towards this being a SEO stunt of some sort.

Update 18 March: Peter Kim, SEO guru, says he’s not behind the infographics.