Internet Video

A Northeast Philadelphia man was charged with threatening the life of a Virginia congressman and his family in an Internet video that he studded with Old Testament references and in which he referred to the "final Yom Kippur. " Norman Leboon, 38, of the 1600 block of Benner Street in Mayfair, was charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia with two counts involving threats against U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor, the Republican House whip. Leboon was arrested Saturday by the FBI, three days after his YouTube video was seen by someone in San Francisco and reported to the FBI. Although Leboon called Cantor "my congressman" in his homemade video, there seems to be no evidence Leboon has ever lived anywhere but Philadelphia and its suburbs.

Can you imagine the great American pastime with runs, hits and outs, but no scratching, spitting, or "The Star-Spangled Banner"? That's what you get with major-league baseball's new Condensed Games. In a miracle of technology and draconian editing, major-league baseball is compressing every three-hour baseball game this season into 20 minutes of Internet video for viewing on the MLB.com Web site. A subscription costs $4.95 per month. A high-speed Internet connection is recommended.

The next extremely cool, or incredibly annoying, trend in cell phones is coming soon to a supermarket checkout line or train ride near you: video programs delivered wirelessly to the very small screen. It's not quite TV-on-the-go yet. The newest and flashiest cell-phone video service, being launched by Verizon Wireless today in major cities nationwide, including Philadelphia, does not offer video streams of live sports, music or TV shows, for instance. But it does transmit shorter video programs, such as one-minute news clips, to a suitably equipped phone fast enough for the viewer to start watching within a few seconds of starting the download.

SAN FRANCISCO - To hear Netflix CEO Reed Hastings tell it, the boneheaded decisions that have dragged down the Internet's leading video subscription service during the last five months eventually will be forgotten like a bad movie made by a great film director. Shaking off the stigma of a massive flop won't be easy, a challenge Hastings acknowledged late Tuesday when he spoke at a UBS investor conference in New York. After his host mentioned the mystique surrounding Hastings as Netflix's fortunes soared a year ago, Hastings quipped: "Now, it's just pity.

Does Bill wear boxers or briefs? How exactly did Monica's dress get stained? For these and other explicit details, voyeurs may go on-line Jan. 25 at 11 p.m. as porn stars re-enact Bill and Monica's Oval Office trysts. This week's Drudge Report, the Internet bulletin written by Matt Drudge, says the Internet video will feature graphic re-creations of the infamous sex romps detailed in the Starr report. Drudge said the video will be presented by Primal Entertainment, an Internet broadcast network.

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration on Monday rejected a demand from a senior Republican lawmaker that the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations to resign. Rep. Peter King of New York said last week Susan Rice's explanation of the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was a foreign policy failure. He told CNN that Rice - a possible candidate for secretary of state if President Obama wins reelection - should resign for comments she made five days after the attack saying the evidence gathered at that point indicated it was not a premeditated or coordinated strike.

Movies with titles such as Lola the Taco Girl and Fun2shh: Dudes in the 10th Century probably won't make it to a theater near you - especially since they're not in English. And that's exactly why Sivoo Inc., which makes its home in a former loft space in Old City, sees them as a good business. "In a matter of three clicks, you can watch and enjoy entertainment," said Burhan Fatah, who founded the company in his Center City studio apartment in 2000. The company operates in a sector of the online world that recently has sparked both intense interest and uncertainty: Internet video.

Software whiz Bram Cohen released BitTorrent for free on the Internet in 2002 so his hippie friends could swap concert videos. The first big success was a Grateful Dead concert. Today, Cohen's peer-to-peer technology is so popular and powerful that it accounts at times for 50 percent of Internet data traffic, and has the potential to alter the economics of broadband Internet for companies like Comcast Corp. and millions of consumers. "Television is going to get phased out," Cohen, 32, a formerly out-of-work computer programmer, said in a phone interview from San Francisco.

WASHINGTON - The Marine Corps on Friday laid the groundwork for deciding what, if any, disciplinary action will be taken in the case of an Internet video purporting to show Marine snipers urinating on dead bodies in Afghanistan. The top Marine officer, Gen. James Amos, appointed three-star Gen. Thomas Waldhauser to oversee the case. Waldhauser named another officer to do an internal Marine Corps investigation, which is in addition to a criminal probe under way by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

THINK YOU'RE having a bad day? Things could be worse. For example, you could be the unsuspecting star of an Internet video gone viral. Or you could be a resident of Allen, Texas. Or you could be on staff at a hospital in Argentina that got a shocking visit by hooligans yesterday. Let the trilogy of horror begin: * In New Orleans, an intoxicated LSU fan passed out in a burger joint after college football's national title game. Later, he and the rest of the online world discovered that someone had been filming while a man wearing an Alabama jacket plunked his genitals on the sleeping drunk's head and simulated a sex act. New Orleans police don't see any humor in the prank and are asking the public for help in identifying the Alabama fan. Good luck with that description.

Jaded by juggling multiple remotes? Confounded by the connections linking your TV to your cable box to your DVD and other devices in your television room? Ignorant of how to switch inputs - or even which control to use? You know who you are, and some of you have spent time at my house. Microsoft, the long-dominant software-maker lately eclipsed by Apple's smartphones and tablets, says it has an answer: a central command station for your television, gaming, music, Internet video, even Skype video calls - all controlled by your voice and gestures.

News and headlines The headline reads "Obama keeps his lead in Pa. " (Thursday), yet that's not what the story says. The Inquirer's poll showed President Obama's lead falling from 11 percent to 8 percent, so you could just as easily have said, "Obama's lead narrows by 25%. " Further into the story, we read that one of the pollsters says Obama is "treading water," and that most undecided voters will go to Romney. Yet the headline gives the impression that Obama has lost no ground to Romney.

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration on Monday rejected a demand from a senior Republican lawmaker that the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations to resign. Rep. Peter King of New York said last week Susan Rice's explanation of the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was a foreign policy failure. He told CNN that Rice - a possible candidate for secretary of state if President Obama wins reelection - should resign for comments she made five days after the attack saying the evidence gathered at that point indicated it was not a premeditated or coordinated strike.

EVERY DAY there seems to be some new sign of the apocalypse. (For the record, Tattle's signs of the apocalypse do not necessarily agree with the signs predicted by evangelical Christians, Mayans or Nostradamus.) Today's sign is that the Walker Art Center, a once well-regarded museum of modern art in Minneapolis, is presenting its first Internet Cat Video Film Festival to showcase the best in filmed feline high jinks. That's right, the YouTubey time-wasters that get millions of people to click away from important news stories are getting their own festival.

When the Atlanta Braves staged an alumni reunion last weekend, a paunchy guy wearing No. 8 turned up, signed autographs, glad-handed with former players, attended a ceremony where John Smoltz's number was retired and participated in the softball game. He said he was former bullpen coach John Sullivan, who spent two years in Atlanta before following Bobby Cox to Toronto in 1982. Cox, who never forgets anybody who played for him, was embarrassed not to recognize the guy and finally asked a staffer who No. 8 was. Told it was John Sullivan, Cox immediately knew it was an imposter.

SAN DIEGO - A wildly popular Internet video turned African warlord Joseph Kony into a household name and boosted the international hunt for the brutal rebel leader. Can a sequel do more? That's the burning question for the small California advocacy group Invisible Children and its follow-up, Kony 2012 Part II . The Associated Press was given a copy of the sequel before its Thursday release. Part II repeats some of the same slick, inspiring shots as the original of a young global community mobilizing into action.

THINK YOU'RE having a bad day? Things could be worse. For example, you could be the unsuspecting star of an Internet video gone viral. Or you could be a resident of Allen, Texas. Or you could be on staff at a hospital in Argentina that got a shocking visit by hooligans yesterday. Let the trilogy of horror begin: * In New Orleans, an intoxicated LSU fan passed out in a burger joint after college football's national title game. Later, he and the rest of the online world discovered that someone had been filming while a man wearing an Alabama jacket plunked his genitals on the sleeping drunk's head and simulated a sex act. New Orleans police don't see any humor in the prank and are asking the public for help in identifying the Alabama fan. Good luck with that description.

WASHINGTON - The Marine Corps on Friday laid the groundwork for deciding what, if any, disciplinary action will be taken in the case of an Internet video purporting to show Marine snipers urinating on dead bodies in Afghanistan. The top Marine officer, Gen. James Amos, appointed three-star Gen. Thomas Waldhauser to oversee the case. Waldhauser named another officer to do an internal Marine Corps investigation, which is in addition to a criminal probe under way by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

SAN FRANCISCO - To hear Netflix CEO Reed Hastings tell it, the boneheaded decisions that have dragged down the Internet's leading video subscription service during the last five months eventually will be forgotten like a bad movie made by a great film director. Shaking off the stigma of a massive flop won't be easy, a challenge Hastings acknowledged late Tuesday when he spoke at a UBS investor conference in New York. After his host mentioned the mystique surrounding Hastings as Netflix's fortunes soared a year ago, Hastings quipped: "Now, it's just pity.

A SLEW OF articles and TV news reports recently have delved into the plight of professional black women and the challenges they face in finding a suitable mate. But we haven't heard much about the professional black man and his experiences in the dating world. Now, finally, the good black man has a voice - albeit a computerized one. It's in the form of an Internet video that has gone viral, sparking discussions about male-female relationships. Called "Black Marriage Negotiations," it spoofs high-achieving women who want it all from a potential mate - a six-figure income, a willingness to pay all the bills, acceptance of her inevitable weight gain and sporadic post-marriage sex. Oh, and Prince Charming must be tall, too. In the video, available on YouTube or Philosog.