Youtube

A judge dismissed aggravated-assault and related charges Wednesday against a West Philadelphia man - whose violent arrest was videotaped and posted on YouTube - because of "lack of prosecution. " Askia Sabur, 29, was charged with two counts of aggravated assault, resisting arrest, and related charges against two police officers involved in his Sept. 3 arrest outside a Chinese food takeout restaurant in West Philadelphia. For the fourth time in the court proceedings, one of the officers, Jimmy Leocal, was unable to testify at preliminary hearings because of an ongoing investigation into the use of excessive force during Sabur's arrest by police Internal Affairs, said a District Attorney's Office spokesman.

Back in the early 1980s, when I was simultaneously mastering middle school and Rubik's Cube, a new fad hit town that turned my peers, literally, on their heads: breakdancing. I was fascinated. But how was a white boy from the burbs supposed to learn how to breakdance? There was no manual and only an occasional sighting on TV. "Look, look!" my mother would yell from the living room, but by the time I got there: "Oh, you missed it. " For months I begged my parents to take me to New York City, the breakdance capital of the world.

CAIRO - A Cairo court on Saturday ordered the government to block access to the video-sharing website YouTube for 30 days for carrying an anti-Islam film that caused deadly riots across the world. Judge Hassouna Tawfiq ordered YouTube blocked for carrying the film, which he described as "offensive to Islam and the Prophet [Muhammad]. " He made the ruling in the Egyptian capital, where the first protests against the film erupted last September before spreading to more than 20 countries, killing more than 50 people.

L ADY GAGA HAS been booted from YouTube after her account was suspended yesterday. The notice read that the suspension was due to "multiple or severe violations of YouTube's copyright policy. " Who complained, Madonna ? The Google-owned YouTube declined to comment (but maybe someone could post a video commenting for YouTube). YouTube's policy is to remove accounts after three copyright violations, though they can be restored after being corrected. Reports have suggested that the infringing video was a recently uploaded clip of Gaga's performance on Fuji TV. The account, "ladygagaofficial," is one of two for Gaga and is run by Gaga's camp, which isn't really a camp except it involves a lot of athletic, young people who have fun. Gaga also has an unaffected Vevo account.

REBECCA BLACK'S icky "Friday" video has topped all other YouTube vids of 2011 with 180 million views. This is the level of non-news culture you will inherit when newspapers are no more - one of fake Jon Bon Jovi -is-dead stories that traverse the Internet like the Silver Surfer, babbling babies, genius cats and insipid songs like "Friday. " The second-most-popular video, announced yesterday by the Google-owned YouTube, was "Ultimate Dog Tease," in which an owner taunts a dog with food and voices its reactions.

FORMER North Carolina coach Butch Davis posted a video on YouTube defending himself from allegations following an NCAA investigation into the UNC football program, saying he is "absolutely committed to a clean program. " In the 9 1/2-minute clip, Davis says his philosophy has always been to succeed academically and on the field. "Those who have implied my ethics were different at the University of North Carolina couldn't be more wrong," Davis said. He said he didn't know about ex-assistant John Blake's close friendship with an NFL agent, a focus of the NCAA probe into improper benefits and academic misconduct.

A Cherry Hill father said he sent his autistic son to school with a recording device and has posted a video of what resulted on YouTube. He said school staff can be heard speaking inappropriately in class and using bullying language toward his son. Now, he said, he wants the staffers involved to publicly apologize to his son, and has posted an online petition calling for legislation that would require educators who bully students to be fired....

Did you hear the one about the archbishop, the vice president, and the piano-playing cat? Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, Vice President Cheney, and Nora the Piano-Playing Cat all wander in to a popular meeting place known as YouTube. The cardinal looks around and thinks, Mercy, this venue is a great place for me to spread the word of God! So Cardinal Rigali posts a video called "Living Lent Faithfully," offering reflections on the Scriptures for each week of Lent.

Philadelphia mayoral candidates Michael Nutter and Al Taubenberger think you ought to be in pictures - on YouTube, that is. The candidates have agreed to field citizens' questions during their Oct. 15th forum posted in the form of videos. The event will focus on the candidates' "Visions of a Sustainable Philadelphia," according to organizers from the Next Great City project. It's a good, meaty topic, and the YouTube approach - patterned after the CNN/YouTube forums for presidential candidates - offers a unique means of exploring the issue.

Philly R&B musician Damon Hamilton is a bit amazed how he's finally getting lots of attention after creating a YouTube spoof of South Korean pop sensation Psy and his viral "Gangnam Style" video. In less than two months, the Asian rapper, real name Park Jae-Sang, has skyrocketed to No. 1 on Billboard's Social 50, a measure of international Internet buzz, propelled by a catchy single, a music video featuring his funny "invisible horse" dancing, appearances everywhere from Ellen (where he taught X Factor judge Britney Spears the dance)

Zach Sobiech, 18, a Minnesota teen whose farewell song became a YouTube sensation, has died after a 31/2-year fight with bone cancer. Mr. Sobiech died Monday at his Lakeland home. His mother, Laura, said on the CaringBridge website that he was surrounded by his family and girlfriend. He was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in November 2009. When he learned last year that he did not have much longer to live, his mother suggested he write farewell notes to his loved ones. Instead, he wrote music.

Cedric Perry and his production team are out to smash what they say is the stereotype of the historically black college. So, three times a month, Perry drives to his alma mater, Cheyney University in Delaware County, with floodlights, cameras, and a script. Once settled in the student center, Perry becomes the producer, cowriter, director, costar, cameraman, wardrobe manager, and lighting guy of the YouTube series We're Just Talking . "This is the glamorous life of Web TV," said Perry, 27, as he adjusted lights and prepared to change into his character's hip-hop (circa 2002)

SEOUL, South Korea - The reclusive, impoverished state that denies Internet access to all but a handful of its citizens has, improbably, become an online sensation. With North Korea's chubby dictator, campy propaganda videos and near-daily threats of attack against its neighbors and the United States, the secretive police state has never been more searched for, tweeted or discussed. Some semi-chagrined analysts say the North, for the first time, has gone viral. Although Pyongyang tries every few years to drive up regional tensions and win political concessions, this latest saber-rattling has more forcefully captured global attention, in part because the mysterious and potentially dangerous North so perfectly feeds the appetites of the Internet and social media.

Maybe someday, Alesia Brown joked, the futuristic Star Trek idea of instantaneously producing food items directly from an advanced computer system will come to Philadelphia's Central High School. If it does, said Brown, the teacher technology leader and computer support coordinator at Central, she would not be surprised. In the 30 years that Brown has been working with computers at Central, she has seen many changes in technology and its uses at the academic magnet high school.

ALMOST every day, we hear about a pop star blowing up on the Internet. But who knew that YouTube can make a fast and enduring phenomenon of Broadway tunesmiths, too? Philadelphia-born lyricist/composer Benj Pasek and his musical writing partner, Justin Paul - lately getting props on NBC-TV's "Smash" - are here to tell of the Web's charms and power in giving them a big head start on the competition. Way back in 2005, while Pasek and Paul were still musical theater majors at the University of Michigan, Web exposure of their material ignited one of the most successful theatrical shows that's never played on Broadway.

CAIRO - A Cairo court on Saturday ordered the government to block access to the video-sharing website YouTube for 30 days for carrying an anti-Islam film that caused deadly riots across the world. Judge Hassouna Tawfiq ordered YouTube blocked for carrying the film, which he described as "offensive to Islam and the Prophet [Muhammad]. " He made the ruling in the Egyptian capital, where the first protests against the film erupted last September before spreading to more than 20 countries, killing more than 50 people.

Advertisers used to wait till Super Bowl Sunday to unveil their TV ads. More and more, some jump the gun to justify the king's ransom for a 30-second spot - $4 million this year - by capitalizing on every bit of media hype and advance Internet traffic they can generate, often by using some kind of contest tie-in. Some, like Anheuser-Busch, use the news and social media to build anticipation for spots you'll have to wait till Sunday to see. The beermaker even issued its first-ever tweet to ask folks to suggest names for a recently born Clydesdale , star of an ad called "Brotherhood.

FROM A decorated police lieutenant caught cold-cocking an unarmed woman to a wild wedding brawl captured on camera by a 15-year-old tourist, Philly videos scored big numbers at the YouTube box office in 2012. If seeing is believing, even veteran lawmen were shocked when they saw a little girl fight off her abductor and, in another video, a group of teen girls attack a mentally challenged woman in her own home. The viewing material ventured into R-rated territory when cameras caught a cabbie with his pants down and a chanting family at a suburban high school with no pants at all. Perhaps, in some quiet, bizarre corners of southeastern Pennsylvania (ahem . . . Delco)

TATTLE LOVES the Internet as much as the next guy but occasionally it can be misleading. With big news stories, Internet sources are so eager to get stories up quickly, a lot of them turn out to be completely wrong. With the recent Newtown massacre, for instance, we quickly learned that the shooter's mother was a teacher at the school, that his father was killed in New Jersey, that he left his mother's Bushmaster rifle in the car and that his name was Ryan. That's Oh-for-four.

IF "INNOCENCE OF MUSLIMS" sweeps the Razzies next year, can we all stop talking about it like it's a serious cinematic event? Is every crackpot with access to YouTube now going to become a target of insecure political regimes? On Wednesday, an Egyptian court convicted in absentia seven Egyptian Coptic Christians and a Florida-based American pastor, sentencing them to death - that's right, to death - on charges linked to the anti-Islam film that had sparked riots in parts of the Muslim world.