Trending NowAn Artist is Confronted by the Secret Service, Popular Casey Anthony Searches, and SpongeBob’s Twitter Experiment
Like us on
Facebook.com/AdrianaDiazNews. And follow us on Twitter
@YahooTrending & @AdrianaTweeting.
A social media stunt has landed one man in hot water with Apple and the Secret Service. In June, New York artist Kyle McDonald installed software on display computers in two downtown Manhattan Apple stores that automatically took photos every second. McDonald then posted the wide-eyed stares of people looking at the computers of their dreams on his Tumblr blog titled, "People Staring at Computers."
He first explored computer-staring "art" when he made a 2-minute time-lapsed video of his own computer gazes over two days (watching this makes me think I need to use my computer less).When describing why he decided to take the project to Apple store spaces he told
Mashable.com, "I thought maybe we could see ourselves doing this [and] we would think more about our computers and how we're using them." After posting the photos online,
McDonald tweeted that he was paid a visit by the Secret Service for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. If you're wondering why the Secret Service showed up, according to its
website the agency is not only tasked with protecting officials, it also conducts criminal investigations. McDonald says he didn't think he was breaking the law.
He tweeted, "as i understand, photography in open spaces is legal unless explicitly prohibited." He reportedly got permission to take pictures in the Apple store from the store's guard and even took photos of people with a camera, which no one objected to. The Secret Service didn't arrest McDonald, but it did confiscate his computers. If McDonald is convicted of a crime, he could face 20 years in jail.
People are going through Casey Anthony withdrawal. After Anthony was acquitted of murder charges this week, people are trying to quench their thirst for Anthony news by reading about her online. Yahoo! Searches are spiking for Anthony and others in the trial. Many women are searching for whether Anthony's defense attorney Jose Baez is married. Sorry ladies, he is. He married his wife when he was 17, and they have one child. People are also searching "where will Casey Anthony live." Rumor has it that she will move to Houston after she's released from jail next week. Coincidence or not, searches are also up this week for another famous case: the O.J. Simpson trial. Queries are up for "if the glove don't fit, you must acquit," referring to Johnnie Cochran's famous quote, "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit." Searches for Cochran, Simpson's lawyer, are also
spiking 700 percent this week.
Lastly, SpongeBob SquarePants is
making the jump from TV to Twitter. Kids aged 12 to 17 represent the fastest-growing demographic on Twitter, and Nickelodeon wants in. A
SpongeBob story called "The Ice Race Cometh: A Twitter-Tale" will be told through
tweets from different SpongeBob characters starting Tuesday. It's leading up to SpongeBob's new episode next Friday. Nickelodeon also wants to reach SpongeBob's adult fans who are on Twitter. In a statement, the company said, "SpongeBob's fan base is so broad that about a third of its audience is adults, so we wanted to extend the show's magic to new places like Twitter so those fans can experience it." The "Ice Race Cometh" will be the first time a storyline on Twitter ties into a TV show.
Do you think the New York artist that took pictures of Apple store customers did anything wrong? Tell us on
