As I stated in the Celebrity Death Rule of Threes, Twitter and Google Trends have allowed for quick dissemination of news and rumors. All it takes now is a couple of tweets, an overzealous Google News source hungry for page views and once the topic starts trending, it takes a life (or death) of its own. Since the day when Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died, Fred Travalena, Sky Saxon and Billy Mays have actually died. but other celebrities that have supposedly passed on to the VIP section in the sky include Harrison Ford, Jeff Goldblum, George Clooney, Natalie Portman, Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus and now Rick Astley.

Rick Astley, one of the most underrated voices in pop music, reportedly died in a hotel room in Berlin and reportedly the early buzz came from a story no longer available on CNN's iReport service which is a citizen journalism site that has the tagline "Unedited. Unfiltered. News."

News? For every cocky start-up and new media executive that I've talked to over the last few years who keeps telling me that 100% user-submitted content is the future, these sick rumors and misinformation prove that it is only part of the future. There needs to be editorial oversight and curation as a complement or a bona fide alternative. According to his manager on Rick's site, he is alive and well.

Otherwise, we're back in the dark ages and we're just high-tech troubadours spreading gossip as news in a global game of telephone.

In other news, not breaking or shocking, MSN Web Messenger is in fact dead starting today. Microsoft is retiring the AOL-killer messenger service and migrating users to their Windows Live Hotmail. I'm assuming, it is only a matter of time before Windows Live Hotmail becomes Bing Messenger as the Microsoft branding machine tends to roll.

Today Is...
- The 181st day of 2009
- Meteorite Day

Today Was ...
the day in 1908 when the Tunguska event occurred ... in 1934 when Hitler enacts Night of the Long Knives ... the day in 1936 when Margaret Mitchell published her book, Gone With the Wind ... the day in 1948 when A Foreign Affair starring the lovely and talented Marlene Dietrich premiered in NYC ... the day in 1953 when the first Corvette vroomed off the assembly line ... the day in 1955 when funnyman David Alan Grier was born ... the day in 1969 when the last of the AMC Ramblers was made ... the day in 1971 when actress Monica Potter was born ... the day in 2003 when legendary comic Buddy Hackett died. | More June 30th events

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