the buzz log

...Put on your eye patch. Ahoy, landlubbers. Remember, today be "international talk like a pirate day" (+195%) as all ye who dared look it up on Search by now know. Started by two friends, John Baur and Mark Summers, in 1995 as a lark, the hoax of a holiday is heartily observed around the world and is getting some pretty serious buzz. Arrr.

...This is your brain on Rove. Remember the guy they used to call "Bush's brain?" Karl Rove has traded in his role as Republican Svengali for political punditry. So now we can all get a taste of the conservative's grey matter. Searches for "karl rove electoral map" (+152%) will give political junkies insight into how Rove is reading the political tea leaves, or at least the polls, state by state.

...The truth is out there. It's no alien autopsy, but some local Roswell, N.M. residents claimed to have seen a "ufo"(+190%.) As reported by a local TV station, the news sent students of the other-worldy looking for "real ufo pictures and videos" (+131%)—as opposed to the fake kind. According to the ABC affiliate, a café owner reported, "We walked outside, my wife and I, we noticed a glow in the sky." Roswell taps into its UFO notoriety with an annual UFO festival and has plans to build a $25 million UFO museum.