Alexis Ohanian has a blog

I can't believe this, but I've ganked this from Valleywag.

What the hell is going on? Some dangerous reporting from the BBC has been discovered on reddit. This bear "hero" was found by Polish troops in Iran (a little lost, maybe?) and was enlisted so it could join them on their European deployment.

A campaign has been launched to build a permanent memorial to a bear which spent much of its life in Scotland - after fighting in World War II.

The bear was trained to carry mortar rounds and drink beer. All the requirements necessary to be a soldier in the Polish Army.

If only the Polish had had an army of bears in the first place, they wouldn't have had any trouble with those Germans...

OK, this entry is way overdue. Our super-est superuser, qgyh2, was the first redditor to hit 100,000 karma and he did so last week to great fanfare.This was the least creative way I could think of honoring, qgyh2. Then a couple days ago, he messaged me to ask that I add this adorable bunny to the reddit logo.

How could I say no?

Brace yourself for another Gmail lovefest.

Most of the folks on reddit have been pretty bummed about today's financial news. I didn't want to add to all the doom and gloom speculation about a recession, but I thought I should contribute something in the form of a reddit logo.

I remembered an old logo I'd done back in June with a very hug-able bear mascot.But that bear's attitude didn't seem to capture the spirit of the day, so I had to make a slight change. Hopefully this change to the reddit logo won't exacerbate the recession -- the alien is a reputable bellwether.

Try to enjoy the bear market and be sure to hug your loved ones the next time you see them. Your savings may be disappearing, but they're not going anywhere.

If they are, don't fret, they didn't really love you anyway.

Yesterday was Martin Luther King, Jr. day here in the U.S.

Until 2000, this day was also Lee-Jackson Day in the commonwealth of Virginia. It took lawmakers a little while to realize the problem.

There wasn't much compelling me to do a logo for Lee-Jackson Day, but I did one for MLK's birthday.One redditor submitted the full version of the famous "I Have a Dream" speech. If you haven't seen/heard it in its entirety before, it's worth a look/listen.

Barack Obama used the day to deliver a pointed speech at Dr. King's church in Atlanta. Also submitted to reddit, I've got to say, this is one of the best speeches I've heard thus far in this Presidential race. He doesn't have the oratory skills of Dr. King -- few do -- but Obama delivered this one quite well.

Now, I'm a big fan of Compete (especially after this), but I had to scratch my head about the top search keywords that send people to reddit.

reddit (sure, that's expected)
beastiality

Someone on reddit noticed this too and submitted it earlier today. So it's technically bestiality (an astute redditor pointed this out) but it still seems like an odd search for getting to reddit.

Maybe it's not just reddit, though, perhaps our competitors suffer from a similarly bizarre search analysis. I wasn't totally shocked by the Jennifer Love Hewitt attention on digg, but what did surprise me was the overlap with the recently MSNBC-acquired startup, Newsvine.

digg.com: jennifer love hewitt bikini pictures, digg
newsvine.com: jennifer love hewitt fat, newsvine

Poor Jennifer. You can tell from the search queries that Newsvine-readers evidently don't mince words.

Fortunately, we don't get very much traffic from search, but I don't think we'll be using Compete's Search Analytics as "the starting point to build search marketing campaigns that drive site traffic and increase sales" on reddit. You couldn't pay me enough to design those ads.

Speaking of Simpsons references, I recently designed my own version of the infamous "I Choo-Choo-Choose You" card from that classic Simpsons episode.
It doesn't have any of the Simpsons-style charm, but I thought it'd be good enough to give to my friends this year. I typically hate Valentine's Day, but now that I have a card, I'm going to make an exception. Plus, if any of my 'friends' don't get the reference, I have the perfect reason to unfriend them.

Who said this holiday was just about materialism and superficial displays of affection?

Oh, and if you want some of your own, I've printed extra to save on cost; they're on sale at unholidaycards.com. After all the great feedback I got from Darwin Claus, I figured it was worth doing again.

Since it got reported on TechCrunch, it must be news. Compete, the cherished alternative to the statistical joke that is Alexa, published the biggest gainers and losers of 2007.

reddit scored a coveted spot on the "positive change" list, just behind LinkedIn, with a +1033% change in monthly uniques. Granted, we got steamrolled by redtube.com, but it's probably not worth trying to compete with web 2.0 porn.

I'm obviously quite pleased with the growth. According to our internal tools, we'd been seeing quite a bit of it all year long. It really took off in mid-October, though -- the drankkit effect cannot be ignored. Now that we have Compete's validation, I feel comfortable promoting this traffic boon: free beer is good. Let the web 2.0 open bar nights begin!

Here's a sign that gets it all right. Both of those images convey something effectively: fuck with this gate and either your hand or entire body is gonna get crushed. It's still not quite OMFG Chuck caliber, but it's a start.