This image was lost some time after publication.

[Update: Since we wrote this, the curtain's been torn down and Da Blunt appears to be open for business.]

See it here, folks, 'cause it's password-protected now. This is the pre-launch edition of Om Malik's new blog, Da Blunt, which was live and public until late last evening. The Web 2.0 wise guys at the Supr.c.ilio.us blog spotted an incoming link from dablunt.com and followed it to this remarkably unprotected site. I snapped a pic before Om and his team hid it under a password.

The writer for this new extension of the GigaOM network is, as the screencap shows, Jackson West, blogger extraordinaire and former contributor to Valleywag's big androgynous sibling Fleshbot. He's a man of many talents, able to draw clever connections between literary references, name-dropping of the San Fran hoi polloi, and allusions to Saturday morning cartoons.

As for answering the $5-million-in-venture-capital question, Da Blunt is about pop culture, high culture, and all those things the "You Don't Know Jack" game claimed to be.

And as for the design, don't worry, Om assures me Da Blunt will look prettier than this when it really goes live.

Da Blunt [now password protected]
What's GigaOm Smoking? [Supr.c.ilio.us]