MySpace is at it again. The site blocked embedded YouTube videos last year (but then, saying it was a "misunderstanding," fixed it). But Buzznet is a direct competitor, with similar photo-sharing, friend-linking, and other social features. Now MySpace blocks any mention of Buzznet in user profiles. While users can use Buzznet URLs in their MySpace blogs, any mention of "Buzznet.com" in a profile will turn into ".." So MySpace users can't share their Buzznet pages — or, well, anything else they want to share from the other site.

A spy at Hearst reports that Seventeen editor Atoosa Rubenstein has decided that MySpace needs to be flooded with her staff of orchids:

• The UK Observer argues that Rolling Stone is once again the anti-establishment bible, "giving a new lease of life" to editor/publisher Jann Wenner. If so, could the mag once and for all stop pretending it has anything to do with music? Just cut that painful shit loose, please. [Observer UK]
• NB to Tom Cruise: Never, ever publish another piece of writing. And pity the poor soul who had to edit you — we'd rather eat our own scabs. [Time]
• Today David Blaine begins his fishbowl stunt, in which he finds an excuse to subject us to his shirtless torso for one full week. [Gothamist]
• It's wonderflack Jonathan Cheban's dewy MySpace profile! He's actually friends with Lindsay Lohan, which means he can read her MySpace blog entries. Color us jealous. [MySpace]
• Work at Men's Journal? Have a lunch tomorrow with Anderson Cooper? Don't know what to ask him? Then turn to your equally dumbfounded friends at Williamsboard for suggested topics. [Williamsboard]
• Thanks, we think, to a quick rhinoplasty, Ashlee Simpson's nose finally matches that of her sister Jessica. [Cityrag]
• Katie Couric has finally found her Hamptons refuge: a 5,000-square-foot Southampton McMansion. Anyone know the broker? We'd love to see some pics. [NYP]
• Additionally on the matter of brokers, Brownstoner launches Brokerate.com, a simple site where you can rate your experience with the realtors who make your life miserable. [Brokerate]
• Women's fashion mags lead to heartbreak, insecurity, and death. But at least you'll stop eating and be thin. [Coutorture]

Online video! It's hot! It's new (except for Star Wars Kid and the hillbilly montage and Numa Numa and the Crazy Frog and—)! It's the way to market Firefox or report on the Maker Faire. And it's the center of a slow news cycle.

Far from the innovative leader the media treats them as, Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe were just "cabin boys" for MySpace, says blogger Trent Lapinski. The 19-year-old journalism student blows open the scandalous story behind MySpace — the story every major paper missed. The makers of MySpace included an ex-con and a whole family of insider traders.

Where did Tom's boys go? A reader at MIT says MySpace is a no-show (despite a Wednesday tip), but Facebook's shopping for CS majors.

How do you break the 12-photo rule and get 51 snaps on MySpace? Step 1: Date Tom Anderson.

Hey, entrepreneurs! In the New Boom, anything but explosive growth is unacceptable. Take a tip from three leading dot-coms and cash in on the Law of Fabricated Returns.

It can't be real — for one, Tom can spell — but the Tom Anderson Yahoo 360 page (headline: "im really glad no one can all the scandalous adult groups i belong too !") sure is cute. And yes, the MySpace founder's friend list is packed with a full Asian chick collection (Tom just needs Pikachu to get a full set). A reader found the profile when "Tom" asked her out. She and her boyfriend think it may be real. But even Tom would be a bit more discreet.

Famed Asian girl collector MySpace Tom (that's Tom Anderson to your old man) keeps his friends close and his women closer. A reader spills:

• Teen lit packaging expert Lizzie "Old Hag" Skurnick talks about the realities of 17th Street's "packaging" of Kaavya Viswanathan's first novel: Packagers are writers and editors who get the job done quickly for larger publishing houses, and make a lot of money doing so. If that meant pulling out some stock passages for Viswanathan to get her manuscript in on time, that would explain the suspected plagiarism. Related: Why aren't we in the packaging business? [Harvard Independent]
• How do you calculate New York's nightlife apocalypse? Take a bill to freeze liquor licenses and multiply it by Axl Rose at Misshapes. [VV]
• Good news for anyone who likes to touch themselves: Nerve.com launches its video site. [Nerve]
• The FBI launches an investigation of Pellicano case leaks to the Times. PlameGate for Hollywood, yay. [Fishbowl LA]
• Fox News' Shep Smith doesn't appreciate being mistaken for Steve Kmetko. But who does? [You Tube]
• Donald Trump has paid the $5 registration fee necessary to become a Rhode Island state lobbyist, so now he can schmooze his way towards — what else? — yet another casino. [ProJo]
• For the record, we've no fucking clue who made a Gawker MySpace profile — but we're thrilled to have 541 friends! [Got Detroit]

MIT and Harvard grads, sick of Stanford kids getting all the offers? Polish the CV, says a reader, and keep an eye out for Tom's goons. Getting picked up on MySpace never felt so good.

Still hunting for the secret Asian-girl-collection MySpace profile (gotta catch 'em all!) of founder Tom Anderson. But a reader went to Tom's party in Miami (pictured). Sez he:

I've heard Nigerian spam pitches with more cred than this rumor, but a forum poster says MySpace shopped for a wee cell-based social service.

This morning's best unsubstantiated (and uncorroborated on the Internets) rumor: MySpace founder Tom Anderson started in porn, says a reader:

BusinessWeek says it's found "MySpace for the Office." Most of us thought that's what LinkedIn was for. But the new social network site Visible Path wants the company, not the worker, to pay for service.

We can't get enough of the kids of Manhattan's quasi-famous residents. They're so attractive and sexy and just legal enough to vamp for the hipster photo sites. Today it's Isabelle McNally, the daughter of Balthazar and Pastis mastermind Keith McNally. It's unconfirmed, but as an aspiring actress (who isn't?), we hear that Isabelle's had trouble at a few prestigious schools because of her nasty habits, but according to her MySpace she's now a proud member of Narcotics Anonymous. Too bad — she looked like she might be kind of fun! And we sure could use a half-naked, troubled bad-girl heiress skanking around Last Night's Party, just to mix things up a bit.

Load a MySpace page today and you'll most likely see this banner at the top:

• New York mag's sex columnist Amy Sohn spares us her return. Instead, she'll be writing in-depth features for the magazine on matters such as breast milk and bjorns, reasoning that "parenting is hot right now." Yeah? Tell that to our Ortho Tri-Cyclen, crazy lady. [NYO]
• A glimpse into Jared Paul Stern's future at Page Six: "Insiders say that Walter Ripley, currently serving a six-and-a-half-year sentence for racketeering, has been slowly moving in on the cigarette and pornography concession previously run by kidnapper George 'Two Thumbs' Theophilus." [McSweeney's]
• More on Ron Burkle's power in Democratic party. [Kausfiles]
• And even The Onion weighs in. [The Onion]
• MySpace is so dangerous, they've hired former federal prosecutor Hemanshu Nigam to keep the kiddies safe from internet predators. [NYT]
• The only Ann Coulter movie we'd ever see. [Towleroad]
• "JT Leroy" continues to write, albeit for something called Lemon. [FishbowlNY]
• Smirnoff will teach Brooklynites "how to do graffiti." Brooklynites, in return, will teach Smirnoff how to fuck off and die like the corporate whores they are. [Consumerist]

BusinessWeek covers MySpace's effort to pacify parents and lock down safety. So is this an awkwardly-placed ad, or a shot from "MySpace of the Apes"?