The Boston Phoenix, a Boston weekly newspaper, has released a list of “The 100 unsexiest men in the world” on their web site.  The list includes such notables as Roger Ebert (#3), Dr. Phil (#5) - Yuck!, Joey Buttafuoco (#75.  The Phoenix quotes Dana Carvey on Bill Gates (#23) “Gates apparently made a deal with the devil: ‘You can have $60 billion, but you have to go through life looking like a turtle.’”.

However, the winner who proved to be less sexy than terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden (#8) and muckraker Michael Moore (#39) is the ever repellent, Gilbert Gottfried, the man who reintroduced the world to The Aristocrats joke. Every time I see a duck I think of him! Can’t think of a better loser to take the honor.

In the recent “Luxury Lounge” episode of the HBO series The Sopranos, one of the perks of being a celebrity was revealed, that the people who are best able to afford life’s luxuries often get them for free. In the episode we are given a guided tour of how stars are offered the latest in phones, eyewear, cars, clothes, and beverages for just showing up. Sir Ben Kingsley (Gandhi) mentions that a presenter at a major awards show can get up to $30,000 in gifts. For the mobsters involved, this turns out to be an offer that they couldn’t refuse. You’ll actually be glad you’re not a celeb after you see how things play out. Listen to the E! Online - Answer B!tch to learn about Luxury Lounge culture.

This gets me thinking, what are the perks for being a pod-lebrity? Are there goody bags for Leo Laporte and Amber MacArthur? Is RocketBoom pursued by Prada? Is Adam Curry stalked by groupies waving free Video iPods (probably in his dreams)? What about the rest of us? It seems like the threshold to stardom is being lowered all the time. If that’s the case, maybe the rewards are lower too. I guess a six-pack of Diet Coke and a box of Twinkies wouldn’t be half bad.

Recently, Forrester Research released some new data on podcasting which caused quite a stir in the blogosphere and podosphere. In her blog, Charlene Li of Forrester states that only 1% of online households in the U.S. regularly download and listen to podcasts.”

On Tuesday, Rick Klau, FeedBurner’s VP of Business Development responded on Feedburner’s official blog stating that podcast circulation is growing at nearly 20% per month.

Experts have been debating about the number of podcasts available since there are no official organizations keeping count. PodZinger now has more than 130,000 podcasts in its index and Klau points out that the podcasts FeedBurner manages are already exceeding the number of radio stations worldwide.

Apparently, podcasting is also quickly outpacing the speed of adoption to the DVD format. According to Klau, “Back in 2000, the DVD format, just 3 years old at the time, was declared the most successful product launch in consumer electronics history, outselling the VCR five to one. Using these statistics as a benchmark, in less than two years, the number of podcasts available online is tenfold that of DVD titles in nearly half the time.”

All these stats and research sound very promising but Nicole Simon of Corante seems to sum it up the best:

“25% of (again I assume US market) users have expressed an interest in the time shifted aspect. And are getting used to XX on demand, without the boundaries of what today’s media brings with them…Yesterday it was only Tivo, and that is mostly offline business. Today, 25% express interest, only 18 months after podcasting started and video casting has not really taken off.”

The aftershocks can still be felt 100 years after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. From building design to emergency management procedures, we’ve learned a lot about how to deal with disasters, but there’s still a lot more to learn.  For many years the official death count was 478, but deaths in sections like Chinatown and South of Market were never tabulated. NPR’s Day to Day show ran a story about an archivist who now estimates that over 3,000 people died. Will we be ready for the next one? I’ll check the magic eight ball and let you know.

PodZinger has over 300 podcasts about the earthquake from a wide variety of sources:

Martin Bashir and the team at ABC’s Nightline talk to a 109 year old survivor of the quake (I don’t think Marty climbed a tree for this interview, but you can imagine him sitting on a branch.)

Weather at  Pod Weather gives you a glimpse of the climate at the time of the quake, and how it affected the destructive fires.

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Arts SFMOMA  Artcasts talks about the art created in response to the earthquake.

WNYC’s Soundcheck has a story about disco star Sylvester. While he technically was not a natural disaster, he was a force of nature in his own right.

One of our team members was searching on PodZinger for podcasts that mentioned Social Text CEO and blogger, Ross Mayfield. She found a bunch of entries, but one that stood out was “Talking Portraits Interviews by Tom Parish”.  The text excerpt said that Ross was from “Social Sex” rather than “Social Text”. That adds a whole other level of excitement to enterprise wikis.

Do you ever feel like running to your mommy while preparing your tax returns? Well, short of reassuring words, my mother wouldn’t be much help. However, there is a motherly voice on the Blogosphere who you can turn to for tax wisdom, The TaxMama. Tax Mama’s Tax Quips has hundreds of posts and 80 podcasts on topics ranging from sales tax strategy to estate issues. All of the podcasts are three minutes or less, which is the perfect amount of motherly (tax) advice.

With the excitement that accompanies the start of the Major League Baseball season each year, comes the opportunity monetize every aspect of the game. Sports betting is a huge business that focuses on separating fans from their money. Beating the book is a podcast series on the My Sports Radio site that gives opinions and insight into turning the national pastime into a personal profit (or loss) center.

While the followers of the Judeo-Christian religions celebrate the Easter / Passover season over the next couple of weeks, the celebrity believers of Scientology will get their e-meters out and audit in praise of the Cruise / Holmes miracle baby. Robert J. Safuto’s Podcast NYC - Pop Culture Rant #46 pays special attention to the Tom Cruise / South Park Closetgate fiasco, and the clout that Scientologist stars have in Hollywood.

This headline could describe me every time I play Project Gotham Racing 3 on my Xbox 360.  I do have the Enzo Ferrari, a $1+ million car, in my PGR3 Garage.  I still can’t finish a race without smashing it into a wall at high speed. 

But, alas, this story is about Swedish video game entrepreneur Stefan Eriksson, who started now-bankrupt Gizmondo.  Eriksson was driving on the Pacific Coast Highway when he slammed into a pole at 162 mph.  Eriksson told police that his German friend Dietrich was driving, but police noted that only the driver’s side airbag had blood on it and Eriksson had a cut lip.  Dietrich had “run away.”

Eriksson had also let his payments on his Enzo Ferrari, a $600k Mercedes, and one other car lapse after moving them from Britain, and was arrested and held without bail for Grand Theft Auto.

Note to Eriksson:  Don’t make up fake friend you tried to remember from SNL Sprockets (”Lieben meine Affe-monkey!”), don’t leave bloody evidence contradicting your story, don’t forget to make your car payments, and don’t try things you saw on Grand Theft Auto 3!

I’m not the biggest hockey fan, but Richard Zehnal’s NHL results, news and rumors is not to be missed. While the information is very matter-of-fact, Richard’s delivery is not. I can’t begin to guess his native tongue, but he clearly knows how to talk hockey.

* This is how PodZinger accurately interpreted one of Richard’s statements.