Find the next big thing on the web in this list of 25 Web Sites to Watch.

This post if off my usual web/media fare, but I felt like writing about it:

NYC Mayor Mike Bloombergannounced yesterday he was leaving the Republican party and becoming an independent. Not really that surprising in and of itself since he was a Democrat before he ran for NYC Mayor. The big news is that Bloomberg is considering running for President as an independent and spending up to $500 million of his multi-billion dollar personal function. Bloomberg has been quoted in multiple places sinces his announcement saying that he is considering this because both major political parties have left the center and pushed toward the edges of the political spectrum and that he would only run if he thought he had a chance at winning and not as a spoiler.

Of course, it is very early in the primary season and most candidates push away from the center in the primaries to appeal to the base of the party which is usually much more extreme than the rank and file voters. After receiving the nomination most candidates will run back to the center to pick-up middle of the road voters.

At first, I thought Bloomberg running was going to throw the 2008 presidential elections to the democrats by him pulling most of the conservative voters, but the mainstream media are proposing that Bloomberg is doing the exact opposite because he is strongly anti-war. After further thought, I think Bloomberg is just helping out his fellow NYC Republican candidate Guliani. Guliani is too far to the left on social issues (and with his very messy divorces) to get elected in the Republican primaries. With Bloomberg scaring the Republicans that he will run if they nominate a hard core conservative, it gives Guiliani a much better chance at the nomination than he had before.

Major League Baseball was back in court last week aruging that fantasy baseball companies should pay a licensing fee to them for use of MLB player’s names and statistics. MLB argued that fantasy baseball “exploit players by effectively turning them into game pieces and using their names to draw more customers.” I think MLB’s claims are ridiculous as one of the judges said during arguments on the case “MLB is like a public religion. Everyone knows (the players’) names and what they look like. This is just part of being an American, isn’t it?”

Kodak is introducing a new lowlight color image sensor filter that will producer crisper photos. The new filter uses “panchromatic cells that are sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light and collect a larger amount of light striking the sensor.” Then, a computer algorithm converts the electronic pulses from the cells into an image file. Kodak’s general manager of the photography company’s image sensor, Chris McNiffe, said “We’re talking about a 2-to-4-times improvement in (light) sensitivity.” The new filters will be incorporated first in mass-market point-and-shoot cameras and camera-equipped mobile phones beginning sometime next year. The new filter will be used in low-end phones first because camera phones are using smaller sensors to begin with and smaller sensors generally mean smaller pixels, which means lower sensitivity.”

Over the last couple of months, I’ve added a couple of sections to this blog (very easily thanks to bloggers layout configuration tools). Today, I added the good reads (books) section with links to books that I am reading, just read or plan on reading next. If you have a book that you think I should check out, please let me know in the comments.

With this section addition, the amount of additional content that I have on this blog has gotten out of hand for a two-column layout. So, I switched to a three-column layout. Blogger doesn’t offer any two column layouts, so I found one from the Blogger Workshop. So, if you just read the RSS feed click over to lanniebyrd.com and check it out.

Along these same lines, I’ve been playing around with different blogging tools like Wordpress and Drupal. I’ve thought about switching this blog to one of those tools, but I’ve been with Blogger since February 2001 and Google is really trying to modernize blogger so I am going to stick with them for now. The one thing that has really bugged me about blogger is it’s sorry layout options and the lack of other themes (designs) out there (unlike Wordpress). This layout looks just like my old 2-column blue minima design from blogger, but maybe I will find the time to customize it sometime.

The NCAA ejected a Louisville Courier-Journal reporter from a NCAA Division 1 Baseball tournament today citing a violation of it’s media credentialing agreement as the reporter live blogged the game. I have to admit the reporter did break the NCAA’s media credentialing agreement– I’ve signed the same agreement and it does bar any reporting of game results before the event. Similar events have occurred with Major League Baseball, the NFL and the NBA restricting media coverage during the game.

The real question is whether the NCAA or these organizations owns the facts of the game and can prohibit the results from being published. The argument that I’ve read from the organizations side is that it spends a lot of money on the event and restricts the results to allows them to license the results and create value out of the results. The media argues that once a home run has been hit, it’s a fact and can’t be restricted. I’ve also read the argument that the majority of these events take place in facilities paid for with public dollars and public access should be given.

Bon Jovi is creating a new business model for the music industry linking items that are scarce with items that are easily available (but you want someone to pay for). For any user that downloads their new record on iTunes they are giving them the first opportunity to purchase concert tickets on their new tour.