The New York Observer

Betabeat was sceptical when we first heard about Beyond Oblivian, a New York based music startup that got $87 million in backing from big names like Allen & Co., Sony and News. Corp. The startup aimed to take on Spotify by offering an unlimited music streaming service with no monthly fee. Instead the service came baked into smartphones, adding around $60 to the cost of each device,

Seems like our doubts were well founded. The Financial Times is reporting that  has shut down before it even launched. Read More

Newt Gingrich was driven to tears while discussing his mother's health at an appearance in Iowa. Afterwards, he slammed Mayor Michael Bloomberg a second time for spending his personal fortune to secure his spot in City Hall.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie joined Mitt Romney on the campaign trail in Iowa.

Rick Santorum called Governor Christie a "big liberal Republican." Read More

Irrefutable proof! As in don't try to refute it, okay?

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According to the American Council on Science and Health, the fuss over hydrofracking is unfounded. ACSH named the controversial natural gas drilling technique one of "the top ten unfounded health scares of 2011" in a list published this week. "To deny Americans the possibility of plentiful, cheap, and safe natural gas because of hyper-precautionary fears about ‘toxic and carcinogenic’ chemicals from hydrofracking fluid seems terribly irresponsible," read the ACSH report.

ACSH is a group of "physicians, scientists and policy advisors"who often take controversial positions supporting perceived environmental and health risks including fatty foods, pesticides and tobacco. Critics have called ACSH "a front" for industry because it has accepted contributions from corporarations including oil and gas companies. ACSH's report on hydrofracking blamed opposition to the drilling technique on "alarmist" media coverage in the pages of the New York Times and the documentary "Gasland."  Read More

On his way to achieving A-List Hollywood heartthrob status this year, actor Ryan Gosling became an internet meme. Mr. Gosling has a slew of sites devoted to pictures of the actor accompanied by quotes that begin with the phrase "Hey Girl" and depict Mr. Gosling as your ideal boyfriend. "Hey girl, can we just sit and watch the sunset together?" asks one exemplary posting.

Now. Mr. Gosling is the subject of a site that takes this meme to the campaign trail and packs it with backroom terminology and insidery references to voter outreach techniques. "Hey girl, you must be a predictive support model, because my numbers fit perfect against your curves," reads a typical entry on the Campaign Sick blog. Read More

Over the past few days, we have been looking back on the year in the art world with a number of year-capping posts. To close out the year, we have collected all of those posts below. Thank you for visiting. We hope to seee you in 2012, on Monday. Read More