AOL exec Jason Calacanis says:

Blog mogul Jason Calacanis, who just joined AOL last year, is already running the company, judging from his upcoming meeting at the beverage coaster company's HQ. From the ambitious exec's blog:

This year, as every year, Brian Alvey of the Weblogs, Inc. Network renewed JohnBattelle.com. UPDATE: Brian Alvey of Weblogs Inc. doesn't still own JohnBattelle.com, but because his WIN partner Jason Calacanis sold it along with the Silicon Alley Reporter, he's been listed as owning the domain ever since the first boom.

After he rang up on AIM to brag about his monitors, AOL rising star Jason Calacanis (disclosure: he runs a former Gawker competitor) stuck around to ask for some publicity. So here, everybody pay attention to Jason! (Partial transcript edited to take the boring bits out.)

It's a busy day in People with Two Monitors News.

• Apple buys land for more offices in Cupertino (having outgrown the ones pictured). I really really hope there's a giant cube involved. [Reuters]

• Sorry about the outage last hour. I was wrestling Steve Ballmer and we snapped a cord.

Okay, it's more that he's honestly asking for it on an open forum, but what's he building in there? (Tip to aspiring writers: use every Tom Waits reference twice.)

Oh, Internet, you are so cute. Over the weekend, the Button-down-wearing White Guys of the Net made their blatantly disclaimered April Fool's Day gags:

Today's guest may be in the know, or they may do a great job of faking it. Your call. Here's the e-mail (edited for typos) from a pseudonymous tipster, "The Wall's Ear":

Sometimes, after Valleywag reports on things, they keep happening. Follow-ups to a few recent stories:

Peanut gallery's been roasting again:

If this were Slashdot, I'd write "from the petty-but-irresistible dept." But among the Jason Calacanis Weblog contributors, I found this:

PaidContent.org has new deets on Jason Calacanis' upcoming takeover of Netscape.com. The Weblogs, Inc. founder plans to turn Netscape into a Digg-like site.

As always, the wittiest people on Valleywag are the commenters. This week's best:

An urgent missive from a source near AOL confirms: AOL laid off a good chunk of the Netscape team. But, says the tipster, it's not all about rising exec Jason Calacanis:

Jason Calacanis responds to "some speculation" about him getting all up in Netscape's business. I have NO IDEA who speculated that. But the Man Who Would Be AOL CEO says "there are no details to share right now."

Deep into the quest to make actually attending the ETech conference unnecessary, attendees recap everything for the rest of us:

ETech 2006 rolls on, and Scott Beale keeps photographing the folks who make the Internet. Tuesday's highlights include Tim Bray's Indy outfit, Esther Dyson's spelling, and Jen King's primal scream.

TechCrunch lays out an exclusive spread of leaked Google Calendar screenshots. And it looks like...a calendar. Surprise! Calendar apps are about as distinguishable as Nickelback songs.
TC also hears "serious acquisition rumors" about PubSub after the news subscription company replaces its CEO. Who's buying? Probably not Fox.
UK newspaper publisher Johnston Press can't beat its ad drought. Craig Newmark to be blamed by noon.
Microsoft starts testing its Google killer, the least likely David-and-Goliath story since the pro baseball strike.
Our big sister Lifehacker has news on Microsoft's Origami handheld and Google's "total storage" plan in a daily news roundup.
Still waiting for inside confirmation of Jason Calacanis' Netscape takeover. Anyone who leaves the AOL meeting without a job, we're here for ya.