- Redbox FTW, Blockbuster FTL, now planning to shutter up to 40% of their stores.

- From the protectionism department, China may issue an outright permaban on the export of gold and silver.  The most fun response is to stick your tongue out and say “Nyah nyah, we didn’t want your stinking commodities ANYWAYS,” though that might not be the most intelligent approach. (h/t TakeAReport)

- If they decide to stop exporting oil, I guess we can run our cars on chicken feathers.

- Emails from crazy people, PwC edition. (h/t WallStreetFighter)

- The Reformed Broker takes a look at the worst stocks YTD 2009; some of our favorite failboats are sinking fast on his list, but there’s a few on there that surprised me. Safeway? Did everyone stop eating this year?

- Do you work in marketing? The street sign guy does.

And finally, as Kanye goes viral, I’ve got a couple more Kanye images and some thoughts on the Adobe/Omniture deal below the cut.

My day job is in the new media space, as many of you know, and we’ve started this year on the nascent stages of tracking some of what we do in Flash, using Omniture. Why? Advertisers want to know how much people are really engaging with the stuff on your website. I consider the Adobe acquisition of OMTR to be a total Captain Obvious move because of this. The easier they make it to plug Omniture tracking into Flash movies and applications, the easier it is to upsell companies who use that technology on their site on a comprehensive suite of Omniture analytics for those applications – enough said.

It’s a big deal, but still, it’ s not Adobe’s biggest deal. I made a Kanye/Josh tribute which I posted on Twitter; I know this has been going around Omniture’s offices, but here it is for the rest of you:

Also, RBM emailed me his take on Kanye and Ben last night (thanks!!) – who knew Kanye was a Volcker fan?

If anyone else has a take on Ben/Kanye feel free to send it my way!