When I reflect upon this decade which started with a dotcom bust followed by a terrorist attack that changed all of our lives, I wonder what is one thing that changed us the most this decade. So, I came up with this list of 5 candidates and my conclusion. I invite you to come up with your list and reasoning.
No. 5 – Rise of China and India – China with its low cost manufacturing impacted the whole world in various ways and changed not just the face of China but many other countries. Y2K started India on a path to providing software outsourcing and made India a force to reckon with in software business.
No. 4 – Ecommerce – With well publicized failures like webvan and pets.com, Ecommerce finally became mainstream with Amazon leading the pack and brick and mortar merchants like Walmart fighting that battle.
No. 3 – Social Networking – Friendster may have been an early leader of the social networking phenomena but Facebook now is the new king of this hill and that changed all of our lives in many ways. Twitter, Linkedin, Myspace remain distant challengers.
No. 2 – Terrorism – The decade started and ended with terrorist attacks in the US and terrorism continued its attack on other countries including UK and India.
No. 1 – Mobile Computing/Phone – If there is one thing that impacted us all worldwide the most and changed our lives this decade, mobile phone will take that honor this decade.
What do you think and Why? Share your opinions here.
This is a new USA Today/Gallup poll out there that shows something very interesting. When asked, Americans chose both Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton as the two women they admire the most.
Lets take a look at this, as I think it says some very interesting things about America. First, without a doubt, both Sarah and Hillary are feminist icons. They are both hard core, successful women. Both tough as nails.
No surprises in the way the polling shakes out, either. Gallup asked 1025 adult Americans to rate their most admired. These two came out on top in basically a dead heat, considering the +/- 4 point margin of error.
What woman living today do you admire the most?
Hillary Clinton………………….16%
Sarah Palin………………………15%
Oprah Winfrey……………8%
Michelle Obama………….7%
Condoleezza Rice…….2%
Queen Elizabeth……….2%
Margaret Thatcher…1%
Maya Angelou………1%
Of course, this was pretty partisan, as both ladies got the bulk of their support from their particular political parties, which is why this poll fascinates me. It’s a good look at how both liberals and conservatives look at the world.
It should be noted too, that more Republicans were apt to admire Hillary Clinton than democrats were to admire Sarah Palin. Roughly 6 percent of the Republicans asked admired Hillary, while only 1 percent of the democrats admired Sarah. Again, several things come into play here, at least in my mind. One, Conservatives, and Republicans are generally more open minded, and democrats are more apt to follow the party line, no matter what. One also has to factor in education and how informed Conservatives generally are vs democrats.
Frankly, you can count me in the list of those that has at least some admiration for Hillary Clinton. I blame our friends at HillBuzz.org for this! (Just kidding, these are some of the best folks out there. They honestly do have me looking at Clinton in a different light!)
I don’t agree with her on many issues, and sometimes have my doubts about her competency, but compared to most democrat/communist party members, she comes out looking pretty good. She’s by far the most competent member of the Obama administration.
One thing that fascinates me, especially considering both of these women truly are feminist icons, is how they got there. I also think it says a bit about Conservatives and liberals. And what matters to them.
First lets look at Hillary. Frankly, you know you are an icon, when you only need a first name, something both Hillary and Sarah pull off well! Mention either one, and people know who you are talking about, though, I give Hillary the edge here, as she’s enjoyed this status longer.
Hillary took a rather conventional path to her place in the world, even for a feminist. She met Bill in college, got married and started a family. Hillary has a degree in law, and was a practicing attorney. Of course, Bill was the politician and star of the family from the start. As he worked his way through Arkansas politics, she worked and raised their daughter. Then of course, she became First Lady of Arkansas, and then, of course, First Lady of the United States. And, no doubt, she was one of the more outspoken and active presidential spouses. Of course, like in any family, the wife is most certainly a husband’s strongest, most trusted adviser.
After Bill’s time in office was over, Hillary certainly made the most of her opportunity. She was able to use her time as First Lady to make a successful bid for the United States Senate, using that time honored tradition of trading on her successful husband’s name to get her foot in the door, and then her own ability to cross over the threshold.
This is not to take anything away from her either, it just is what it is. Hillary worked hard in the Senate, and proved that she hard earned a shot at the presidency, at least to those who support her. And she was considered the front runner. If not for Obama, she might indeed by the one sitting in the Oval Office right now. Personally, I think we’d be better off!
But she still did well, and while Obama didn’t choose her as Vice President, probably out of fear of being overshadowed, she was chosen as Secretary of State, not exactly a bad thing.
Sarah’s life and path was a little different. She was more of an athlete, and dreamed of being a sportscaster at ESPN. She was a leader even then, and as team captain, led her high school team to a state championship.
She met and married her high school sweetheart. A hard working, ruggedly handsome guy with whom she has five beautiful children. He would go one to be her trusted adviser, Sarah also put herself through school, working several jobs, as well as earning some scholarships. This, of course, is why it took her longer than many of her peers in politics. She has a degree in journalism.
Like most of us, she went to work. Among other things, she worked as a commercial fisherman, with Todd. A tough, physical, but rewarding profession. She’s the complete outdoorsman who hunts, fishes, and loves to run every chance she gets.
Finding a need to serve, she became interested in politics, and steadily went from a seat on the city council to Mayor, then made an unsuccessful run at Lt Governor, which led to a position as the state’s chief energy and environmental regulator, and that of course, led her to becoming one of America’s most successful Governors, which found her in the 2008 presidential race, as the VP nominee. Her path was that of a self made woman who really had no family or spousal name to trade on. Of course, she did enjoy the support of her entire family, all along the way.
Oh, and she got to be a sportscaster, as well. At least at the local level.
Two different paths, by two different feminine and feminist icons. That’s what makes this such an interesting poll, one that is interesting to contemplate.
This of course, brings both Hillary and Sarah to 2008 and the presidential election. Neither were successful in the respective bids, but both have endured.
Like Sarah Palin, Hillary was savaged by Barack Obama and his Chicago street thug tactics. They went after both her and Bill, America’s “first black President” as he was lovingly called by the dems until Obama showed up on the scene. With a new golden boy though, the Clintons, once the most powerful force in democrat politics, were now racists, “straight up“, as Janeane Garofalo would say.
Of course, that wasn’t even a good warm up for what the Obama slime machine had ready to go after Sarah with. Frankly, you would have thought Sarah was the Presidential candidate, and John McCain didn’t even exist. Throughout the campaign, the real contest was between Obama and Palin. Those were the two who were always compared, McCain was almost an afterthought. And frankly, considering just how poorly McCain’s “all-star” campaign performed, and how severely they restricted Palin, never allowing Sarah to just be Sarah, It was a smart strategy by Obama and his team.
Other than that one odd breakdown though where Hillary cried a bit, maybe for effect, maybe just out of sheer frustration, she endured the hate piled on her by the Obama campaign, the ultra-left wing radicals that now make up the party’s base, as well as the entire media.
Then she went to work for Obama, becoming Secretary of State, third in line to the presidency. Not too shabby.
Sarah also endured. Frankly though, and I’ve said this before, and surely will say again, in the 50 years I wandered this planet I have never seen the effort to destroy someone that I have seen thrown at Sarah Palin. You had everything Obama and his weasels could throw together, the most vile, ugly, dirtiest Chicago style hate and slime they could muster, followed by an over the top assault by the dishonest media, and of course, the recruitment, by the campaign, and then continued coordination from the White House after the election, of the Alaska Mafia., the radical bloggers and serial ethics charge filers.
Sarah of course, after watching Obama and the Mafia make her job in Alaska totally undoable, as they stole millions in taxpayer dollars, famously stepped down from office, in what is turning out to not only be an incredibly smart and self sacrificing move for Alaska, but also the shrewdest political move most of us have ever seen. This truly shows that Sarah has incredible political instincts.
Since stepping down, Sarah has become a record setting, best selling author, who is in her fifth straight week atop the New York Times Best Seller List, the spot she debuted in.
Sarah has also become the most popular Conservative in America, hit the talk show circuit, even doing a gag with Conan and Bill Shatner, and is now considered the absolute favorite to win the 2012 GOP nomination, as well as the presidency.
More importantly though, is the fact that just as the Obama campaign never let up on her, even after the election, she never let up on Obama. Unrestrained by the McCain campaign, and just being herself, Sarah has been on the attack ever since. No quarter is given to Obama, Congress or any of their insane ideas.
Sarah has turned a social network into her personal domain, and her every note to her over 1 million Facebook supporters is picked up by all of the news media and quoted world-wide. She has shown a knack for condensing relatively complicated issues down to their rawest, simplest forms for maximum impact.
Her first comment on ObamaCare and the inevitable rationing of health care, especially to the elderly, disabled, and chronically ill, birthed what might be the most important phrase of the year, if not the decade. “Death panels” will forever be the phrase most associated with ObamaCare.
Of course, as with everything Sarah, “death panels” stirred incredible controversy. (Hint: it was supposed to) Those on the left called her every name in the book, some even printable. So strong was the attempt to discredit her, the President actually felt he had to single her out, little Sarah from Wasilla, a private citizen, in his joint session in front of Congress. The dog and pony festival of lies he put on back in the summer that prompted Congressman Joe Wilson to actually call him on it, giving us the decade’s second best phrase “you lie!” This one is used often now after Obama says anything more complicated and involved than “good morning” or “hello.”
Anyhow, not only did she drive the democrat/communists crazy with this incredible succinct and accurate description of health care rationing, she also embarrassed the Rockefeller, country club, RINO wing of the Republican Party. Of course, embarrassing milquetoast moderates is fairly simple.
Now some tried to make it complicated, or were just dumb, or maybe they were trying to muddy the waters, by claiming it was all about “end of life counseling, which is certainly a troubling issue, but not where she was going.
In the end, two things have happened, the far left St Petersburg, Florida newspaper proclaimed “death panels” the “lie of the year” while simaltaniously Senate Majority Leader, and hack, Harry Reid placed a questionable provision in his version of ObamaCare that would make it nearly impossible to take the “death panels” out of the picture…ever!
Funny how liberals always try and have it both ways! “There’s no such thing as ‘death panels’ and oh, by the way, it is now impossible (and illegal) to take the ‘death panels’ out of ObamaCare!“
For her part, where most people would have backed down, Sarah managed to mention death panels every chance she got! In her latest, she mentioned them no less than four times, shoving those “death panels” right up their…… well……you know where!
Long story short, Sarah has shown she is not afraid to fight what she believes in. To put it all out there, not hold back, or play it safe. She has proven she is politically courageous where others are incredibly timid. These are not the times for timidity and political cowardice.
We have seen some really interesting turns too. The media is acting a little different, treating her more seriously, even somewhat complementary. And not just the conservative media. A lot of this is because people are realizing what a complete and total disaster Obama is. He has managed to not only further anger conservatives, and totally alienate the so-called independents, he’s even got many of the far left slingin’ snot!
You really, really have to work hard to completely and absolutely piss everyone off , so congratulations Obama, you’ve not only found your true calling, you’ve managed to unite the country, just not in the way you imagined!
Again, what we are witnessing, with Sarah, is two fold. Part of this is her finally being able to be herself, and make her case to the American people, on her terms. Turns out, she incredibly good at that.
Second is all of those drunk on hopenchange are now sobering up and have one hell of a hang over. They are realizing that every single prediction Sarah made at her RNC speech, as well as on the stump, has come to pass. Now is the time for the big “I told ya so!“
This is leading to wild editorials from liberals such as David Michael Green, a professor of political science at Hofstra University in New York, where he says things like this:
You know, I’ve really been trying not to write an article every other week about all the things I don’t like about Barack Obama.
But the little prick is making it very hard.
Like any good progressive, I’ve gone from admiration to hope to disappointment to anger when it comes to this president. Now I’m fast getting to rage.
How much rage? I find myself thinking that the thing I want most from the 2010 elections is for his party to get absolutely clobbered, even if that means a repeat of 1994. And that what I most want from 2012 is for him to be utterly humiliated, even if that means President Palin at the helm. That much rage.
Think this guy would have said something like that a year ago? You can read it all here, it’s worth it!
Of course, among Conservatives, Sarah has become the absolute favorite. She is the defacto leader of the movement.
Politico, which leans left, just ended a reader poll. Out of nearly 17,000 votes, Sarah was chosen by 47 % of the readers as the biggest winner of 2009. Number two was Obama at 19%. “Someone Else” was third!
In the People’s Republic Of San Francisco, Sarah’s book, Going Rogue, is number three in sales! This in a town were many booksellers were proud to proclaim they would not even offer it for sale!
Even far left Ed Schultz over at Obama Central, MSNBC proclaimed her the biggest winner, going so far as to say “Show me what she has done wrong!“
This is pretty strong language.
By anyone’s measure, whatever negative feelings that have been out there about Sarah Palin, slowly, methodically, and most assuredly, she is turning those around.
So let me end by saying this. Both Sarah and Hillary deserved to be called the most admired women in America. They earned it!
These two are both the biggest winners of 2009, by far.
Hillary is a big winner, because she’s managed to avoid the absolute taint that has hung over the Obama campaign since day one. She might be the only one to walk away from this fiasco with something that resembles a career.
Of course, I’m incredibly biased and in my mind, Sarah Palin is the biggest winner of not only 2009, but of the entire decade. Absolutely everyone, but her strongest fans wrote her off when McCain lost the election in 2008.
This became a weekly ritual, anytime her name was mentioned. “X” was going to end her career, no matter what “X” was!
Then she “quit” as Governor. Oh my, political suicide. Yeah, right. Incredibly savvy move that completely changed the game on Obama and his Chicago street thug strategy of trying to stop her before she ever had a chance to come after him. This, it seems, has turned out to be a flawed strategy. There’s a reason why “they” say “let sleeping dogs lie” or “let well enough alone.“
Up until midway through her book tour, we were told Sarah’s career was over. Then something happened. I don’t know if it was the big crowds, the great interviews, yucking it up with Shatner, or just the realization that this is one sharp woman, who is right more than she is wrong. One thing is for sure, there has been an incredible shift in the way most of the nation looks at Sarah Palin, and that’s not only a good thing for Sarah Palin, but a good thing for America.
America needs strong, fearless, and ethical leadership. That describes Sarah to a tee.
As we prepare to start a new year, and a new decade, America has found a true leader we can all get behind, and believe in. Someone who has the courage and ability to bring this nation away from the brink of destruction, and get it back on track.
America’s brightest and most exciting days are ahead of us, and Sarah Palin will be playing a major roll, bringing us not only energy and excitement, but the common sense and leadership we need to see this happen.
In 2008, I voted for Change just like most American’s… but 2009 has brought Change I didn’t vote for.
January started off well… On the 20th you may remember, Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States. What you might not remember is that on the same day, one of my best friends, Jil Littlejohn, was elected to Greenville City Council!
February was the month Jil was sworn in, but other than that, it was a quiet month….
March is when things began to change… starting with my trip across country. I drove from Greenville, SC to Scottsdale, AZ to deliver our 2002 Camry to my mom… she did not know I was coming and was excited to see me. Somewhere along the way I found out that my relationship of 8 years was coming unravelled, something I knew beforehand but thought was just a phase. After an argument w/ my family and a long distance back and forth trying to figure out what exactly the problem was w/ my relationship I decided to cut my trip short and fly home early. Later that month we moved from our 3 bedroom, 2 bath home in the Mauldin/Simpsonville area to a 1 bedroom condo in Cleveland Park, just off Augusta Street.
April and May saw little change on the surface but underneath things were happening.
Then came June. That’s the month that we saw the death of Micheal Jackson and the unofficial death of my relationship… why unofficial? Because I don’t think relationships are really over until Facebook says so… so on July 4th, which no one was watching, I changed my status from “In a Relationship” to “Single”, a change most of you PROBABLY still don’t know about. That was the biggest change of the year… something I am just within the last few weeks finally okay with.
The end of July beginning of August was fun.. I meet some new friends and went through a bit of a change. Sometimes I think I became to open w/ my emotions a feeling with a group of people I really didn’t know.. it all works out in the end anyway I guess.
September, October and November I worked on dealing with being single privately while still trying to go go go, 24/7. Finally it got to me… All of the walls I had taken down and opened up were closed. I closed a door I wish I hadn’t and said somethings I wish I hadn’t, I guess they were just things I said to protect myself. I did fly to Florida with some friends to watch the Space Shuttle take off, of course, it didn’t! But we had fun anyway!
Then December. Early in the month I received word that my uncle was back in Hospice and that my grandmother had taken a turn for the worst. One December 14th I hauled butt to North Carolina to be with my uncle… that week I was back and forth… Thursday night about 9pm I received a call saying come now, so I went. We stayed up all night with him and on Friday it began to snow, not wanted to be stuck I decided I would go by my uncles to see my grandmother, take a nap because I had not slept up until that point and then come home.
(Side Note) If you know me well enough, you know how much my grandmother means to me. I spend a lot of time with her when I was growing up,and being the oldest of her grandchildren that were around, I always felt like her favorite, something my dozen other cousins would disagree with. She now has Alzheimer’s and has really taken a turn for the worst in the last few weeks.
back to December 19th… so that morning I went to my uncles and said hello to my grandmother, she replied with her usual “hi” and I asked her a few questions.. how are you doing, did you sleep well, do you need anything and I received one word replies to each.. “okay”, “yeah”, “no”. I then said “I love you”. She looked back and me and said “Who are you?” My insides fell apart. I had always said the day she didn’t know I would fall apart.. but I held it together long enough to give her a kiss and leave. That was one LONG drive back to Greenville. I sent Jeremy a text telling him what had happened and he replied with “oh no”. I hung out at home that night, didn’t really do much, and finally about 11pm I send him another text asking for a dozen donuts. He said okay but wanted to know if I had slept, when I said no he recommended I take an Ambien and go to bed… so I did. December 20th I woke up around 12:30pm, layed in bed a bit then picked up my phone…. 32 missed calls…. I knew that could only mean one thing… my uncle had finally stopped fighting. The rest of the weekend was filled with stories from years past, before things started to change. The funeral was quiet honestly the hardest funeral I have ever attended. I was a paul bearer and another cousin played taps. A flag draped coffin and a 21 gun salute made it impossible to hold back the tears, but if my Aunt Dianne could do it, I would try. Some would say I have a ton of friends, and truth be told I probably do, but I felt strangely alone… the one person I felt closest too for the last eight years is gone, all of my other friends are really “new” friends. But Courtney took good care of me, she watched the dogs every time I would call and say “I am going to Lexington”, she was with me ever second she could be, all while dealing with her own grandfathers death on the 14th.
Christmas Eve I went home to Lexington for the first time in 9 years. It was a bittersweet trip. I missed my uncle not being there and a feel sure it was the last Christmas Eve my grandmother will be here.
So see, this year was full of changes, changed I didn’t vote for and would not have wanted to happen.. changes that hurt and changes that were overdue. Change is not always a bad thing.. after all, the only people aren’t changing are dead.
2009 wasnt all bad. I meet a ton of new people all of which are cool, but Brad and Mikey stand out the most. I now have a sweet new car and condo and a new group of friends…
The funny part is that half of my friends never knew half of this was going on… BUT one of my New Years Resolutions is to be a little more open, selectively open, with people around me. I have always been a fiercely private and independent person and that has alienated a few people I wish it hadn’t.. so here’s to 2010… may it be filled with ever more change.. all for the better.
A blog does take effort, time and commitment and along with your website is the foundation or “HomeBase” for your content. The corporate blog should be the cornerstone to your social media strategy that will be read for years and will help establish you and your company as a thought leader that will get people coming back again and again to your website and blog.
A Blog is your homebase that you own and control and your company’s social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook are the outposts that you should place some of your core content as appropriate for that particular channel.
In this video we look at some of the reasons why a blog is so important.
If you want more in depth comprehensive details go to my article “20 Reasons Why You Should Blog Before You Twitter“
So, do you prefer to Blog or Tweet?
20 Reasons Why You Should Blog Before You Twitter20 Reasons Why You Should Blog Before You Twitter
I haven’t touched my notes or done any homework at all during last week. Quite understandable as I have been travelling fromLondon to Barcelona and from there, to Seville where I am right now celebrating Christmas with my family. There is a need to share this time of the year with them and knowing we spend almost half of it having amazing lunches and dinners, this is the best part of the celebration, even more in my home Country.
On the other side to all these good news we find the end of the year and the new one arriving still quite difficult because of the crisis. So why don’t follow some simple ideas and tips to maintain and improve our business?
- Don’t pigeonhole yourself into particular markets, it is not all about back gardens. What about country garden markets, care homes or hospitals?
- Build contacts. As it is been said in previous posts, it is the time to network with other individuals or start partnerships with other professionals.
- Make sure your contact details are up to date. Put your business name into Google and check everything is all right.
- Brush up your promotional material in quieter weeks. Project sheets, PowerPoint demos can be always changed and improved.
- And finally, go in for awards and competitions; you never know what you might win…
This is one of the first commercials I have seen in a while that directly linked Social Media with a product. Mattress Company Tempur-Pedic (the squishy mattress with the handprint) has a new “ask me” television campaign to drive potential consumers to its Facebook and Twitter sites to get a first hand look at what “actual Temper-Pedic owners” are saying about the mattresses. Tying in social media directly with an ad has been done before yes, but this one caught my attention as it so closely ties in social media directly with the product.
Curiosity got the best of me, and had to check out what people are saying. Currently Temper-pedic has 3,396 fans on Facebook. Tempur-Pedic’s Twitter presence is fan based only, I could not find a page dedicated to the company through a keyword search. One of the first Google hits on Tempur-Pedic and Twitter came up with a comment by consumer Gretchen Rubin, who claimed that the company’s pillows had a horrible smell. I guessd that proves the posts are real, but if I was the CEO of Tempur-Pedic, it’s probably not the first impression I would want of the company.
Back to Facebook , the replies I read were positive, save one about a customer looking for sheets that fit. Tempur-pedic was on its game, and sent a reply with a recommendation for something that may help her in less than 24 hours. The Tempur-Pedic reply was on Christmas Day no less! That’s exceptional customer service!
Based on replies on what customer’s are saying, I wouldn’t mind giving Tempur-Pedic a try. However, like fiew jewelry and luxury automobiles, you get what you pay for. On December 22nd, fan Betsy Lynch called her Tempur-Pedic the “best 7,918 she’s ever spent.” Now that’s some pricesless sleep!
Or if you do – don’t add your wife as one of your ‘friends’
That was the mistake a chinese business man, named Chang, made when he married a woman in Mexico when already married to a woman in China.
He travelled between the two countries and his two wives and must have felt quite secure about the relationship – given the distance between China and Mexico made it unlikely his two wives would ever bump into one another.
His downfall came when he included one of his wives amongst his ‘friends’ on kaixin100, the chinese version of Facebook. His other wife befriended her and the two were getting on like a house on fire until they swapped wedding pics and realised they had more in common than they had first supposed.
When confronted, Chang did a runner but has since been arrested when police staked out his mother’s house waiting for him to visit.
[He is probably praying for a custodial sentence to keep him safe from vengeful wives and mother-in-laws]
First of all, Merry Christmas! Happy Chanukah and Kwanza and Festivus and whatever else you choose to celebrate this time of year.
Facebook scared the crap out of me. My friend sent me a Facebook invitation. At the bottom, it had a section “Other people you might know on Facebook:”
And it listed people I knew. But it wasn’t like it was a group of people who would be related somehow. These people don’t know each other. So how does Facebook know I know those people?!?
So I sent Facebook a very angry email. I thought they must have hacked into my email contacts and found my friends. I told them I know they must have invaded my privacy somehow and I demanded they tell me how they did it.
However, I think I know how they did it. I did some googling and people with Facebook accounts can import their email contacts into their accounts. I’m guessing Facebook held on to the name of everyone who imported my email into their account, then they just waited to surprise me with all my other friends.
Well I feel kinda violated. I don’t like it.
And you know what? I was going to get a Facebook account so I could see my friends’ photos, but Facebook freaked me out. A little too much big brother going on in Facebook. So no Facebook for me. Sorry friends, no photo viewing.
Like a gazillion other people, I spend much too much time on Facebook keeping up with a myriad of friends and relatives. At one point I remember identifying some family members but I don’t remember leaving Facebook to organize my family.
After being prompted this afternoon to do just that, I clicked on the link and was taken to a website that invited me to drag and drop my relatives. Really — who could refuse?
Earlier this week I handed over The Hangover campaign into the capable hands of the crew at Warner Home Video. A case study is in the works but in the meantime I’d like to very proudly share some stats.
The Hangover which hit 53,664 fans before we handed it over this week. 40% of fans on The Hangover were achieved organically and we’ve had a phenomenal 1.7% in unsubscribes. On average, 2.34% of our fans responded to our posts.
Other percentages include 14.10% video plays, 37.70% photo views and 19.81% in interactions however these numbers are obviously not for unique views.
Not a bad way to end the year and my first 7 months with Daemon Digital! Looking forward to working with WHV on their overall digital communications strategy in the future – these guys rock!
This is like my latest FLING! Blu Blu .. my pet society fling … I think I take a better care of this bugger than my little tot … ngeh ngeh ngeh … So if there is lesser entry in my blog, I’m probably hanging out with my little Blu Blu (it’s pronounced Blu er Blu er cause he’s FRENCH )
Note : To all my frens who have not registered in the Pet Society … it’s about time u did! U dont even need to be active. Just create a pet and ur done and I will not bug U till I have to
Facebook users now swear in code. Over the last year the site’s status messages have contained remarkably fewer average curse words than in years past, according to stats the company released today. Bombs of both the “f” and “s” variety saw their usage undergo among the biggest year-to-year drops of any word used in Facebook status messages. But at the same time, a new pseudo-swear rose to prominence: “FML.”
Facebook’s data team said its last big peak of “f***” came after the Patriots lost the Super Bowl in Feb. 2008. “With a slightly more mature crowd, we expect that there will be less cursing per capita,” says the blog post, which explains Facebook’s method of counting phrases as ratio of status updates and condensing them into subject areas. “And not only that, but if your mom is reading your FB status, you’d better watch your mouth.”
But that doesn’t mean Facebook users aren’t expressing their frustration using obscenity — they’re just doing it in abbreviated fashion. Facebook’s No. 2 gaining term or topic of the year, according to the post, was “FML” (No. 1 was anything related to farming, due to the popularity of FarmVille). The trendy acronym, popularized by the tragic stories on FMyLife.com and of an appropriate length for texting, tweeting and SMSing, gave complainers a witty way to express their angst, however quotidian.
“FML” was most popular in May 2009, which Facebook hypothesizes had to do with rainy weather and students taking finals, and over the course of the year peaked each week on Tuesdays. Facebook doesn’t specify what countries it took the data from.
Please see the disclosure about Facebook in my bio.
Friendsbook anyone? Yes, Friendster is still alive and kickin with some new looks. Errrr, maybe not really a new look. Yes it really change a lot from the old one but it looks like Facebook… A LOT! Honestly, I find the green theme somewhat ugly.
Friendster's old look
Friendster New look - "Friendsbook"
Aside from the color theme and the new Facebook like interface (which MySpace did also copy), they also have a new logo. Again, in my opinion, I do not find it attractive at all, being a graphic artist myself. Another thing is the image thumbnails is somewhat messy, I noticed some picture thumbs are crap (Why show you legs when it should show your face?). Now the big question is, will Friendster’s new move can make deserters come back again? Or will it sway loyal fans to finally change to Facebook? Your thoughts are welcome, please feel free to leave a comment below.
The term social was big in 2009. Whether it was social networks, social media or social context — this six-letter word had quite a year. It seems that public and academic discourse is shifting away from the lone, rational actor to the social being making decisions in consort with her or his peers. Whether it is offline, online, or some type of hybrid environment, social interaction has now widely been given its due by decision makers, researchers and the public. We see this in the rapid adoption of tools like Facebook, Twitter, and custom networks on Ning in business, health, and education sectors and by the use of video or photo sharing, citizen journalism, and reader/viewer comments into mainstream media. Even academic health journals from the traditional publishers like the New England Journal of Medicine with its use of podcasts and reader comments to the new Open Medicine, which has explored the use of wikis, are incorporating some social aspects to their online content.
It seems that mainstream institutions have finally picked up what social psychologists, sociologists and anthropologists have always known: we are social beings and we’re more productive, creative and happier when we have opportunities to engage with others.
Lest we pat ourselves on the back for finally ‘getting it’, there is a long way to go before these tools, technologies and systems of working truly produce the dividends that we are looking for in public policy, health care, science and innovation.
What is missing is emotion.
In their new book, Connected, social network researchers Nick Christakis and James Fowler describe the importance of emotion in their exploration of the evolution of social activity:
The development of emotion in humans, the display of emotions, and the ability to read the emotions of others helped coordinate group activity by three means: facilitating interpersonal bonds, synchronizing behavior, and communicating information (p.36)
Our social media and networks have done a reasonable job of the third part (communicating information), but a relatively poor job at the first two. Yes, we can meet people online through social tools or dating sites, but my 15 years of work with online communities has shown me that these technologies are good at facilitating introductions and sustaining relationships over time, but they are lousy at growing relationships. Why? Consider the volume of emotional information that is exchanged when you meet someone and interact with them for even a short period of time. Whether it is a look, a smell, a touch, the tonality of the voice or some combination of them all, the sensory experience that comes from a personal encounter is something that can’t be replicated in our current tools for nurturing social networks.
The rise in the use of video, which provides many more streams of information than text, is one of the hopeful points for social networking. Facebook’s addition of video to its service and the already growing use of Twitter-like tools such as 12 Seconds and Seesmic video suggest that we could be seeing a new style of networking in 2010. Apple’s new iPod Nano also features simple video capture and upload tools. And as video grows in use, so too will the complexity of the messages that are communicated and the ability to express and share emotion within online and mobile networks. Once that happens, we may start to see social networking and social media live up to its full potential.
For a while, Courtney Love was writing a MySpace blog. But, then, she realized that was so 2005 and decided to upgrade her social networking set up. So, she wrote this post in July:
whoops there gores the nerighbourhood
so it is true and my space is eating it?
yeah i am having my mgmt send me to facebook when oa sked them they asked for my ssn its not MY ssn but still it as mighty rude so i helf a sign up saying 666 66 6666 with a timne clock on it on the pic and sent it flipping em off so i could be ne on facebook
whooo look what happens with unfiltered fucking comments, gross, did yoi even bother to read whsat i wrote your so stuck up your own asses, some of you
its hysterical thats exactly how theyt fuck my kid becuse tards like you make it seem like itrs easy, ” oh shes a bitch lets pretend we re respected lawyers in teh NYC SUPREME COURT”
x16 in one day, and lien her KID for 169 ,000 x 16.
if it was just me id have been gone long ago but im staying around for the sho mothefuckers say what youw ant until the mgmt gets ona nd filters its noce to know you retarcs are stillout there, wow,. im impressed, so are a bunch of asshole bankers,
notice thetrillions in infrastructure dying under YOUR feet, yeah well talk to Weitzmana nd Azoff about that talk to her greedy and STUPID king rat of a trust fund my employees have illegally and via perjury turned it aroudn so my kid will be fucked and in a bank owned by lawyers who have fucked her this isnt even about ME forget ME …
goign to twit and facebook, so au revoir have at it,
i cannot believe your still that little fraction of you so stuck up your own asses thatyoud let 74 year old men be less intrigueing than your courtneyloveis a bitch comments
i miss myhusband every day and its sick when peopel say that shit,
these wealth managers and cpaa and bankers and lawyers count on you lw iqd inliers thats for sure,
but noones trying to tell you i need or want my kids money, they do, so shut the fuck up
supreme court?
SUPREME COURT? im so apoplcetic as an AMERICAN right now that wietzman is so deluded that he can in his psychoiss go the nyc ny state supreme court and lien my CHILD<
let alone me.
so shut it til you get it,
btw that perfume was roja dove and it was a gift and its 3000 pounds a bottle , its sickening, but its fabulous.
——————————————————-
Is there a deeper meaning here? Yes, there is. Let me translate for you:
Wowzers! Things Change So Quickly These Days! It's Hard For A Girl To Keep Up!
I've always loved being on MySpace but I've come to realize it's sorta outdated. And I'm not the kind of girl to wear last year's fashions!
I asked some friends for help to set up a Facebook account – because everyone says it's so nifty! But, they wanted a lot of personal information I was not comfortable with sharing. A lady always has to have some secrets and you can't be too careful these days!
I have to say I'm kerfunkled by some of the comments on my blog lately. I think, perhaps, it's time to have screened comments. People can sometimes be big old meanies!
That said, I'm going to put up a strong front and not let it get me down. You know what they say: When you work with turkeys fly like an eagle!
On to other things. It's been a hard week. Some of my employees have had issues and I don't know what I'm going to do about that. And, there's been a little bit of legal trouble. And, I really miss my husband. Sometimes it's hard to be a grown up!
The worst part is that people seem to think I want Frances Bean's money. I really don't. I'm trying to protect her like any good mother would! Oh well, I have faith in America's legal system and I'm sure this is all just a misunderstanding that will get sorted out down the line.
Anyway, soon I'll be on Twitter and Facebook! I hope I make some groovy new friends!
There is some good news. I got a present! It's a really beautiful bottle of perfume. I thought it was somewhat too expensive of a gift, but it smells so nice I couldn't say no! Thanks – you know who you are!
Whew! Man, that Sarah Palin sure has started a real firestorm now that she has attacked the Holy Church of Global Warming! It’s one thing to knock ObamaCare on it’s backside, there are only billions of dollars in payoffs and corruption riding on that deal. But the global warming hustle truly is the whole enchilada!
Not billions, but trillions of dollars will change hands. Government control like you’ve never even dreamed of will come to pass. Taxes will flow into incompetent government hands like never before. Energy will “necessarily skyrocket.”
Of course, the real story is all of the money that will be made trading “carbon credits.” Al Gore, the Bernie Madoff of the climate change movement, has made hundreds of millions of dollars already off this scam, and stands to make billions.
As I wrote in an earlier piece, Obama and his friends also stand to make out like bandits if cap and trade laws are enacted. The Chicago Climate Exchange is already up and running, and ready to go when all of these insane laws are enacted. Of course, being Chicago, there is absolutely, positively no corruption going on with this deal. Uh huh. There’s this bridge for sale that you just must see if you believe that one!
Just to bring everyone up to speed. If you remember the failed, disgraced Governor from California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, decided to go off on Sarah for her resent stance on the hoax, the greatest lie ever told. Sarah, in what is her usual style, fired right back with this:
Greener Than Thou?
Why is Governor Schwarzenegger pushing for the same sorts of policies in Copenhagen that have helped drive his state into record deficits and unemployment? Perhaps he will recall that I live in our nation’s only Arctic state and that I was among the first governors to create a sub-cabinet to deal specifically with climate change. While I and all Alaskans witness the impacts of changes in weather patterns firsthand, I have repeatedly said that we can’t primarily blame man’s activities for those changes. And while I did look for practical responses to those changes, what I didn’t do was hamstring Alaska’s job creators with burdensome regulations so that I could act “greener than thou” when talking to reporters.
- Sarah Palin
BOOM, taste my nightstick! (What!?! You KNOW we’re gonna go to that one early and often!)
Sarah has what is probably the most reasonable stance there is on the whole notion of climate change. Being someone in a position of power she honestly didn’t have the luxury to just call these liars out and blow them off. And, as someone who spent time as her state’s chief energy and environmental regulator, Sarah knows more than the average politician and humble blogger about the subject.
Climate change may be happening, but the climate on earth has a history of changing. The earth is millions of years old, for goodness sake! We’ve had heat waves and ice ages. All before man even existed! Obviously if the entire earth was covered in ice, and we now have places where it is not, there was some significant warming.
Anyhow, one failed California Governor pwned.
But why did Arnold even bother to speak up? What prompted all of this? Well, as always, follow the money! Our friend and colleague, The Might Serf, went to town on this one and found some fascinating information:
Schwarzenegger vs. Palin: Arnold has no credibility
In an interview with George Stephanopoulos, from the COP15 Climate Summit in Copenhagen, Governor Schwarzenegger took a swipe at Governor Palin. He was asked about her editorial published in the Washington Post last week. He replied:
“You have to ask: what was she trying to accomplish? Is she really interested in this subject or is she interested in her career and in winning the nomination? You have to take all these things with a grain of salt.“
Tack on “mind reader” to Arnie’s long list professional talents…
Not only is that conjecture on his part, it’s also a convenient way to avoid the subject matter and deal with what she said. Arnold deflects the debate, as is common with the global warming faithful and turns it into a ‘what’s Palin going to do next’ moment.
Then he goes on to say:
“We in California have proven it over and over that you can protect the economy, and you can protect the environment.” …
“I don’t think you have to choose. I think it is nonsense talk to say let’s talk first about the economy.“
Either Arnold needs advisors that don’t lie to him or he has a serious literacy issue. The last time I checked, the statewide California unemployment rate was at 12.3 percent. With the highest rated area, a town about forty minutes east of where I’m sitting, called El Centro at 22.6 percent.
The report goes on to say:
As a Californian who happens to believe that we are in a current trend of “global cooling” (and yes, lefties that also is a “change” in climate) and also someone forced to live under the green foot of my state government, I got a little more joy from that post than some.
She correctly points out the economic mess California is in and accurately points to one of the main culprits. Arnold keeps talking about these “green jobs” (sounds familiar) but when you look at the numbers I posted above, the small number of positions that open up in the market aren’t enough to even put a small dent into those figures.
When my car can run off of algae, we may see a boost in the green economy. Until then, realize what makes an economy work and what doesn’t. Like new regulations and laws for instance… Those are instant job killers. If you mandate small businesses that are already stretched too thin, they will lay off workers. They don’t have a choice. In business, you do whatever it takes to make it to the next month.
Now, to the “why” in Governor Palin’s statement.
I remember when Arnold Schwarzenegger spent his time trying to convince American’s that they should buy a Hummer. Well those days are long gone and a new Climate Crusader has emerged in place of that carbon spewing truck peddler.
Schwarzenegger is now one of the most outspoken global warming alarmists in public office today. He has dramatically steered this state toward more “green” centered policies, programs, and worst of all, mandates. So did he have an epiphany? Did his wife’s family convince him over turkey dinner during the holidays?
Probably not, but I believe Robert Kennedy, his wife’s cousin, has everything to do with Arnold’s conduct in regards to environmental policies.
Robert Kennedy is not only the governor’s relative but he is also one of Arnold’s closest advisors, even if he does serve in an unofficial capacity. The two of them can be seen at various press announcements and environmental meetings talking about their great plans to reconstruct California into a “green economy.”
There’s just one problem with that… A slight conflict of interest arises when one looks over the contracts and plans Californians will be forking money over for in these deals. Robert Kennedy is a Venture Partner and Senior Advisor for a company called VantagePoint Venture Partners. VantagePoint has a multimillion-dollar stake in a company called BrightSource, who produces solar technology. BrightSource has lobbied to build a massive energy project in the Mojave Desert. The project would provide power to 142,000 homes and cost about $2 billion. BrightsSource hopes to build three solar-powered plants situated on land near the Nevada-California borders. As Schwarzenegger told a joint conference of Mexican and U.S. governors, “They’re going to blanket the world with solar panels.”
Last year Governor Schwarzenegger also announced a plan to build a massive electric vehicle grid that would cover most of California. At the press conference in San Francisco, Robert Kennedy said “Creating an energy-independent economy is our generation’s moon-shot.” Whatever “moon-shot” means, I don’t know but I don’t like it. He also said “For too long we’ve believed that economy and environment stood at odds with each other. By coming together in this time of turmoil to build a clean transportation infrastructure, this generation will fuel the economic and environmental prosperity of generations to come.” Given the fact that Robert attended that conference as a representative of VantagePoint, you better believe they are looking to rake in millions from the deal.
In fact, there is an overwhelming amount of information out there that points to Governor Schwarzenegger’s real motives in pushing a “green” economy. It’s all about money and it has little to do with the environment. As is usually the case when it comes to the big names in the Climate Change “movement.” Just do a quick search into Al Gore’s finances to see how philanthropic that guy really is. I’ll go out on a limb here and call the man a profiteer.
As far as Governor Palin’s motives behind publishing words of warning and giving Obama advice (good advice) on environmental matters… She’s trying to help the country. Nothing else. She has no financial ties or personal ties to an industry that stands to heavily profit from the outcome of the Copenhagen Summit. In fact, I’ve done a lot of research into Governor Palin’s background and connections… I’ve linked her up to the Rotary Club and the NRA. That’s it.
By the way, for any of you that still think Arnold resides on the right, politically speaking. The left-wing Annenberg Foundation, helped cover the bill for his trip to Copenhagen through a California State Protocol Foundation grant. I wonder if Robert made the journey too???
Regular readers of this website will recognize the name Annenberg Foundation straightaway. This is the very same Annenberg Foundation that gave the unrepentant murdering domestic terrorist William Ayers, and his good old buddy Barack Obama $60 million dollars for “education,” which Ayers and Obama then in turn gave to radical groups like ACORN, you know, “for the children.”
You can read more from The Mighty Serf here.
Look, Schwarzenegger is married to a “Kennedy.” That alone makes him suspect on many levels, but it’s not really all that hard to figure out what is going on here.
Whole lot of corruption goin’ on ‘round here!
Now….As we talked about before, Sarah’s two Op-Eds she wrote for the Washington Post were some of the most read of the entire year. The one she wrote in July on the subject of global warming was the third most read. Predictably, the loons have lost their minds over this! In the world of the democrat/communist, dissenting thought, and differences of opinion, simply are not tolerated, and most certainly not written.
The Washington Post has, of course, been savaged for allowing that woman to sully the pages of their fine paper. The reaction by the crazies has been hilarious, well worth the time to observe. These people’s entire lives are based on lies, and they can’t justify themselves. Liberalism is one of those things that simply cannot withstand the light of day, or hockey moms from Wasilla, Alaska.
So, WaPo trots out their resident hack, Eugene Robinson, to satisfy the moonbats. What could go wrong?
Sarah, obviously loving this little exchange, offered this up for the WaPo, as well as all of her Facebook supporters:
My Letter to the Washington Post
Letter to the Editor
Washington Post
Thursday, December 17, 2009
I’d like to thank Eugene Robinson for highlighting Alaska’s achievements on climate change ["Palin’s own ‘Climate- gate,’" op-ed, Dec. 15] and for noting that I’ve “treated the issue as serious, complex, and worthy of urgent attention,” while making “any number of pragmatic, reasonable, smart decisions as governor.” But he’s wrong to suggest that my views have somehow changed or that now I’ll have to “renounce” my past efforts.
Once again: I don’t deny that climate change is real. In creating a sub-cabinet to deal specifically with the issue, I said that “Alaska’s climate change strategy must be built on sound science and the best available facts and must recognize Alaska’s interest in economic growth and the development of its resources.” That goal made sense to me then, and it makes sense to me now.
Mr. Robinson tries to make hay out of the fact that I asked the group to advise me regarding opportunities to participate in “carbon-trading markets.” But considering voluntary participation in carbon-trading programs is much different from endorsing the economically disastrous cap-and-tax proposals put forward by Democrats in Washington. Those proposals will burden our job creators and raise energy prices for all of us, and that’s why I oppose them.
As governor of Alaska, I sought common-sense solutions that took real-world costs and benefits into account. That’s what I’m looking for now. But that’s not what’s on the table in Washington or in Copenhagen.
Sarah Palin, Wasilla, Alaska
BOOM, taste my nightstick!
Obviously, Sarah has hoisted this entire bunch of nimrods by their own petards. It’s glorious to watch a politician who will actually fight back when these liars in the media and RINOs attack. I certainly wish President George Bush, an honorable and decent man, would have had ½ the spunk this gal from Alaska has. The entire world might be different today. (sigh)
Of course, what’s a good story about taking the global warming hoaxers to the woodshed without some real meat and potatoes. As you know the Climategate scandal was uncovered in Russia where, ironically, their media is open, and relatively honest.
From Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government:
ClimateGate Just Got Much, Much Bigger
Over at ICECAP.us Meteorologist Joe D’Aleo has posted an item on a “Russian Bombshell” highly relevant to the ClimateGate scandal. The Russian media first posted the story and now some Brits are loving it.
The long and the short of it is best summarized by the Telegraph’s James Dellingpole: “What the Russians are suggesting here, in other words, is that the entire global temperature record used by the IPCC to inform world government policy is a crock.”
That is, we have yet further evidence that the data is being cooked to make the long-running claim of an increase in global temperatures, and now to diminish the apparent cooling of said temps. As the gang at EU referendum tout, “it is in Soviet Union that the CRU, NOAA, NASA show the greatest warming.”
Around the world temperature stations have been widely decommissioned in rural and higher elevations, and we see an over-emphasis on increasingly urbanized (and therefore warmer) stations in the curious selection process as to what temperatures should count, and how much. The latter point references the fact that the data is then adjusted, and we are also seeing an increase in adjusting urbanized (that is, artificially warm) temperature records not down, but upward.
Excerpted in pertinent part, Joe Writes:
On Tuesday, the Moscow-based Institute of Economic Analysis (IEA) issued a report claiming that the Hadley Center for Climate Change based at the headquarters of the British Meteorological Office in Exeter (Devon, England) had probably tampered with Russian-climate data.
The IEA believes that Russian meteorological-station data did not substantiate the anthropogenic global-warming theory. …The data of stations located in areas not listed in the Hadley Climate Research Unit Temperature UK (HadCRUT) survey often does not show any substantial warming in the late 20th century and the early 21st century.
The HadCRUT database includes specific stations providing incomplete data and highlighting the global-warming process, rather than stations facilitating uninterrupted observations. …
IEA analysts say climatologists use the data of stations located in large populated centers that are influenced by the urban-warming effect more frequently than the correct data of remote stations.
The reason this cherry-picking is relevant — as is the apparent similar gamesmanship being played with other countries examined in recent days including China and New Zealand — because our NOAA compiles the global dataset and the rest work from it. So when CRU claimed that it “lost” its raw data, what they’re saying is the claim to have lost which stations they chose from NOAA’s compilation, making it impossible for those who wish to check it to discern how they got the answer they did.
If it is what it appears to be, and my dozen years working with these people and the past few weeks peeking further inside thanks to ClimateGate tell me that it is, then this is root-cause corruption.
Meanwhile, they are scrambling madly to stitch up an agreement in Copenhagen politically committing the U.S. to the long-desired wealth-transfer. The question is which moves faster, the collapse of the increasingly likely scientific fraud, or the global governance set.
Look, there are a lot of links there, and in incredible amount of information that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that pretty much all of the information used by the global warming hoaxers is not only faulty, but an absolute lie. You simply must take time to investigate them.
These dishonest scientists have cooked the books, withheld and manipulated data to suit their needs, all in an effort to pull off the greatest scam in history. The greatest lie ever told.
This is the Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot, and UFOs on a global scale! Why? Money, of course. All of these scientists make money off of government and private foundation grants. No crisis, no funding. No funding and you have a lot of “climate scientists” working at McDonald’s asking you if you want fries with that, which is probably where they belong.
And of course, there is power. Look at all of the power that would be wielded if this wasn’t a hoax, and we allowed measures to fight this mythical beast to be put in place. It would be enormous.
The bottom line is this: The climate exists, that’s indisputable. The climate changes, well…duh! Live in Texas and you may see all 4 seasons in one day! That’s real climate change.
But seriously, the climate indeed changes, that’s why the marketing managers over at Big Global Warming, and Big Government, changed the name to “climate change” once it got out that the earth had actually been in a cooling mode since the mid 1990’s. Thus Big Climate was born.
There is no credible data though, that man can cause the climate to change. Now, can man screw up his local environment? You bet’cha! For example, the environmental whack jobs have turned America’s breadbasket, the San Joaquin Valley of California into a desert because of a minnow. Millions of acres of land that used to feed the world, literally, is now a dust bowl, all because man has screwed with nature.
The answer to this sort of thing is to allow the states, not the federal government, to regulate the activities of the insane. This also goes for those who pollute, and well, even litter. We all want a clean world, a healthy world. But we also want a world that places a premium on liberty and freedom. A world were we, the individual, are what matters, not Big Government, Big Climate, Or Big Al Gore.
As the wheels start to come off of the global warming hoax wagon, men like Al Gore, who has bored us to death with his inane braying, need to be rounded up and jailed. The same goes for politicians and officials who have pushed these lies on the world.
There is simply no way to measure the amount of blood and treasure that has been lost in pursuit of this hoax. Industries destroyed, jobs lost, and lives destroyed. We could be talking about trillions of dollars, but how can one even measure the destruction these liars have caused?
Well, for now, we have a few brave souls, like Sarah Palin, who has the power of her position as the true American leader, to take these people and their lies on. Thank God for that.
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I deactivated my Facebook account today. I am done with it.
When our close friends Amanda and Anderson left for Dubai in mid-August, I started a Facebook account to keep in touch with them and to see pictures they posted as well as share pictures with them. I wasn’t interested in adding a huge number of people to my friends list, and I populated it with close friends, family and other relatives. I adjusted my privacy settings so that people could not search for me and therefore could not send me requests to add me to their friends list. In other words, I was in total control of who I was in contact with. Until about a week ago…
Facebook changed some privacy settings which required me verify my settings. A couple hours later, I got a request to be on someone’s friends list. I was shocked. This is the first time something like that had happened and I was not happy. I reluctantly accepted the request. I went back into the privacy settings and noticed that there was no option to stop ‘friends of friends’ from searching for me and sending requests. What. The. Hell. I left it alone and for the past week, all had been well. Earlier today, I received yet another request to be on someone’s friends list.
I deactivated my account about five minutes later.
I can’t say I’m really upset. Facebook always seemed like more of a chore than anything. I’ll quickly sum up a few of the things I don’t like about Facebook:
Privacy settings that change randomly (it would appear they almost try to ‘trick’ users into revealing more).
New Feed vs. Live Feed – Live Feed always had more in it and News Feed only contained a fraction of content – what good is that?
Stupid game requests. No, I do not wish to participate in a pillow fight or raising farm animals.
Confusing layout. You’ve got News, Photos, Video etc. as well your main friends stream (which seems to include everything). Then you’ve got your ‘wall’ and friends have their ‘walls’ which have more content.
Too much happening. Let’s see, I’ve got news feed, chat bar, requests to participate in games and other stuff, this area that suggests other people to add (repeatedly!) and right below it are some people who I haven’t ‘connected’ with in a while. There are lots of other little things around the screen to click as well.
Deactivation, not deletion: Facebook won’t let you delete your account on your own; just deactivate it just in case, you know, you ever want to come back. Idiots.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy for everyone who uses Facebook and has a great time with it. For me, up until a week ago, I was putting up with all of the annoying crap it threw at me for the sake of keeping in touch with the 40 or so people I chose to be in contact with.
Faz um tempinho que já aconteceu isso, mas só agora resolvi escrever sobre o acontecido.
Antes de contar o que me instigou a escrever esse post, vou contar a minha história pessoal que me fez questionar se jornalista pode, ou não, ter suas opiniões escancaradas pela web.
Pois bem, como estagiária do veículo jovem Kzuka, marca do grupo RBS, sempre tive muita liberdade para fazer reportagens e sempre tratei meus entrevistados como amigos, nossas conversas eram super informais. O Kzuka tem essa identidade, é mais descontraído, despojado, e se você não se diverte escrevendo, você não está escrevendo como deveria. Tudo, é claro, feito com muita responsabilidade com o nosso público jovem.
Pois bem, antes de entrar para a empresa, eu sempre colocava mil frasezinhas no MSN, no status do Facebook, enfim, expressava minha opinão sobre os ocorridos da semana ou do dia. Futebol, política, coisinhas rotineiras, eu me indignava ou me deslumbrava com algo e saia twittando por aí.
Mas como eu comecei a formar uma grande rede de contatos por causa do Kzuka, comecei a pensar mais no que eu escrevia nas redes socias. Como torcedora roxa do Internacional, uma alfinetadinha básica nos torcedores rivais era normal. Mas se um dia eu preciso entrevistar um gremista fanático para uma reportagem sobre futebol e ele leu meu status no Facebook falando sobre o Inter? Ele não contestaria a credibilidade da minha reportagem? Não abriria pretextos para ele acreditar que meu trabalho é totalmente parcial?
Editor e repórter do Washington Post fala sobre restrições do veículo.
Pois bem, deve ser assim que os diretores do Washington Post pensam. O jornal norte-americano agora impôs regras no uso de redes sociais para seus jornalistas. A razão? O exato dilema que eu sofri. Alguns jornalistas, como colunistas ou cronistas são contratados para expressarem suas opiniões, outros como repórteres são pagos para contarem os fatos. Então, se o repórter X cobre a comissão do Lula e depois tuíta sobre sua aversão ao governo do PT, isso não faria o leitor questionar a credibilidade da matéria que leu ou viu?
O critíco James Poniewozik do blog Tune In, que é hospedado no site da Time, criticou a medida do Washington Post. Não é de se negar que ele teve bons argumentos para fundamentar sua opinião. Ele comenta que opiniões são vitais e que se um repórter que está sempre no meio das notícias e dos fatos não tem uma opinião formada sobre nada, ele é um idiota. E você não quer ser informado por um idiota. O crítico também opina que deixar os repórteres expressarem suas opiniões fora do texto noticioso demonstra transparência no sistema jornalístico. Ele ainda aprovoca:
Here’s something everybody should understand about journalism. The reporters, columnists and news anchors you follow almost all have opinions about the subjects they cover.
Algo todos devem entender sobre jornalismo. Os repórteres, colunistas e âncoras você segue, quase todos têm opiniões sobre os assuntos que eles cobrem.
Mas essa é a opinão de um jornalista com personalidade forte. Quem lê o blog de Poniewozik sabe que ele não fica em cima do muro. Porém, precisamos da opinião de um leitor, certo?
Foi aí que me deparei com um comentário muito bem estruturado no mesmo artigo. O leitor, um pouco revoltado, disse que ele não quer saber a opinião do repórter mas sim, saber que os fatos são reportados como eles simplesmente são.
Discussão difícil, não? Leia o artigo de Poniewozik, aqui.
I tend to consider myself as someone who knows a bit about a lot of things and have a variety of interests, beyond my present position as a Special Education Teacher.
Since I have returned to teaching, I have noticed that I am constantly bombarded and overloaded with information at work and home. This evening when I logged onto my computer for my evening update, I had 94 feeds in Google Reader and 17 more were added while I was reading those 94, 2 pages of Facebook posts unread and 300+ live news feeds, 52 emails (none related to work), the Twitter stream was going full force and my news feeds had way too many articles I hadn’t read. This was in addition to listening to NPR’s stream online. This may be typical for many out there, but it has become too much for me.
I have decided that the rest of this evening will be devoted to reducing the amount of information bombarding me. That means I am going to do the following:
Twitter: Reduce the number of people that I follow to about 100. Yes, I know that the more people you follow, the more information you have available, but there is just too much information for me to digest what everyone is saying. I love dipping into the stream, but I think that limiting it a bit will help me, it will be like going from a fast moving river to a slower moving stream. So if you are someone that I unfollow, please don’t take it personally, I just can’t keep up. If you wish to continue following me thank you. I know that I will experience Twitter creep, but I just have to be vigilant.
gReader: This is the biggest time hog, as a blogger, I feel a certain responsibility to read and comment on other blogs. I know that I would want others to take the time to read my blog and comment. Unfortunately, I find that instead of reading the blogs, I have subscribed to, I scan them quickly in gReader to see if one grabs my attention and if it does I open it in a new tab to read and/or comment or on. This is unfair to the writers of the blogs that I follow, because I just don’t have the time to read what they have taken the time to write.
My plan is to get gReader under 75 subscriptions tonight. The hardest thing is that I keep finding new blogs that I really want to read. So if I want to add a new blog subscription, I am going to have to delete one of the present ones left after the purge.
Facebook: I only have 55 “friends” on Facebook but I had over 300+ items in my live news feed. So I plan to either hide or delete a bunch of feeds and friends that I really don’t need to know what they are doing – again it is not personal just overload.
NPR: Turn off the news stream and listen to music instead or just sit and not have any other streams going.
E-mail: Unsubscribe to almost all of my subscriptions and weed out all the Store advertisements that I can.
I find that I spend over two hours a night just getting caught up on my nightly reading, I plan for this “purge” to get it down to under 1/2 hour an evening.
If you are wondering how this relates to being a Special Education Teacher…I don’t start working on my school work until after 9:00 P.M., don’t get to bed until after 11:00 on most nights. I then get up at 5:00 A.M. This amounts to around 6 hours of sleep a night, which I am finding is not enough to be sharp day-in day-out in my classrooms. I think it is called sleep deprivation, which will affect my ability to help my students and eventually my health.
Friends for Sale is one of the most known application in FB (Facebook) yet the world known game has weakness.
The FFS is not that capable of providing it’s user more entertainment. Yes, it amuse perhaps when you just buy a pet and make him/her work for you but the thing is, it is not enough.
Another thing which I notice is that you will be bored of buying and selling pets, earning money when your pet is bought and increasing your value. Some recommendation are ought to take to improve the named application.
For those who are questioning my words it is just an observation.
Privacy is the single biggest concern facing Facebook users, and Facebook knows it. They used to offer detailed privacy settings that enabled users to publish–or keep private–any aspect of their profiles. Most importantly, users could completely hide their profiles from strangers, but not anymore. Facebook’s new privacy settings change all of that, and it’s really bad for the users. Worst of all, users don’t generally understand what they’ve lost, and that Facebook’s interests are now fundamentally opposed to their own.
Let’s recap why privacy is important. As Facebook became ubiquitous, employers started using Facebook to check on the extracurriculars of their (potential) employees. Otherwise strangers started “friending” people, claiming connections from college, high school, or even earlier. Marketers realised that demographic data from Facebook was a gold mine. Many Facebookers came to realise that their online identities needed to be protected just as carefully as their real identities.
The smarter Facebookers among us carefully trimmed their friends lists, exercised discretion in who they added to their friends lists, and hid their profile from the public. I was one of these users. I took the time to learn Facebook’s myriad privacy settings and came to appreciate their power and granularity. I trimmed my list from 675 to 275 “friends,” and, in most cases, didn’t hear a single word of complaint from the 400 who didn’t make the cut–I hardly knew them anyway. My profile–and the content thereupon–was entirely hidden from anybody who wasn’t my “friend.” In other words, nobody who I hadn’t personally pre-approved had any access. They also couldn’t tell that I had one, except through the activities of mutual friends, like tagged photos or wall comments. If someone found me, he couldn’t see any of my profile, my profile picture, nor could he “friend” me. If someone wanted to get in touch, he could send me a message and introduce himself–much like a real person would. In short, my Facebook experience was very much integrated with my personal life, and the detailed settings allowed me the discretion to be myself around my friends and not worry about stalking, harassment, or anyone using my profile content against me.
Facebook hated this. ”Fuck you,” they seemed to say.
Facebook’s Chris Kelly blogged July 1st, 2009 that we’d be seeing a revamping of privacy settings, and was “glad to be offering you more control.” Mr. Zuckerberg himself blogged about upcoming changes to profile confidentiality settings, which seemed to consist almost entirely of implementing per-item publisher privacy settings and retiring regional networks. Then, December 9th, somebody set us up the bomb and “Ruchi Sanghvi, Facebook’s product manager for privacy, [was] in control“:
With these changes, a limited set of basic information that helps your friends find you will be made publicly available. This information is name, profile picture, gender, current city, networks, friend list, and Pages. The overwhelming majority of people who use Facebook already make most or all of this information available to everyone. We’ve found that most people who do limit access just want to avoid being found in searches or prevent contact from strangers. For this reason, we’ll be preserving the settings that allow you to exclude yourself from search results on Facebook and public search engines.
Emphasis mine. This information wasn’t always necessarily publicly available, and there’s a big difference between hiding yourself from search results and hiding your profile entirely. These days, all you need to stalk someone is her Facebook URL (e.g. http://facebook.com/default.aspx). Your profile page is now public even if you hide yourself from strangers’ search results. Stalkers or identity thieves only have to be logged in, which is now incredibly easy since even creepy old Uncle Larry can sign up. And, according to Facebook’s new policy, that page will always show the user’s name, gender, profile picture, current city, networks, and their “fan of” list. This is true no matter what your old privacy settings were. If you thought you were copying over your old settings to the new system when you selected “old settings,” you were wrong. If you’re a father who uses his child’s picture in his profile, anybody can now see and download that picture, and you’re probably going to be pretty pissed. You can hide your friends list from your profile page, but it’s still technically publicly available:
Now when you uncheck the “Show my friends on my profile” option in the Friends box on your profile, your Friend List won’t appear on your profile regardless of whether people are viewing it while logged into Facebook or logged out. This information is still publicly available, however, and can be accessed by applications.
What use is that? I like the idea of my friends being able to see my friends list; it makes it easier for people to connect. Why would I ever tell strangers the names of all my friends? Why would Facebook make these changes? All the reasons I can imagine boil down to profits over privacy. Public friends lists might be convenient for Facebook’s advertising system, because making all that information publicly available means marketers can take and use whatever they want without your permission. However, it’s clearly not in the best interests of any individual user, and it feels like a huge violation of user trust, at least among those who cared enough to keep their profiles private. Further, the value of Facebook to Facebook is in the integrity of the information it contains about its users, not necessarily in the security thereof. Facebook demands your real name, your real birthday, your real email address, and your actual gender, all of which is potentially sensitive data and should be protectable–in some cases it’s enough to break into someone’s webmail account. With public profile pictures, Facebook has yet another way of showing advertisers, “Hey, our site is full of real people, and hey, this one’s actually Asian, Black, White, Latino” or whatnot much unlike MySpace, which is now worth “next to nothing.” Keep in mind that Facebook tracks your activity behind the scenes; almost every link on the site is scripted so that when you click on it, Facebook can record how you got there, for what you were searching, and even more information–and you can bet that they know exactly which profiles and pages you have visited, which photos you’ve viewed, and how often. You can be certain that what you see in your news feed is only a fraction of the activity Facebook is recording. How long before more of this is permanently public?
I’m sorry; my personal life is not simply a way for Mark Zuckerberg to make money, especially not when Facebook has made it so easy to be stalked by complete strangers. I have tentatively deactivated my Facebook account and I hope that Facebook will abolish its policy of making any information publicly available regardless of the user’s preferences. I’m sure there are millions of users who don’t care and are worse off for it, but I value my privacy a little too much to make it that easy for strangers to find my profile.
Anybody with one month of BJJ training knows this move. It is one of the most basic techniques in a grappling practitioner’s arsenal. It is truly a classic Jiu Jitsu technique, dating back to the origins of the martial arts inception. If it could file a restraining order on me, it would have done so years ago. I have used this move so much that everyone who has trained with me knows that I am going to use it against them. The best part, it that I still catch everyone with it.
I have bastardized this hold and have made it my own. I have so many variations with it, that I have had to map it out on a piece of paper. On people who are not familiar with my devilish twist to it, they are easy prey – succumbing quickly to it and a mix of horror and amazement. To those who have been to the depths of my hell, they dread it’s face – when they see it coming, they simply close their eyes and pray for their salvation.
It amazes me that more people haven’t used this technique like I have. I myself, had picked up on this from a chance meeting with a BJJ black belt. He too, abused this technique thoroughly – catching many unsuspecting victims off guard. I owe him greatly for this, but in my endless study of this move, I have taken it to another level. I hope to meet with him some day so we can compare styles and see if there is anything we can teach each other.
Until that day, I will keep honing my weapon and make it as deadly as possible. I show my students how to use this mighty attack, and watch them practice it against each other – learning from other viewpoints. I attempt it from my different positions, figuring out how versatile this tool is. Amazingly, it is applicable from nearly every situation I have encountered.
If you have trained with me, you know him by his name. Named after a great Japanese martial artist who used this technique to break both of Helio Gracie’s shoulders – Kimura. If you have trained for a few months, you are probably familiar with how to execute a Kimura from your guard or side mount. If you have more experience, you know how to attack with this hold from your half guard, the north/south position, and from the turtle. If you are savy, you can pull this off from your feet. Then if you are me…well, you can pretty much go into this move at will.
Most people get frustrated, especially when you know a move is coming and you STILL get caught in it. “Not again damn it,” is what goes through there minds. This is how you become a juggernaut – developing exceptional skills in one key area and utilizing it as often as possible. Look at great grapplers like Marcelo Garcia – infamous for his arm drag. People know he is going to do it, and STILL get caught.
Many people think that to be great, you have to know MANY techniques. This is not true – it is practicing one technique MANY times that develops greatness. Becoming an expert in one move, that is, having practiced a technique so much that you have learned all the nuances of the hold and know every possible outcome. Like a master chess player, you can see your opponents moves ahead of time and trap him.
So be like the spider, spending his time perfecting his web. Sometimes expanding on his creation, other times beginning from scratch to create an even better trap. There are many ways to hunt, but the spider has perfected his craft so well, he only needs one. Because of his effectiveness, a spider never goes hungry. If you learn from his example, you too will be unstoppable on the mats.
One of the good things about meteors is that you don’t need any equipment, just your eyes and a bit of patience. Even in a so called ’shower’ it is rare to get more than one meteor a minute, don’t be surprised if you see nothing for five or ten minutes, then two in a row.
Find an area outside which has a wide view of the sky, is away from bright lights. You want your view of the sky to be as light free as possible to improve your chances of seeing more meteors. Also allow a few minutes for your eyes to adapt to the dark, you will then be able to see the fainter meteors which are more common.
The key to watching meteors is being comfortable and keeping your gaze on the sky. Dress warmly because in the middle of the night and early hours of the morning it can be quite cold. Lie on the ground on a rug, with a sleeping bag or blanket, or sit on a reclining garden chair so you can spend as much time as possible looking up without craning your neck. Standing and looking up for long periods can be uncomfortable and will reduce your chances of seeing those ‘wow’ meteors.
Credit: science.nasa.gov
Try to keep your gaze on the sky for as long as possible, many people have missed that perfect meteor when they looked away. This is very annoying, especially when everyone else saw it but you didn’t! You will also see aircraft and satellites, mostly in the couple of hours after dusk and before dawn.
Meteors can appear in any part of the sky. If a shower is in progress it usually helps to look about 45 degrees either side of the radiant and about 30 degrees up. Looking straight at the radiant means you will see meteors head on and with very short trails, looking to one side of the radiant gives a reasonable length of trail but is still close enough to catch the majority of meteors. Looking about 30 degrees up means you are looking through a larger volume of air than when looking overhead, which should catch more meteors, but is still high enough to be above the haze.
Most meteors appear as a bright streak of light lasting less than a second but some may be more dramatic and leave behind persistent trains lasting several seconds. This can be very obvious with the Geminid Meteor shower.
If there is a shower in progress then over the course of the evening you may begin to notice that most of the meteors radiate from a particular part of the sky. You can plot the paths of the meteors on a sky map to keep a record of their directions. Maps can be photocopied from a star atlas or downloaded from skymaps.com. The more experienced observers keep records of the number of meteors they see and the directions they come from, which allows us to predict the behaviour of the showers in future years.
The most import thing to do is relax, sit back and enjoy.
Present Telengana issue had not begun well nor has it ended well.What has started and how it has ended is pure political drama ,enacted by politicians.If formation of Telengana was really the need of the hour , it should have been formed in 1969.What has changed since then?
The moment Channa Reddy joined Congress, the problem of Telengana was solved.
Now, KRC went on a fast, Telengana has to be formed.Now he has called off his fast on the assurance that Telengana will be formed, milk and honey is going to flow in Telengana.
The real issue is non development of Telengana region.What is the guarantee that the new administration will develop Telengana? Even if it develops Telengana as a state, it might leave an area undeveloped.Then will you form another state ,say, for Dharmavaram/Penukonda?
The answer lies in equitable and balanced development of all regions or the fissiporous tendencies shall raise their heads again.This applies to India as whole.There will be no end.
It appears that the Scamville saga continues to hurt the reputation of the major social game developers Zynga with legal news site Findlaw reporting Zynga and Facebook too have been filed with a class action.
Lead plaintiff, Rebecca Swift, claims that she was fleeced of over $200 responding to offers of an I.Q test and green tea in exchange for in game credits of leading Zynga game YoVille. Zynga has previously repented somewhat for these kinds of offers, but it remains unclear what liability they will exposed to on this.
USA today reporting on the issue made an interesting point on ethics underpinning the class action:
There is no governing body to specifically regulate the social-gaming industry, which puts the onus on developers to police themselves, says Steinberg of Digital Trends. “It comes down to a question of ethics,” he says.
prizeKing has spoken previously about Zynga and their CPA deals. We at prizeking believe that providing a better value prosition for virtual currency users in the form of loyalty incentives would go a long way to avoiding the reputational nightmare that a “class action” can bring.
See Findlaw’s full legal post below or you can read it here
Game On: Lawsuit Takes on Social Gaming Ads
// Virtual world, real scam. That’s what a class action suit filed last month against game company Zynga and social networking giant Facebook says about gaming ads on Facebook. Lead plaintiff, Rebecca Swift, claims that she was fooled into accepting two special offers from advertisers to gain extra game credits for YoVille, one of the virtual world games developed by Zynga. Swift accepted the offers to aid her virtual world experience and was then hit with $200 worth of unauthorized paymentson her Visa. Her real one.
Filed in district court in San Francisco, the suit details how plaintiffs, to get to new gaming levels, sign up for the so-called “special offers.” Some of those offers, such as an IQ test and green tea offer that Swift agreed to, automatically charge the game player. Game provider Zynga seems to be taking the issue seriously, but may not be doing enough to appease consumers who have already lost money. In a November 2nd post on his blog, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus acknowledged problems with “…’scammy’ advertisers and the bad user experience they create. I agree…that some of these offers misrepresent and hurt our industry.”Too little, too late?
In addition, last month Facebook temporarily suspended one of Zynga’s new games, FishVille, while it investigated whether ads in the game violated the network’s advertising guidelines. It seems both these actions indicate that the companies agree there is a real problem. Who actually may be responsible for it may take more time to sort out.
As the suit makes its way through the courts, it is best for consumers to be careful when looking at the special offers linked to social gaming on Facebook, MySpace and other sites. Although the Federal Trade Commission is charged with overseeing much of e-commerce, analyst Scott Steinberg tells USA Today that there is no governing body to specifically regulate the social-gaming industry, which puts the onus on developers to police themselves. “It comes down to a question of ethics.” And at this time, the FTC is aware of the lawsuit but had no further comment.
This suit may well disappear quickly. Zynga is looking at a possible IPO sometime next year. A class action suit on the books could seriously effect the stock price, and that would be game over for company execs.
His downfall came when he included one of his wives amongst his ‘friends’ on kaixin100, the chinese version of Facebook. His other wife befriended her and the two were getting on like a house on fire until they swapped wedding pics and realised they had more in common than they had first supposed.
Like a gazillion other people, I spend much too much time on Facebook keeping up with a myriad of friends and relatives. At one point I remember identifying some family members but I don’t remember leaving Facebook to organize my family.
… I think I take a better care of this bugger than my little tot … ngeh ngeh ngeh … So if there is lesser entry in my blog, I’m probably hanging out with my little Blu Blu (it’s pronounced Blu er Blu er cause he’s FRENCH 
)
Twitter: Reduce the number of people that I follow to about 100. Yes, I know that the more people you follow, the more information you have available, but there is just too much information for me to digest what everyone is saying. I love dipping into the stream, but I think that limiting it a bit will help me, it will be like going from a fast moving river to a slower moving stream. So if you are someone that I unfollow, please don’t take it personally, I just can’t keep up. If you wish to continue following me thank you. I know that I will experience Twitter creep, but I just have to be vigilant.
gReader: This is the biggest time hog, as a blogger, I feel a certain responsibility to read and comment on other blogs. I know that I would want others to take the time to read my blog and comment. Unfortunately, I find that instead of reading the blogs, I have subscribed to, I scan them quickly in gReader to see if one grabs my attention and if it does I open it in a new tab to read and/or comment or on. This is unfair to the writers of the blogs that I follow, because I just don’t have the time to read what they have taken the time to write. ![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=de496093-5ad6-4872-80b2-3ae26abcb57e)
