This morning I decided that Facebook and Twitter are distractions in my life. I’ve deleted both. I invited all of my Facebook friends to an event as a way of announcing my departure and I’ve uploaded this post to Twitter to let my followers there know as well. I’m undecided about Have Coffee Will Write [...]

When asked how I managed to shed 80 pounds in nine months my first response is always: I stop eating junk food. Watching Emily Bazelon’s presentation on girls with Autism lead me to this quote from Clifford Nass: Our research shows a link between face-to-face contact and good relationships because that’s the best way to [...]

[Update @ 0801 on 8 November: From Its All Journalism: In 2008, Twitter was still a newbie and far from mainstream. But on election night of 2012, Twitter was THE source of news. In fact, the conversation in the room was sparse; the conversation online was an avalanche.] [Originally published on 5 November.] Mano Singham [...]

[Updated on 8 November.] Mano Singham writes: Dana Millbank reports on what he saw during the debates. He said that the reporters were not in the auditorium but were in a separate room in which the debate was shown on a large screen. But the reporters were also glued to their laptop screens reading other [...]

This is the background image that shows up about 90 percent of the time on my Twitter account.

The day I confronted my troll: He drove me off Twitter, hacked my Facebook, and abused and terrified my family. Yet the biggest shock of all was meeting him…

[Update 2 0744: So, I'm not a supporter of Ron Paul, but I do agree with several of his positions on American foreign policy which I see as essentially a 21st century version of President George Washington's 18th century vision and this video echoes my Why They Hate Us meme.] When Ms. Money can describe [...]

Be Careful Where You Click! Google’s Deceptive Ads Trick Users…

Thank you Susan Miller. Yesterday morning I wrote about TrapWire, a detailed surveillance system more accurate than modern facial recognition technology installed it across the U.S. under the radar of most Americans. Trapwire collects video data from thousands of surveillance cameras, according to emails made public by WikiLeaks. When the news broke hacktivists discovered that [...]

[Upate @ 0829 -- From Cleveland Heights City Council Member Bonnie Kaplan: Hi, The cameras in Cleveland Heights are monitored by the Cleveland Hts police dept. There is no secondary monitoring, or data collection system involved. Have a good day. Bonnie Caplan] Glenn Greenwald alerted me to this trending story this morning on Twitter. David [...]

So, this morning I advertantly discovered that there are words that you shouldn’t use when posting on the Civic Commons. I pasted the conclusion from a post I wrote this morning as a way of broadening a Civic Commons conversation I’m engaged in: So then, is incivility an expression of power and civility that of [...]

As web companies strive to tailor their services (including news and search results) to our personal tastes, there’s a dangerous unintended consequence: We get trapped in a “filter bubble” and don’t get exposed to information that could challenge or broaden our worldview. Eli Pariser argues powerfully that this will ultimately prove to be bad for us and bad for democracy.

Today is a particularly bad (good?) day for me, Twitter and Facebook because my very limited list of friends have linked to/featured the following stories that are just interesting enough to suck me down the rabbit hole. Here’s the list: Boy Scout Moms for Equality 1024-1039 (This will show up later todaty in an omnibus [...]

A little more than four years ago, on Tuesday, 3 June 2008 at 1039 to be precise, the email below — with bad grammar and typing left intact — popped into my inbox: SOMEONE YOU CALL YOUR FRIEND, WANTS YOU DEAD. I felt very sorry and bad for you, that your life is going to [...]

Cavana Faithwalker writes: If we can change our language we can redirect our thoughts and actual talk to people toward consensus, understanding and a more sustainable and livable society. The term “quality of life” comes to mind. I’m not saying lets all hold hands and kumbaya. I am saying there is a big difference between [...]

Fr: Jeff Hess To: All my Facebook friends Re: My Facebook evolution As I indicated above, I’m done (mostly, sort of) with Facebook. I’ve yet to meet anyone who won’t admit that Facebook is a huge time suck and that if they had the discipline they wish they had, they’d be focused elsewhere during the [...]

Does that mean I get a kiss now?

I’ve never read a Google advertisement. I find Google ads only slightly less annoying than pop-ups (does anyone else remember pop-ups?). So, when I read this bit this morning along with my daily does of Doonesbury: Total advertising revenue of the U.S. newspaper industry in 2011: $23,900,000,000. Of Google: $36,500,000,000. – from May 2012 Harper’s [...]

In my quest to Get Myself Up From Egypt — four years and running — I’ve toyed with the idea of hitting up people on eBay who, insanely enough, would actually pay money for my accumulated salvage, but never done much more than glance at the site and read Adam Baker’s post on A Minimalist’s [...]