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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

I’ve fallen in love with RSAnimate’s white-board talks — think of them as TED Talks with cooler graphics — partly because they strive for helpful smacks upside your head that make clearer those facts you think you know that just aren’t so which are the ultimate danger in life. Dan Pink makes the case that [...]

Men and women communicate quite differently; we use language differently;True? by Cavana Faithwalker on Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 7:07am “For example, women use language as primarily a way of establishing connections, interdependence, and negotiating relationship. Conflict is a real threat to connection and therefore to be avoided at all costs. Women typically shun confrontations. [...]

Why do we assume that evil people are stupid? From The Baltimore Sun: “The department’s efforts to explore an applicant’s behavior on social media networks stems not from a desire to invade personal privacy, but rather from a legitimate and serious concern with the infiltration of gangs into our prisons,” Maynard wrote in his letter [...]

MYANMAR/BURMA — The phrase telegraphing his punches originally refereed to boxers whose body language alerted opponents to where the next blow was intended and, like the WikiLeaks cables, it is an anachronism. In the 21st century we don’t use telegraphs or cables but we do tweet. Too much political transparency, when dictatorial regimes are involved, [...]

From Cavana Faithwalker: Pls HELP & ACT. needs all my FB fam 2take 1sec & go2 Finding Alleyah L. Davis. She is 1of “my kids” & got caught up w/a grown A man, &is now missing. I have to say this, she is HIV positive & 16yrs old. I must disclose that, bcuz it is [...]

From Jobs With Justice (all links for action in the original): The Rite Aid drug stores employ thousands of workers who are fighting for more respect and a voice on the job. Since Rite Aid’s CEO John Stanley doubled his salary to over $4 million, he’s been trying to cut pay and benefits for workers [...]

The copy on the left is my own. The copy on the right I purchased to give away. I already own a copy, but I’m going to buy another one and give it to someone. Via Kat Shamash…

The above is, of course, total bull shit. So why is Facebook trying to get me to confirm my email address? This looks very similar to the old spammer trick of telling you can opt out of spam by simply clicking on the unsubscribe link. What really happens is that you’ve just told the spammer [...]