Andrew Gorohoff - Likes

That poor cat looks so confused. - EBJT

but it's so warm on top of the scanner! - DJF

Time for a cat scan! - Jemm

Iz I the right way up for printing? - Vicky

This is clearly not my cat. If this was my cat he's have one arm shoved down into the printer trying to tear up all the internal whirling bits with his bare claws. - Soup in a TARDIS

LOL, Soup! - Kol Tregaskes

that is one adorable kitten! - Anna Lynn M.

<3 - Furkan Tunalı

Too Funny! Reminds me of the San Mateo Cat Shelter where one of the cats loves to sleep on top of the laster printer where the paper comes out... - Greg Lato

Kitty!!!! - Janice

keep trying! - Morgan

FEED ME A CAT - tehKenny

Kol, it is NOT impossible. And that's all I'm saying. - Steven Perez

Push harder - Josh Haley

LOL@Jemm - AJ Batac (/-_-)

آخی - یک بابک

Hehe, Steven. I won't ask. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Gosh, just noticed this post has nearly 150 likes! :-D - Kol Tregaskes

1 closer....hilarious! - Jeffrey Marsh

There we go 150 likes. :-D - Kol Tregaskes

I'm in ur faxx masheen -- sendin de faxxez.... - Stephanie Segel

thanks, i needed a laugh - chaz2b

FAXCAT IS NOT AMUSED - Karl Knechtel

iz dat some copycat? - bora "head" basman

LOL, now nearly 200 likes! :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Thats no fax machine, thats my new patented kitty juicer! - Threepwood

Just one more like... please. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

it's over two huuunddreeeed - bora "head" basman

MOAR! - Pat Hawks

I need 9 copies please ! - Faraz Mullick

A cute cat :) - Mohammad Abdurraafay

Haha, Faráz. - Kol Tregaskes

Next target, 250 likes. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Friendfeed loev faxcat :o - Karl Knechtel

;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Pussy by fax. What will they think of next? - Mattb4rd

X)) - Neya

OMGosh, next up is the 300 likes mark. Anyone care to join in? ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Honestly, i'm not generally a fan of the Cat memes... But that is classic. - Alistair (alpinefolk)

You know this is the 7th most liked entry on FriendFeed ever: http://beta.friendfeed.com/search... !!! - Kol Tregaskes

Kol, this thread is pure genius. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

But only almost 50 comments.. :) - Simon Wicks

Simon, there's not much to comment regarding the picture :) But meta-comments are more than appropriate! - Ivan Zuzak

Simon, yeah we need 1500+ comments now, who wants to start? ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

there we go then for the 1500+!! - Jaap Willem

1600+ to beat the FFundercats live chat thread. I think with this real time now on all threads we're going to see some truly epic comment numbers. - Simon Wicks

Ivan, no the picture speaks for itself. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

OK, now it's the 4th: http://beta.friendfeed.com/search... - it's gonna take a huge effort to break the record of 452+ likes here: http://beta.friendfeed.com/imified... - Kol Tregaskes

OK, now this is the 3rd most liked entry: http://beta.friendfeed.com/search... :-D Crazy! - Kol Tregaskes

Too bad I am fresh out of likes of I would do it again. - Jason (not an Argonaut)

I'm using this photo in the latest chapter of can haz murder - anna sauce

Hehe, Anna. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

One more for 350 likes, LOL. This is mental! :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Come on, 350 cats for a cat getting crushed? You guys are mean. :-P - Richard A.

I'd like again if I could :-) - Dobromir Hadzhiev

bump - Simon Wicks

Richard, LOL! - Kol Tregaskes

Awesomely funny! - Martha

Next target: 400 likes? ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

theres one more for you Kol - Toby Graham

Toby, you're very kind. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Cute *_* - Sybelle

Hehe. - Kol Tregaskes

Just 6 more likes for the 400 then I'll leave you alone. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

can you spare a cat 6 likes? - Jason (not an Argonaut)

sweet - Eric Hofmann

Haha, Jason, wow 406 likes, madness! :-D - Kol Tregaskes

Madness? THIS. IS. FAX CAT. - Mike Nayyar

Well 452 likes is the record, hmm I think that is pushing it. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Awesome. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

this is underfaksink at its worzt - pb:

Petr, I have no idea what you mean, but thank you. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

@Kol .. :] that, partially, might have been the purpose.... I don't know it exactly either. :] .. was I reflecting on a cat under the fax, and that it is hard to fax that way ... /?:] ... "underfaxing at its worst" .. - pb:

Ah, OK, Petr. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

there ya have me ! :] .... see, to be honest with you, i saw this pic couple days ago, but i let it go, without posting it ..... what does that make me? :] - pb:

:-) - Kol Tregaskes

OMGosh, just 23 more likes to beat this: http://beta.friendfeed.com/imified... ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

433 Like ! Wow ! - Like

Freemor, yes very cute! :-D - Kol Tregaskes

cute~ - Chan Pen

that's why is called a cat scan and not a cat fax. - Phil Maxwell

oh ... a scan. not fax?! .... it looked to me like she was faxink - pb:

Just 5 more likes needed. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Fax, Petr. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

even a flat cat... faxes just can't handle the hair. You'd have to shave the cat first, else the hair will burn and stick to the drum... a mess! (I am extrapolating from transparencies, mind, i don't have access to a cat to test) - Iphigenie

Hehe, Joelle. This is now tied for the 'likes' top stop. One more then, hehe. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Hehe, Greg. Blimey! Erm, is that not far from 500 likes now? ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Bloody marvelous, Kol. Wish I could like it again... too cute (and help u to 500 likes). - Roberto Bonini

I couldn't believe it when I logged on from the morning over posting it and saw it was at something 200 likes! You all have a strange fetish with cats and fax machines, hehe. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Am I the only one who saw this and their first thought was - My goodness did someone break that cats neck? It still freaks me out a little - SteVe "Glory Juice" C

Steve, it does look a little out of place, but cats are pretty bendy. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

They fax much better if you flatten them first. What? - Kevin (barely visible)

LOL, Kevin. - Kol Tregaskes

i can also imagine the cat going there cause it is snug and warm - Iphigenie

Ey, it would be a tad warm on there, especially after a long working day. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Caption which needs to be said aloud: Uh Ohz, I'm totally FAXED! - sofarsoShawn <right here>

Hehe, Shawn. 10 more for the big 5-0-0. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Countdown! 8 more now! - Mike Nayyar

bump for more likes - Josh Haley

bump - Roberto Bonini

One more!! :-) - Kol Tregaskes

I took mine away, too much pressure. - SteVe "Glory Juice" C

Wow, there we go, 500 likes!! Thank you all!! :-D - Kol Tregaskes

I think Fax Kitty deserves a prize for that. - EBJT

меня, признаться, подзаебал этот кот - Парадокс Смейла

Kendra, absolutely. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

So we can put this post to rest now. :-) 505 likes final count, wow! :-D Good night all! - Kol Tregaskes

did 3 people really un-like this? now at 506. wtf (edit: uh, oh, yeah, me and 2 + 506 others makes 509. dammit, jim, i'm an artist, not a mathematician) - ɐ ɯıʞ sıɹɥɔ

wish I could double like! - metalerik

Wish I could just like it at all. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

This is also still on the Best of page. That must be the longest running best of post? :-) - Kol Tregaskes

But it's a cat being crushed... - Richard A.

برای چی این همه لایک خورده؟؟؟؟؟ - نصرآبادی

Hehe, Richard. - Kol Tregaskes

copy cat - gibilix

518 like! most liked post? - Lu Tao

ay yerim yaa çok tatlı kedicikk :)) - Arzu

Lu, yeah but a long way now. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

*bump* - Andre

Blew past 500 likes - LIKE!!!!! - Roberto Bonini

OMGosh, nearly heading to 550!! - Kol Tregaskes

So we know how many people use this site. - Richard A.

So that's what Paws Printing means. - Jack&Cleo

Richard, we getting there. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Jack, hehe. - Kol Tregaskes

this thread is making history. - vijay

Indeed .. this is a most epic thread - Mattb4rd

Hehe. 9 more for 550! - Kol Tregaskes

8... - sofarsoShawn <right here>

7. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Actually only 5...cuz "You, Earl E Morningwood, yasin ghasemi and... 542 liked this" - sofarsoShawn <right here>

Who wants to bet how many likes this thead is going to get??? - Roberto Bonini

Gosh, no idea. - Kol Tregaskes

take some bets then come back in a year to check? - Iphigenie

:) - SokooteDel

Holy smokes .. this pussy cat is approaching 600 likes! - Mattb4rd

552 now, so there are some unlikes going on, hehe, oh well. Still an amazing amount of likes. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

560! - sofarsoShawn <right here>

And back down to 559. Hehe. - Kol Tregaskes

And how could anyone not love kitties after seeing this photo? - Susan Beebe

I liked it without reading this discussion - evidentially we have a lot of people who like the idea of faxing a cat! - Rich

Rich, yes, worrying, hehe. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

564! - sofarsoShawn <right here>

I think we'll have to recruit more ffeeps before this record will ever be broken - Jason (not an Argonaut)

maybe a good way to clone cats :) - Roberto

Hehe, Roberto. - Kol Tregaskes

This surely couldn't hit 600 likes, could it!? - Kol Tregaskes

It could! Keep bumping it up! - imabonehead

It will :) - Roberto Bonini

My next cat post: http://beta.friendfeed.com/the-fun... - Kol Tregaskes

Wow, not even 600 Likes? Feh. ;-) - j1m

No yet. Close though. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Stuck on 581. - Kol Tregaskes

One of the best funny cat pictures I've seen! :-) - John Collis

Kristian, it appears to be. Hehe, John. - Kol Tregaskes

ای بابا این پیشول بی خیال نمی شود، بابا پاشو برو دنبال یه بازی دیگه ، از هفته پیش تا حالا تو فکس ولو شدی حوصله ات سر نرفته، پاشو اقلا بپر رو کیبوردی چیزی - Maryaminaa

11 more to 600. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

داداش كوتاه بيا، مي خواي ركورد بزني!؟ - Exir

هستم بره این کامنتتو ترجمه کنه اکسیر ! :))) داره از فضولی میمیره الان ! :D - Shayan

Hehe, 6 more likes. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Need 1 more like, by my calculation, to get to 600 - Josh Haley

Another unlike then, back down to 598. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

it's 598+3, at the moment ;-) - Andre

There we go, 601!! Wow, can't believe it. :-D Thanks everyone!! - Kol Tregaskes

3 people un liked :( - Roberto Bonini

I think there have been made unlikes over the last week, oh well. - Kol Tregaskes

too many likes, the kitteh is burning up..stop the madness...;) - Jason (not an Argonaut)

Haha, Jason. - Kol Tregaskes

614!!!!! - sofarsoShawn <right here>

Whoa! :-) - Kol Tregaskes

man! ..Kol is gaining ... and I saw that pic one day before Kol posted it :X ..and i let it go! :[)] - pb:

Petr, who's he? - Kol Tregaskes

omg, this post passed 600 likes! - imabonehead

@Kol ..well the man .. Mr Photographer .. ok .. let me go there .. - pb:

I see. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

631 likes, amazing stuff. :-D - Kol Tregaskes

Day 11 and this thing's still going! - Phil Maxwell

Why fax yourself when you can get famous via FriendFeed? :-) - Willem (@wim66) ☠

whereas a cat *scan* is totally feasible - Megan Craig

Kol, congratulations, you won the Friendfeed Award for the most likes entry! - Jérôme

Kol is this from your rival: Squashy Cat Photography? - sofarsoShawn <right here>

Haha, Shawn. Have you really bumped this one again? ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

LOL I was actually looking at best of month and I thought I'm going to be clever :-) - sofarsoShawn <right here>

this makes me laugh every darn time I see it - Stephanie•CogSciLibrarian

Who is this NShawnFW? ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

kitties do like to find new spots to nap :) - Maryam

LOL, now over 650 likes. - Kol Tregaskes

این هنوز در نیومده از لای این دستگاه؟ - Maryaminaa

Wow. this is good..... pleased, Kol? - Roberto Bonini

Pleased? About the number of likes? I'm happy regardless. :-D - Kol Tregaskes

So do we think it will go to 700 likes? ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

what do you mean by "it" ? say "he" or "she". :) - Maryaminaa

Haha, I was referring to the entry. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

lol - Maryaminaa

I see someone already posted 'Copy Cat' !! LOL Great picture - Kevin J Hatton

:-) - Kol Tregaskes

O HAI! I IZ WATIN FR COOPONZ, KTHXBYE. - WYRD 101

Neksnapper 3000 Kitten Eradicator - Kills Kittehs Dead - Mattb4rd

Hehe. - Kol Tregaskes

10 more likes for 700! :-) - Kol Tregaskes

7 more by my count! - Bec Rowe @d0tski

Oops, yes you're right, Bec. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Isn't it illegal to fax a pussy? - aerobroken

It's really only social convention which regards it as inappropriate, same with Xeroxing it, like one does with their b__tocks. Wait are we still talking about cats cats here or... - sofarsoShawn <right here>

OMGosh 700+ likes now!! LOL. Thank you all 702 of you. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Wow, not so bad huh? \u) - Zu from AOD

Before faxing it, you have to flatten it out a bit. You're going at it all wrong! :-) - Rick Cogley

Must try this at home! - Anthony K. Valley ©

Bumping some old great posts. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Now THAT is a classic! - Allan Besselink

you have to flatten it first!!! ;) - Neda S.

This is very good humor! - TrafficBug

Hey, we've hit the 700-like mark. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

just a couple thousand to go - Jason (not an Argonaut)

LOL - Smeerch

__awesome__ - scotu ._.,

and it got resurrected once again! - Iphigenie

I managed to do it once, but I don't think I'm going to do it again. The results were a little fuzzy. - Seth Greenblatt

Bump. - Kol Tregaskes

ahahahahaha salaaa baaaaaakkkkkk - missipipi

I'm so glad this thread has been revived. The cat in the fax machine never fails to delight. - Michelle Jones

aha! 700 kişi zorla kapağın altına tepilen kediyi beğenmiş - Siminya

I've heard of cheap paper but this is ridiculous!! - Neda S.

Copy the cat - Alyn William

And there I was thinking this was the most liked post on FriendFeed. Darn, just 3rd. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Just 100 more likes to go. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Missed this the first time around. - John (bird whisperer)

:-) - Kol Tregaskes

Wow, over 700 likes. :-D - Kol Tregaskes

715 likes and counting. - Kol Tregaskes

Fax Yeah! - Arcanized Crime

:-) - Kol Tregaskes

who revived that one? - Iphigenie

Me, sorry. - Kol Tregaskes

Just 40 more likes. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

all right let's do it... - Iphigenie

Love this one! - Fossil Huntress

:-) - Kol Tregaskes

#aaaf - Ali Oz

"So I'm using Blue Cross's postage to send MY message. Thanks Blue Cross for the postage." - April Buchheit from Bookmarklet

141 more comments

The postcard says "Postage will be paid by addressee", which implies it's the senator who will be paying the postage. Of course, the senator's franking privileges may make it so that the taxpayers pay the postage. - Gabe

True. But why is it that the Senator Hagan/taxpayers should be paying for Blue Cross' message? - Christopher Chung

My friend did this, too. I hope I get one in the mail. - Ayşe E.

They haven't sent me one of these, but when they do, I'll be sure to mail it in unmodified (or with a big "NO ON PUBLIC OPTION" written on it, perhaps). The very notion of government run health insurance is a travesty that will end up bankrupting this country. - Otto

So you don't think Medicare or the Veterans Health Administration is going to pan out, even after all these years? - Mark Trapp

Medicare and the VA system are living proof of my statements. They offer crappy service and are continually costing more and more as time goes on. They are unsustainable in the long term, and basically expanding these failures to cover everybody is only going to accelerate the problem. - Otto

What's long term? The VA system has been going since 1778, and Medicare since 1965. Are you thinking at the 300 year mark, they'll finally collapse? - Mark Trapp

Right on! Good for you! That's a great idea - Ciaoenrico

Our Canadian single-payer health care has been going strong for some time now with no risk of bankruptcy. I'd like to see some evidence that our system is unsustainable. - Matt M (inactive)

The VA system is garbage, ask any veteran who has to use it on a regular basis. And medicare is on the verge of bankruptcy, and has been for at least decade now. Last I checked, medicare was the biggest drain of tax revenue that exists. Predictions I've seen give it 10 more years, tops, even with restructuring. - Otto

What Matt said. - Nathalie

That's awesome! - Jan Ole Peek

Of course, the assertion that government-run health insurance is unsustainable (whether Medicare, the VA, the Canadian system, or any other) raises the question of what system is more sustainable than government-run insurance. It's certainly not the current American one. ... I love April's use of the mailer. - John (bird whisperer)

Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of health care reform... But insurance reform is unnecessary. The problem is not the insurance companies, their reactions and bad-behaviors are created by the high cost of medical care to begin with. Fix the health care system to not cost so damn much, and the problems with insurance will solve themselves. Strike at the source of the problems, not at the consequences of them. - Otto

Otto: Insurance causes high prices of medical care. Since you don't pay, the hospital can set its prices arbitrarily high and the insurance company pays whatever its maximum is. Since the insurance company pays so much, they have to have high insurance rates, which makes insurance expensive to buy. If the government had their own insurance, they would be big enough to demand low prices,... more... - Gabe

That's insane. The existence of insurance does not cause the high price of medial care. You have it exactly backwards. Furthermore, the idea of a government-run-insurance plan would not solve that problem, if it was at all the truth, because you're dealing with a supply demand situation. The government run plan could say they weren't going to pay above $X, at which point the medical... more... - Otto

The truth is that most of the waste in medical costs comes from two places: administrative overhead and fraud. Both of these are primarily caused by Medicare and the bureaucracy surrounding it. - Otto

Otto: Why is that you keep ignoring all the evidence from other countries that support national health care (e.g. http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues...) and you also keep ignoring the facts that show that medicare has lower costs that private insurance (e.g. http://www.cms.hhs.gov/Nationa... ) - Robert Felty

@Otto - why do you think there is so much administrative overhead? To deal with all the different insurance companies and the reems of paperwork to get a claim approved and avoid malpractice suits. That means more people have to be hired and trained just to deal with all that stuff and more systems and processes have to be put in place to handle it all. Insurance companies make more... more... - Lindsay

@Lindsay: I know several people who work in administrative roles in hospitals. Not one of them agrees with you. The problem isn't the insurance forms and such, those are fairly standard. Almost all of the administrative overhead is due specifically to Medicare. And no, I do not work in the health insurance industry, so your ad-hominem attack makes no sense whatsoever. Why is it that... more... - Otto

@Robert: I'm not ignoring evidence from other countries, I'm discounting most of it based on facts that contradict the ones you are linking to. And Medicare has lower costs than private insurance because it rarely pays for anything. How many people who have medicare must also have their own insurance in order to get proper medical treatment? Have you looked up the numbers on that? - Otto

Otto, how does limiting the pricing result in providers refusing service? In Canada, the Federal Government sets the pricing schedule, but the private providers are still here, providing us good service for a set fee. More info on our system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... I would say that our health care system is an excellent counterpoint to "if you fix the fees at a certain point, providers will stop providing service". - Matt M (inactive)

Otto - would you care to share some references which contain the facts that contradict those which I shared? I am open-minded, but I need to see actual data from credible sources to form my opinions. - Robert Felty

How does Otto make the claim that insurance isn't even part of the problem when medical loss ratios in the health insurance business have dropped from 95% to 80% in just 15 years? (and if you don't know what that means, you don't have an informed opinion about health care reform.) - Andrew C (✓)

I am always amazed at the ignorance of those arguing against public health care services when practically the entire world is doing it and they always have their facts wrong about Medicare and every other system. They'll become advocates when they or their loved ones are being evicted or foreclosed upon while they are dying an excruciating and untreated death. - Brad Nickel

Otto, just exactly how many veterans have you actually talked to? The VA definitely has flaws, but all the veterans I've talked to seem to like the service provided, and often compare it favorably to the private sector. And why are all those people out there so opposed to changing Medicare if it's so terrible? Since you've stated you haven't seen a doctor in decades, how could you possibly have any experience with any health care system whatsoever? - Victor Ganata

FFS... @Matt: Canada has a lower doctor to patient ratio than anybody else does, and it's decreasing all the time. @Robert: You have Google. Use it. I wouldn't believe links you provide me, so why should you believe links I provide you? Do your own research and make up your own mind. I'm not trying to convince you or anybody else, and I frankly don't care what you believe. @Andrew C:... more... - Otto

*shrug* I'm supposed to be swayed by second-hand anecdotal evidence from someone who doesn't have any recent direct experience with any health care system? If you don't care, why do you continue to post? - Victor Ganata

*shrug* I'm supposed to be swayed by somebody who actually has a vested interest in the health care system (ie, a doctor)? See, I can use fallacious arguments as well as you can, Victor! ;) Also, I post to express my opinions and ideas. Why else would anybody post anything? - Otto

Otto, your facts on doctor:patient ratio are incorrect. Our ratio is 2.2 per 1000, versus 2.4 per 1000 in the USA. In fact, our ratio has improved from 2.1 in the 1990s. While our doctor:patient ratio is not as high as other public health care systems, it isn't far off that of the USA. - Matt M (inactive)

Here's my reference: http://www.oecd.org/dataoec... "Between 1990 and 2007, the number of doctors per capita remained relatively stable in Canada" - Matt M (inactive)

Otto, but, fair is fair, so long as you don't pretend your anecdotes are generalizable truth, I won't pretend mine are either. It is clear that you do have quite a grasp on fallacious arguments. :) And I do agree that it's important to consider the source of your evidence. - Victor Ganata

Otto, the dropping medical loss ratio specifically means an increasing share of premiums isn't going towards paying for health care; that is /by itself/ inherently bad! In an actual working market, advances in efficiency, if any, would be passed along to the consumers in the form of lower premiums. Instead, prices are getting jacked up even faster than health care inflation because the health care insurance industry exploits monopoly power. - Andrew C (✓)

@Matt: According to the WHO: http://nofearsingapore.blogspot.com/2007... the numbers are slightly different. Close, admittedly. However, the important thing to note is that Canada's ratio is the lowest among almost all industrialized countries, which was my point. I was not comparing to the US, specifically. - Otto

@Andrew C: I understand what "medical loss ratio" means. I understand what "profit" and "premiums" are. What I don't understand is why you think a company should not be allowed to make a legitimate profit? Insurance is gambling. If you don't like the bet, then don't gamble. Or, if you really want to see the loss ratios decrease, then ALLOW COMPETITION. Currently there is virtually no... more... - Otto

You make no sense. A company should certainly be allowed to make a legitimate profit, but indefinitely extracting rent at this level is a clear symptom of market-setting power. Trying to call one the other doesn't actually make them the same thing. Also, people can only reasonably get it from their employer _because that's the only affordable option_. Individual insurance exists; it's... more... - Andrew C (✓)

I find it pretty funny BTW that you have implicitly agreed with the rest of us that the health care _insurance_ industry actually is part of the problem. - Andrew C (✓)

"Insurance is gambling. If you don't like the bet, then don't gamble." It shouldn't have to be a game. Everyone is going to need medical attention at some point in their life. It's a matter of how you will be able to afford to pay for it. People pay for insurance because it's the only way they can afford to ensure that their health will be taken care of. It's not really an option if you... more... - Lindsay

It's the conservative message: You're On Your Own. - Andrew C (✓)

For the record, I'm not a conservative. I'm also not a liberal. I'm a person, with my own opinions and ideas. Labeling people only means that you're not paying attention to what they're saying. - Otto

@Andrew C: Individual insurance is priced out of the market because of regulations limiting what kinds of plans can be offered. Why can I not a health insurance plan for, say, emergencies only? I'm healthy, I don't have any need to go to the doctor much, I never get sick, the only reason I'd need to do so would be an accident. So why can't I buy that insurance? State regulations... more... - Otto

@Lindsay: Your statements are provably false. Not everyone is going to need medical attention at some point in their lives. Furthermore, if your statement was true, health insurance would not work at all, since the entire point of "insurance" is to spread risk. If risk was 100%, as you claim, then there's nothing to spread. For the record, I do not currently have, nor need, health... more... - Otto

Everyone has some chance of getting hit by a bus or eating E.coli tainted food or having a tree branch fall on them. {shrug} - Andrew C (✓)

Except for the winners who have somehow divined ways not to do so, I guess. - Andrew C (✓)

@Otto, your claim about emergencies-only plans being ruled out seems incorrect to me: http://www.insurance.com/health-... - Andrew C (✓)

Otto is completely right. Insurance, not having insurance, it's all gambling. What's relevant is regulation limits choices; or forces one person's judgement and preferences on another. Big government healthcare won't work because the government can't do anything well because unlike a market it doesn't have distributed knowlege and I don't think the incentives are right. Witness the UK's... more... - Rob Fisher

While I don't know if we're using the word catastrophe in the same way, clearly there are policies that have very high deductibles where realistically, the only time they would pay benefits would be if you ended up hospitalized. And there are plenty of policies that don't cover preventative care at all. Even these types of policies are out of the reach of quite a few Americans. - Victor Ganata

What a silly response Otto. Its all emotional. Why do you think the argument here is so passionate? The fact that you would even dismiss it that way tells me everything I need to know about your point of view and existence. Sad. - Brad Nickel from email

If "the government can't do anything well" why do they even exist? Unless you're an anarchist, I can't see how it makes sense. - Victor Ganata

There are limited things governments might be good at. Defense of the realm; keeping the peace. They are not good at providing goods and services. When they try to provide (or control the supply of) food, for example, you get famine. That's because you need market signals to stimulate [the right amount of] supply [and demand<delete], and that information is not centralised. The same problem affects government supplied healthcare. Hence waiting lists. - Rob Fisher

We have waiting lists now. In what way are the NHS's waiting lists worse than the delays caused by having to argue with insurance companies to get coverage for diagnostic tests, procedures, and specialist referrals? - Victor Ganata

Because the latter involves the invisible hand somehow! - Andrew C (✓)

It's hard to say. I'm not arguing that you don't have a problem, just that more government isn't the solution. E.g. on the NHS you often end up paying for your own treatment anyway just so you get it in time. This is not an improvement. - Rob Fisher

So that's not really different from the current system we have now: you can always pay cash. I think "more government isn't the solution" is a bare assertion that needs a fair amount of evidence to actually prove. - Victor Ganata

Medicare and the VHA have waiting lists? Really? I haven't ever heard anyone waiting for Medicare, and it's single payer. I haven't heard of anyone in England (or Canada, or any other developed country) put on a waiting list. Do you have evidence to support that? You would write off education, food safety, the highway system, firemen, and air safety as well? Seems like you're asking for a very extreme form of government that isn't very much like what developed countries are or what they provide. - Mark Trapp

Otto: The way that discourse works in research-based journals is that one person makes a claim, and backs that up with either data, and/or references to other research. I would happily read any references you give. I don't understand why you wouldn't look at references that I give. - Robert Felty

Rob Fisher: if government controlled healthcare doesn't work, then why does Canada spend less on health care per person, but have lower infant mortality rates, and longer life expectancy? In addition, these numbers have improved since they started their single payer system, while our numbers have basically remained flat. http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues... - Robert Felty

Victor: What can I say? You probably won't be impressed by my Austrian economics theory. You could come and live in the UK and get sick, and see what it's like. :) I do hope the USA manages to avoid the worst of it. Maybe look around at what many other countries do; I don't think anyone gets it quite right. Singapore seems to have good healthcare; but their statistics look good partly... more... - Rob Fisher

Part of the reason all healthcare isn't like that is because not all health procedures and exams are as simple as eye exams. - Andrew C (✓)

I also think it's fallacious to believe we're actually arguing about a completely government controlled system. The public option is not even close to a true single-payer system, and nowhere near a nationalized health care system. It is quite similar to Medicare, except with different eligibility criteria, and as far as I can tell, Medicare doesn't seem to have destroyed the private health insurance industry, no matter how many people try to argue that slippery slope. - Victor Ganata

@Rob Fisher - the number of Canadians who seek treatment in the US is not very large: http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi... - Andrew C (✓)

You probably can't get a new liver in an hour and expect to have a good outcome no matter where you go. - Victor Ganata

But you should be able to get simple scans and tests quickly and cheaply. You can't on the NHS. The point about this not being about an NHS-like system is taken, though. - Rob Fisher

If you are insured by a private insurer in the US your health fate is decided by insurance underwriters and doctor panels whose sole mandate is to save and make money for the company- not to keep you healthy or prevent you from getting sick or sicker. A doctor's intuition on what a patient may need, even in terms of preventative/investigative testing is hooey as far as they are... more... - Karma Martell

How do we get to a point where you can make money by keeping people healthy? People want to be healthy, so it must be doable. - Rob Fisher

The prescription drug cos would fold, Rob. That is not what they want. - Karma Martell

i wish i could do more than "like" this. oh, and while i'm here loving this, @Rob Fisher -- my answer is, make money doing something other than "keeping people healthy" -- putting profit and human life in the same objective is bound to have some horrifying conflicts of interest, no matter how pure the "health" motivation is. and with $$ involved, it will never even be close to approximating pure. - (dot)lizard kelly

@Rob - you can make money by keeping people healthy, but as (dot)lizard kelly just said, you can make _more_ money by not... for example, by collecting premiums from healthy people and denying coverage to your sick customers. - Andrew C (✓)

@kelly - I wouldn't mind people profiting by keeping people healthy. Hospitals and doctors do that. The trouble with insurance companies is that they profit by denying people care. - John (bird whisperer)

Karma: As long as *someone* can make money at it, doesn't matter who. (dot)lizard kelly: food is important to be healthy; people make money at providing food; no conflict of interest there. I'm not convinced there's anything so different about healthcare. I'll sleep on it and let you know if I have thought of an amazing business plan in the morning. And if it doesn't work, I'll be looking for regulations that stop it working. - Rob Fisher

(I suspect the reason is you can't switch insurance companies easily.) - Rob Fisher

Simple scans and tests frequently lead to incidental findings that are almost always benign but lead to literal million dollar workups. I actually don't think easy access to everything is always the right answer. - Victor Ganata

The food example may not be a good counter-argument here in the U.S., where farmers have actually been paid not to grow things in order to artificially keep prices up. - Victor Ganata

Evidently you and others that spout this free market gobbldy gook have never worked for corporate America and the absolute incompetence in those organizations. Hello , can you say mortgage, banking, savings and loan, energy, etc etc etc. It is a lie and a myth and you folks have gotten away with it for far too long! Thanks, Brad - Brad Nickel from email

I have worked for corp America. As Brad says, free market is never free. The wealth is not distributed. There needs to be accountability and standards. As Obama says, an insurance co should not be able to come between a decision made by you and your doctor. And Victor, it's about fair access, not just access if you have the money and you can override the system. - Karma Martell

The problem is that access is controlled by two forces: actual medical need, and the need to generate a profit, and lots of times these forces end up opposing each other. As the costs of medical care continue to increase, I think we're going to have to decide as a society which is actually more important. - Victor Ganata

This is not to say that I don't think people who actually provide the care shouldn't be compensated for their labor. (In my case, that's just self-interest.) But there's a huge difference between fair compensation and outright profiteering. - Victor Ganata

So who is paying for the "Public Option"? - Brett Veenstra

And who here does not know Blue Cross is a private company. - ۳۰ مرغ Loves Y'ALLLLL

If you go by what's in the House bill, the public option will initially be financed by seed money from the federal government that is supposed to be paid back in 10 years. In the long run, it's supposed to be funded entirely by the premiums of people who choose to participate in the plan. - Victor Ganata

Otto: it is not the existence of insurance companies that keep prices high (auto insurance's existence doesn't make auto repairs artificially inflated), it is how the system works. If I am a healthcare provider and you are a patient who will only pay $100 no matter how expensive the treatment is, I can set the price as high as I want. Your insurance might only cover $500, but somebody else's might cover $1000 or $5000, so there's no reason I shouldn't set my price at $5000 for the treatment. - Gabe

Furthermore, let's say that there's a 1% chance that you'll need another $5000 test (an MRI perhaps). If you do need it and I don't give it to you, there's a chance you'll sue me and my malpractice insurance goes way up. If I give it to you and you don't need it, you don't care because you're not paying for it. You end up getting lots unnecessary tests just so I don't get sued. In... more... - Gabe

I dunno, didn't Japan solve the MRI problem by providing lots of them and driving the cost-per-exam down? ( http://www.pbs.org/wgbh... ) - Andrew C (✓)

And besides, the insurance companies in the States deal with that problem by denying procedures. - Andrew C (✓)

It might be instructive to look at the US airline industry before and after deregulation. It used to be that prices were fixed, so airlines competed on service. This meant that service was good, and profits were built-in so airlines weren't constantly in bankruptcy. It also meant that flying was a luxury that most people could not afford, which made it not so crowded either. After... more... - Gabe

Unless you intend on repealing EMTALA, access to emergency care regardless of ability to pay is in fact a guaranteed right in the U.S. - Victor Ganata

Hmmmm... Unless Crutis you think they fall within Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness! Thanks, Brad - Brad Nickel from email

What of someone is happiest if they choose not to acquire health care insurance? It would seem to me that the imposition would thwart their pursuit and remove their liberty. - Mattb4rd

When are we going to learn that the cake really is a lie? Re: Washington D.C. - I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure. - Mattb4rd

Civilization is impossible without some form of government. The idea that we can live without it is the lie. - Victor Ganata

No, the lie is that government is somehow required in all aspects of daily life. Civilization does need government, but mostly it needs it to stay as small as possible and leave people alone as much as possible. You are not a child. Grow up and deal with your own problems instead of expecting the rest of society to take care of you. - Otto

BTW, a "public option" doesn't actually bother me provided you use absolutely zero tax money to pay for it. Make it paid for entirely by the premiums of the people who opt-in to it, and I have no further argument against it whatsoever. (Also, eliminate the part of the current plan that imposes tax penalties on those of us who choose to not have health insurance, as that is simply flat-out wrong. If I choose to cover my own risk, then that is my business, not the governments.) - Otto

Yeah Otto, that works well. For example banks, mortgage companies, savings and loans, toys from China, Enron.... The naive Libertarian view of the world that somehow everything will work out in the end and all will be well makes me laugh every time I hear it. Greed, perversion, violence, and chaos don't go away when the government goes away. Human run institutions are all equally flawed... more... - Brad Nickel from email

Brad: I don't know what world you're living in, but it's not the same one I am. Government has done very little good in the world, and is in fact responsible for the vast majority of evil in it. Perhaps you forget who's waging wars, eh? A few people inconvenienced by a bank or who signed bad mortgages doesn't really much compare to millions and millions of dead people. Also, "this... more... - Otto

Sure, because the US Department of Defense had absolutely nothing to do with the Internet whatsoever. But I agree. To believe that the government is either completely virtuous or always evil is delusional. - Victor Ganata

Actually Otto, religion and greed are responsible for most of the wars. Whether a government fights them or not is irrelevant and these days its private corporations that are fighting much of our wars and doing a piss poor job of it as evidenced by the debacle that is Iraq. That there is a fine example of where we should have let government run things, but we had to privatize things at... more... - Brad Nickel from email

@Victor: The DoD had very little to do with creating the internet, short of funding it. They paid for it in order to connect universities together (whom they were funding for other projects as well). It's not like they sent over a bunch of engineers to lay some cables or actually wrote any of the protocols or anything. Vint Cerf didn't actually go work for DARPA until 1976. The first pipes were laid when he was still in school. - Otto

@Brad: It's amazing to me that anybody can espouse a philosophy like yours, which enables governments to control the population and do basically anything they like, including killing millions of innocent people through senseless wars and immoral legislation. Corporations didn't bomb Iraq and Afghanistan, the federal government did. Corporations didn't lie to us about the non-existent... more... - Otto

Yes, because ordinary people with no funding or government backing whatsoever can always complete large scale worldwide projects if they just work hard enough, without any assistance. Rugged individualism FTW. - Victor Ganata

@Victor: Why must everything come down to "large scale" and "worldwide" in your view? Are you so incapable of taking care of your own problems that you want to a) take care of everybody else's and b) have yours taken care of by everybody else? We're talking about health care. Why must "health" be a worldwide problem, to the extent that you want to take away individual rights in favor of... more... - Otto

Otto, where are we talking about taking away individual rights? I'm talking about HR 3200, not some fantastical single payer system or some nationalized health care system from your paranoid nightmares. Don't be a fool. Look around you right now. Clearly health can be a worldwide problem. And it's disingenuous to believe the Internet would have been built if some government hadn't been around to provide funding. - Victor Ganata

Silly Otto... Its obvious that an informed conversation with you is impossible, since you are unable to defend your actual philosophy or arguments and rely upon distortions and extremely silly exaggerations to try and make a point when the question being asked can not be answered with the truth. This happens every single time I debate a Libertarian. They can't explain themselves or how... more... - Brad Nickel from email

Because we'll have to pay for your silly self to keep you alive when you are sick and dying and don't have coverage. - Brad Nickel from email

@Victor: HR3200 takes away my right to choose my own health insurance (in my case, none) by imposing additional taxation and penalties for my choice. It also uses tax money to finance the "public option", which I'm firmly opposed to. And it's disingenuous to believe that the internet would have NOT been built if the government had not provided the funding. It would have happened... more... - Otto

@Brad: I'm tired of listening to your socialist and communist rhetoric. (See? I can apply incorrect labels just as well as you can! I'm not a "Libertarian".) Anyway, if you want the government to control your life, keep it to yourself, I'm not interested. Also, if you can find anywhere I called you anything other than "Brad", I'd be very interested. Note: Saying your ideas amount to "totalitarianism" isn't name-calling when it's true. - Otto

You are a funny guy Otto and I mean that in all the ways it can be interpreted. - Brad Nickel

Fine. Welcome to my block list, Brad. If you ever grow up and decide that you want to have a real conversation instead of trolling, then I'll be happy to oblige you. Until then, just rant incoherently to somebody else, eh? - Otto

LOL. See what I mean. You are funny. - Brad Nickel

Are you kidding me about the Internet, Otto? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... Note that 2 of the original nodes were UC schools--government funded public schools. With HR 3200, it's obviously going to take money to get the public option up and running, but it's supposed to be paid back in 10 years. As for the mandate, it's not ideal, but I don't see how else it will work. Otherwise,... more... - Victor Ganata

No, I think they are supposed to let him die. - Brad Nickel

@Victor: No, I'm not kidding, and that link backs up every word I just said about it. As for the public option paying for itself, are you joking? Medicare is continuously in the red (average benefit per person in Medicare is $11,000 per year!) , and you think making a bigger version will somehow magically work? As for the mandate, that's an absolute deal-breaker, because it it is... more... - Otto

That's how government projects almost always work: they award private companies contracts to do the work. Even HR 3200 is structured that way. - Victor Ganata

If you actually look at it, HR 3200 isn't structured like Medicare. And why is it that state laws that mandate you to carry auto insurance if you drive haven't been struck down by the Supreme Court if it's so unconstitutional? If you're totally healthy there are policies with $10,000 annual deductibles that cost like $50 a month. Obviously, the health insurance companies would rather you pay for a more expensive plan if they can get you to. - Victor Ganata

Why in the world is a high deductible insurance plan not what you want, Otto? - Andrew C (✓)

"Medicare is continuously in the red" - regular people who aren't on Medicare either lose benefits or coverage entirely or get outrageous rate hikes, so I'm not sure why you seem to keep claiming private insurance is any better... - Andrew C (✓)

My goodness, a single-payer plan in BC costs ~$54/person/month and the deductible is way lower than $10K. And what I lose in 'freedom', I gain back in peace of mind and more money in my pocket overall. (and isn't the glibertarian definition of freedom money?) (Amazingly, the US actually spends as much _government_ money on health care per capita as Canada, and then of course far more in private money on top.) - Andrew C (✓)

@Victor: a) State laws don't require you to carry auto insurance. They require you to carry auto insurance *OR* post a bond for some fixed amount, in case you hit somebody else. and b) Auto insurance is about liability (protecting other people from you), while health insurance is not (it's about about protecting you from other things, people included). - Otto

@Andrew C: I fail to understand the question. A high deductible insurance plan is not what I want, because it is not what I want. What I want is a health insurance plan that will only cover me from, say, accident. Something that doesn't cover routine crap which I won't be needing anyway, or which I can pay for myself. In cases where there is an accident, I don't want *any* deductible,... more... - Otto

A high deductible plan effectively only covers you for catastrophes, because you're on your own for the first $5K or $10K, so all "routine crap" will be out of pocket. - Andrew C (✓)

BTW, not seeing a doctor even for routine checkups is also gambling. Good luck with that. - Andrew C (✓)

"Effectively" is not the same thing as actually. And if there was some kind of major incident, I'd still be on the hook for the $10k, which is still problematic. Basically, a high deductible means that you're getting no real coverage at all, it's not disaster coverage. - Otto

The $10k outlay doesn't sound problematic to me; you've been investing your money, right? - Andrew C (✓)

Andrew C: No, it's not. There is no actual need for "routine checkups" in a healthy human being. You'd free to disagree, but I'm just going to say you're wrong, and that is that, so there's no point in arguing it. And whether I can afford $10k or not is beside the point, it's still not the type of coverage I actually need or want. - Otto

Otto - You have a valid point that insurance is designed to cover catastrophes. It turns out that preventative medicine helps to avoid catastrophes though. So it is in the best interest of insurance companies to encourage their customers to get preventative care. One way to do that is to pay fot it. Another way to do it would be to give people discounts for getting regular checkups, just like you get discounts on auto insurance for having a good driving record. - Robert Felty

Yeah, there really is no point in arguing with you, not when you just make statements and "that is that". (Good thing cancer never starts off growing in the body for years before becoming a major problem! And that arteries don't ever get clogged before they close up entirely.) - Andrew C (✓)

Robert: Preventative medicine does help to avoid catastrophe, however, it's also far cheaper to cover your own costs there instead of relying on insurance coverage to pay for it for you. It makes no sense for insurance to cover basic care. You don't pay for gasoline with your auto insurance, do you? The fact that insurance covers basic care means added burdens to the administrative overhead, higher premiums, etc, etc. It's a bad system overall. - Otto

OK, so you want catastrophic coverage that starts from dollar 1 for accidents, but no insurance for routine procedures. I think this is a little ridiculous, but you're right, I don't think insurance companies offer that. - Andrew C (✓)

Insurance companies are actively prevented from offering it, is what you meant to say. Many state laws require certain minimum levels of coverage, so the plan I want/need is unavailable to me because of over-regulation. - Otto

Preventative care isn't gasoline. Food is the analogy to gasoline. And no, health care insurance doesn't pay for food. - Andrew C (✓)

@Andrew C: Okay then, if you don't like that metaphor... Does your auto insurance pay for oil changes? My point is that health care should not pay for routine stuff *unless I want it to*. I do not want it to, I'm perfectly capable of dealing with routine stuff on my own. - Otto

Otto - this is not just about you though. It is mostly about the millions of people who don't have any insurance at all right now. Also, with the oil change analogy, that is not quite right either. Standard auto insurance does not pay for vehicle failure. It pays for vehicle damage due to accidents. There probably is a small correlation between frequency of oil changes and automobile accidents, but I bet that the correlation between regular colonoscopies and advanced colon cancer is much higher. - Robert Felty

Robert: Auto insurance does indeed pay for vehicle failure, if you have comprehensive insurance. Depends on the type of failure. On the other hand, you can get liability insurance to only pay for accidents caused by you, if you so want. You have choice of what to get. And I'd venture to bet that the correlation between colonoscopies and colon cancer is indeed quite high, but in the... more... - Otto

Otto - my dad gets regular colonoscopies, because he has diverticulosis, and I am not ready for him to die just yet. - Robert Felty

Robert: He has a medical condition. I'd hardly call that "routine maintenance", sort of thing. - Otto

Sure. The reason why health insurance companies don't offer plans like that are completely because all 50 states have strict mandates, and certainly not because the health insurance companies don't think they're profitable and would prefer that you pay for more coverage. Of course it's always the government's fault, and never the invisible hand's. - Victor Ganata

Victor: In this case, what I said was in fact true. All 50 states and even the federal government have tons of regulations on the health insurance industry. Rates, premiums, etc.. these are all fixed by the individual states. The insurance companies have to work within a very narrow window of guidelines, sort of thing. This is one reason that so many of them have tried hard to deny... more... - Otto

The only regulation I see that applies to all 50 states is that insurance companies have to be solvent, capable of paying claims, and able to process claims in timely fashion. Fact is, the insurance companies have continued to make record profits despite all these regulations, so I'm not exactly going to cry them a river. - Victor Ganata

Switzerland gets by with strict regulation... Admittedly, I doubt they have the kind of catastrophe-only plans you like, but (1) the insurers there make it work, and (2) they achieve better coverage and outcomes than the current US system does. - Andrew C (✓)

I just can't get over the rhetoric. It truly makes me laugh outloud. Slave labor. It's not worthy of further debate. - Brad Nickel from email

It's hardly slavery when health care professionals take oaths to serve society in exchange for the position of privilege it puts them in. And they provide care that isn't fully compensated quite frequently: it's part and parcel of many of the contracts they sign with insurance companies. Are you going to call that slavery too? - Victor Ganata

It is impossible to be a physician without government interference, since license to practice is issued by the state. I'm not sure I'd want it otherwise, personally. Anyway, once again we're straying from the topic at hand: there's nothing in HR 3200 that says you have to accept gov't issued insurance, anymore than you have to accept Medicare or Medicaid. It will still be quite possible to have a nice little boutique practice without getting a paycheck from the gov't. - Victor Ganata

I do medical billing for a nursing home. Those of you who are in favor of a public option obviously don't understand Medicare and Medicaid. We couldn't take care of anybody if we had to rely only on what the government pays. And doctors didn't go to school for all those years and incur all that debt just to be civil servants with tons of red tape and poor compensation. There will be a huge shortage of doctors within a decade. If the bill passes the Senate, we're in for a true disaster. - Dawn

"Last week I received some images that showed Netflix streaming on a Wii console. I didn't run with the story at the time as I didn't know if the images were legit and it's taken me until today to confirm they are in fact real. I'm not disclosing who confirmed it for me but someone involved in the project has confirmed that Nintendo is currently in testing stages with Netflix to bring their streaming service to the Wii very soon. What I'm hearing is that Nintendo originally planned to bring the Netflix service to the Wii before the end of this year, which still might take place, but that Nintendo is also considering holding off on the Netflix service until they release their next generation Wii HD unit in early 2010." - Thomas Hawk from Bookmarklet

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hopefully this puts pressure on MSFT to drop that lame requirement that XBox 360 users have to have a live gold account to access Netflix Watch now. - Thomas Hawk

But if Nintendo forces you to buy a new unit in order to use it, I'd consider that way more lame than a Gold account. - Craig Eddy

Is the Wii even HD yet? - Ryan MacLean

Agree on that Craig. Hopefully they do not. Still, depending on the price it might be preferable to paying MSFT $50 a year for a useless live gold account that you really don't want or need. - Thomas Hawk

Yes, assuming that's all you used the account for and you didn't yet have an investment in the hardware, it might make more sense. But I'm also addicted to 1 vs. 100 so I'm not gonna give up my Gold account no-how. :) - Craig Eddy

Wonderful! Now I'll have 3 devices of which to stream netflix through. However will I choose!? - Chris Martino

I see this bit of news and pretty much see no reason to keep my Wii. Better sell it before it completely loses it's resell value. - Jonathan Hardesty from Android

I stream netflix on my Xbox 360 and although I wish there was more content, i have an instant queue of 300+ TV shows and movies still to watch. British Comedies FTW! - Bowman!

I want an app store for my Apple TV (was hoping for it in 3.0, but wasn't there). Boxee works, but isn't as clean as it should be. Netflix, Hulu, etc woudl be great. - Greg Benedict

I should clarify, if they actually made a new Wii HD, I'd have no reason to keep my old hunk o junk :P - Jonathan Hardesty

Thank you for joining me here! - Robert Scoble from iPhone

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yeah cos twitters down lol - michelle harris

A mind blowing number considering youre not a celebrity either. - Paulo Diniz

Also about 5,000 of those joined after FriendFeed sold to Facebook. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

Congratulations Robert, you obviously have earned it! - Stock Market Club

Congratulations! - Helge V. Keitel

Congrats - Kashif Khan

I hate it when celebrities follow me! ;) Congrats Robert. - Jorge Escobar

Do you still think FriendFeed will die, Robert? Just curious. - Jeff Harbert

Only almost? Well, we probably define "celebrity" a bit uniquely around here. - Kathy Fitch from iPhone

Jeff: if I ever said that I take it back. That said the FriendFeed team is mostly working on other things now. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

followers on friendfeed mean a lot more than twitter followers - ffcode

WOW !!! congrats ... but I must say I have 4 real real real friends IRL .... :D - Marcel Bloingo

Nice to see you here Robert. It's been kinda quiet lately. ;-) - Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)

You've really gotta consider getting some celebrities and spammers on this account....where's your sense of adventure....lol - walidmREALTOR

Walidim: that is what Twitter is for! :-) - Robert Scoble from iPhone

Congratulations-I completely agree with ffcode, FF weighs more than Twitter in my opinion....unless you're going for mass, huge numbers...... - Harold Cabezas

agree with rob michael...and whats I in IRL, marcel - ffcode

I have almost 15K followers. - Dave Winer

Andy: a little slower but not much. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

Look out, I'm only 49,800 behind you - Dave Hodson

Think about it - you can fill a stadium with that many people. - Mike Doeff from iPhone

Why not have a face-off with CNN? :) - James Harnedy

Good to see you still around. This place is as fun as ever. - Bruce Lewis from fftogo

great attitude dave hudson - ffcode

Robert Scoble for Mayor of FriendFeed. - Thomas Hawk

I haven't been on friendfeed much really since the facebook announcement but it is nice to have something to fall back on when my beloved twitter is out. - Lise

You just followed me. I'm not following you yet.. Will do so if you accept my invite on Facebook that I sent to you a few years ago.. - #alaskareport

Johnny: I deleted about 10,000 Facebook invites and accept very few new ones, sorry. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

Robert: On FriendFeed, we're all celebrities! And spammers. :) - Steve Lynch from twhirl

@ffcode - hmm, who exactly is dave "hudson"? - Dave Hodson

Congrats. Yeah, I haven't noticed much abuse on FriendFeed; but then again it's hardly used by the mainstream. - Joe Manna

Joe, what's not mainstream about 50,000 people? - Louis Gray

No problem. I just sent you another Facebook invite via Facebook Mail. Just now.. If not accepted then you're pulled from the contact list.. Do you need a Google Wave invite? I have 4 left.. tick tick tick.. ;-) - #alaskareport

what does that mean? i mean what good are you getting from those 50K followers? how many of them don't provide content back to you? - Jonathan Jesse

Time's up... ciao - #alaskareport

Ive hardly used friendfeed since facebook took over and (apparently) seem to want to 'run it down.' Pity. - Jim Connolly

sorry Dave Hodson ;) - ffcode

Basically I just open FriendFeed from time to time to see what Scoble's followers are writing (I loved the "castle" discussion) - Michael Slattery

& you know, my sub counts for like 10,000 of those :o) congrats big guy! - sofarsoShawn <right here>

congratulations, got any tips for the rest of us? how long have you been on friendfeed for? twitter(at)locspoc - Loc

Do you feel any pressure Robert? Does having such a huge number of followers bring more responsibility and quality of the content stress for you? - Özkan Altuner

Spammers or not, 50k would be a sign of info overload for anyone: http://bit.ly/3KQSAz - Leif Hansen

Forgot to say: thanks for letting us join you here, Robert! - Kathy Fitch

Congrads Scoble on passing 50,000 followers! - polou/indigo_bow

Congrats for your first 50K -- on FF, even! Me, I'm still a little over 49,750 behind you... - Dennis Jernberg

Kudos to you Robert. - Roberto Bonini

Ozkan: I do feel some pressure to find good stuff and not to waste people's time because that waste is multiplied across so many. - Robert Scoble

Numbers is ossum! - david beckwith

http://blog.peta.org - Thomas Hawk

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It took me 2 shots to get that. Nice. I'll have to retweet and through this in facebook. - ChiliMac

Seems like it is having the desired effect to me. - travispuk from iPhone

Seriously. - Kevin L

"Legendary New York broadcaster Ernie Anastos had a momentary lapse of reason Wednesday night when he dropped the F-bomb live on TV. During some playful banter with local weatherman Nick Gregory, Anastos complimented Gregory, or at least attempted to, by saying, "It takes a tough man to make a tender forecast, Nick." Looking confused, Gregory responded, "I guess that's me." Without missing a beat, Anastos continued, "Keep f***ing that chicken," a completely bewildering phrase that made co-anchor Dari Alexander's eyes bug out of her head. Gregory, for his part, just threw his hands up and shook his head." - Thomas Hawk from Bookmarklet

I think I've found my new catch all phrase. - Thomas Hawk

Hot Donkey! - Andy Roth

Oh Mark...please! *roflmao!!!* That word you heard was NOT "plucking"... - Prosey BUTTONS!

Her crazy eyes is what makes it for me. - Derrick

Haha the expression on her face is priceless - Rodfather

Yeah, her eyes & facial expression tell the whole story. People trying to insist that he said "plucking" don't seem to realize that it wasn't the Banjo Wars (though the folks they cater to seem to come out of Deliverance, sweartagawd) - ...nope, he dropped the F-bomb. *snorts with laughter* - Prosey BUTTONS!

Forgive my ignorance but is this for real? I never know with Huffington Press, I always assume its something like The Onion. - Nicholas Kreidberg

then he's all "OK, I'll do that." - Josh Haley

I don't think "plucking" would give Dari Alexander an expression like that. I guess it's time for more fines from the FCC. - John (bird whisperer)

I am most interested to know what a "tender forecast" is... - Nicholas Kreidberg

That's wonderful. I haven't seen a reference to Conway's Law in a long time. It hadn't occured to me that Microsoft would be the modern archetype. Duhh. I can also see the a corrolary about what happens when competing internal organizations have overlapping ambitions and claim the same territory. (Odd, I can even see how the Balkanized feature set of OpenDocument 1.2 reflects this in... more... - Dennis E. Hamilton

Oh. My. God. - Mona Nomura from Bookmarklet

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o_O - Manuela

Good, but could so easily be improved by replacing the potatoes with tiny little cocktail sausages :) - Iain Baker

Or TATER TOTS. - Mona Nomura

Bacon-wrapped tater tots with sour cream chipotle ranch sauce. - Bill Sodeman

It's like deconstructed potato skins! Neat. - Mona Nomura from IM

YES. - Tudor Bosman

@bill that sounds delicious! - Tamara

I was at a party once and they had some bacon wrapped dates. I wanted to slap someone bald-headed. Dates? GTFO. - Derrick

EW dates on anything is wrong. - Mona Nomura

God I'd better go eat breakfast. - Kate Foy

Had Bacon wrapped dates the other day too @ Iberia, Menlo Park. Yummy! - Sumit Chachra

Yup! - Live4Emma (L4S)

huh! - Oguz Serdar

HOLY GOD MONA I am hungry now :( - Mike Nayyar

wonders how a tater tot would hold up. - Tony C (Unrated)

I could have that for breakfast! - Martha

..and just got hungry! - Neya

...I am suddenly hungry again! - JA Castillo

its world matrix day. - D. Eda Goze

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no way! - Cee Bee

? - Bryce Roney

I literally shouted 'HOLY FUCK' when I first did it... Rachael came over, gave me that 'really?' look and sat back down on the couch... (That happens a lot :P ) - Johnny

When Josh Haley wakes up, he is gonna loose his shit!!! - Johnny

Johnny, we all give you that look. - Jim the Blatant

Best Logo Ever! - LonelyBob

yep! i saw it before this post :D - Alp

Scared me a bit there. I was like, my screen! it's melting! Then when I saw the mouseover text, I knew what they were talking about. Well played. bf & I were just marveling not long ago that the movie was almost 10 years old. talk about starting to feel aged... - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)

Kamilah... 10 years? Now I feel old :P - Johnny

Imagine how old "Whoa..." feels - Michael W. May

Best.Logo.EVER! - vijay

+1 Jim. Poor Johnny but no we do ;) - Phill Price

I wish I would have the option to keep that logo and make all of friendfeed like that, like a matrix style fade with realtime - Kyle Weller

It's OK... I'm use to it :P - Johnny

I can't believe its been 10 years since The Matrix. Love the movie. The logo is awesome! - Rahul Das

Johnny, welcome to the real world. - LouCypher

Hmm, interesting, an opportunity for revenue for ff doing stuff like that... - jjprojects

*loses his pooh* - Josh Haley

Cool. - Ron Bailey

Awesome. +1 FF - Alfredo 亜瑠布れっど

how come ff gets animated gifs and we dont - Alfredo 亜瑠布れっど

Oooh. The logo is pretty spiffy. But seriously...ten years? Wow. That movie only seems like it came out yesterday. - Jonathan Hardesty

Confession time: I've never seen The Matrix. - Blatantly LB

@laurabotts: well now you know what you HAVE TO DO this weekend. - grant fox

Yeah... watch Dark City :P - Johnny

This is fucking deadly - Mitch

The matrix version of FF logo is just plain COOL! - JMaultasch

Oh, is that what it is? I thought FriendFeed was turning into a glittery FaceBook. - Chris Loft

red pill or blue? - MikeAmundsen

It seems like only yesterday when Keenu adopted Neo's persona. - Louis P. from twhirl

"take the red pill" - Travis

I took the pill with a little logo on it will I be fine? - Joe Dawson

That is tres awesomeness...I freaking love the matrix - Devlin Dunsmore from twhirl

Let me make this very clear. I want the pill that lets me stay here and taste yummy food. I don't want to know the truth. I, for one, welcome our robotic overlords. - Cyrus Lendvay

Cool! :-) - Kol Tregaskes

soooo cool!!! - Dieter Schwarz

I noticed that this morning - along with all the "I bet a billion people will post about this" whiny posts LOL - Mona Nomura

So when is everyone going to take he red pill? What is one "truth" that you believe is hidden in the matrix, but people would think you are nuts if you said it out loud? Post your answer here http://qrv.qlnk.net/ - Christian Burns

I just saw it as I was clicking the logo, now it's gone. I must've just caught it. - Andrew Trinh

Just realized, FriendFeed is run by the Robot Army from the Area 01. Humans can't pull of this so easily. - Swaroop

"MARCH 31--In a law enforcement first, Ohio cops this month arrested a man for drunk driving on a motorized bar stool. That's right, a motorized bar stool, which can be seen below in a police evidence photo. According to cops, Kile Wygle, 28, crashed his bar stool near his Newark home earlier this month and called 911 due to his injuries. When an officer arrived and asked Wygle what happened, he answered, "I wrecked my bar stool." According to a Newark Police Division report, a copy of which you'll find here, Wygle's homemade ride is powered by a Briggs & Stratton lawnmower engine. Wygle noted that the bar stool could hit nearly 40 miles per hour, but that he was only going 20 when he wiped out late in the afternoon on March 4" - Thomas Hawk from Bookmarklet

I like the little wheelie prevention device on the back. Safety first, after all. - Ken Sheppardson

...I really don't care anymore. - Mona Nomura from Bookmarklet

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Then why post this? - Akiva

looking forward to pre eh? - Alfredo 亜瑠布れっど

Because it was the first write-up I've seen that has the new features listed in the easiest way to read it. Why do you care what I do, Akiva? :) - Mona Nomura from IM

I thought you hated the iPhone anyway Mona, no? Is it working better for you now? - Josh Haley

Love the phone, hate the service. "iPhone’s Biggest Problem is Not the Firmware or Hardware" http://pixelbits.wordpress.com/2008... - Mona Nomura from IM

Mona, just curious. - Akiva

+1 Mona - Get out of AT&T and I will buy you - Jorge Escobar

seems pretty cool. I like the cut, copy and paste and the voice memo thing as well. Nice that it will be free to existing iPhone users. - Thomas Hawk

Ya, a lot of pretty neat features. I think they just kept the carrot dangling in front of my face too long, I am tired of being excited for them lol. - Mona Nomura

I'm keeping my mind open with other phones. I want video. - Rodfather

Glad AT&T rocks in my area :) - Bwana ☠

Always wondered how phone service managed in big cities with tall buildings blocking towers, etc. - Josh Haley

We get great coverage here. My only complaint is that the data network is fairly saturated so 3G access is sometimes slow. - Akiva

My service is so bad, I'm starting to question if my phone is defective. There's this constant buzzing and I sound like I'm talking through voice thing (don't know the name of it, but it's the thing you put on your throat?) :| - Mona Nomura

on your throat? - Alfredo 亜瑠布れっど

3G tethering? Cool. - Hutch Carpenter

http://southpark.wikia.com/wiki... - Josh Haley

Would like to see non jail break video. - Hutch Carpenter

Voicebox! That's it. Thanks Josh! @Hutch - AT&T charges a tethering fee. - Mona Nomura

Ah. Thx Mona. Would still be worth it in some places. - Hutch Carpenter

oh that thing. the thing that makes you sound like professor Hawkins - Alfredo 亜瑠布れっど

Mona, yeah, that sounds like a hardware issue to me. - Akiva

Feature set is nice--often when I need data from the iPhone, I can access it more quickly by walking into the next room and retrieving it form my laptop. The internal speed of the device has ALWAYS been my #1 beef. New feature set seems nice. If my iPhone breaks or gets stolen--I don't think I'll automatically replace it with another iPhone. - Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)

Welcome iPhone...welcome to the world of Mobile connectivity. Your pretty face is finally getting some substance. - ‘-.-’ Tutivillus Grift

Sounds great == "3G Tethering. This feature will allow you to connect your iPhone 3G to a laptop, to use it as a modem to access the internet." - Mike Reynolds

I love the improvements, and my friends can't make fun of my anymore for copy and paste. - Mike Nayyar

I'd like a breakdown of what features aren't available on the original iPhone (such as MMS or peer-to-peer connectivity) - Zulema ❧ spicy cocoa tart

A2DP!!!!! - Kevin Fox

I just thought I'd be more excited, since almost all the features came at once. But I can't help but to think, were they holding out anticipating competition? Zo - all the features listed aren't available on the 2G/3G iphones... - Mona Nomura from IM

As snarky as I can get about the lack of copy/paste, the Android phone doesn't even have a headphone jack, and the Pre is still just marketing. - Kevin Fox

Myspace: "12% Proud owners of butterfly tramp stams 7% Club promoters 27% Bathroom mirror exhibitionists 11% Animated .gif birthday cake comment fairies 17% Investors who gobbled up virual glitter factories on the cheap 24% People that haven't found out about Facebook yet 2% People who can't afford match.com" LOL!!!!!! - Mona Nomura

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That's good stuff! - Patrick Jordan

ROFL. That's hilarious. - Anika

hahaha! - Carmen

Haha.. "Investors who gobbled up virtual glitter factories on the cheap" - Rodfather

Change the 19% Live blogging their lunch to Live blogging their toddler and that is totally me. And I am very unapologetic about it :) - Michelle M

Those numbers are 150% accurate. - Richard Lawler

Facebook: "15% People who have no idea what is going on, they just like to look at pictures" HAHA - Mona Nomura

Thats great! - Bluesun 2600

Scoble doesn't have a twitter %age of his own? Maybe that for FF analysis... - Rob Kramer

great charts - hope they will add other networks - Alexander Benker

What's Propeller? This is making me LAUGH "22% SEO Spammers 11% Nigerian Scammers 17% Viagra Spammers 50% Propeller Employees" - Mona Nomura

ha...sounds like I am among the 14% for twitter. - Esther

man i can relate to so many of these hahahaha - Alfredo 亜瑠布れっど

Love it! - sofarsoShawn <right here>

It's funny because it's true LOL - Mona Nomura

That's hysterical! - Shevonne

Whomever did this, just won the internet in my books! - embee

I can't WAIT to see the next round!!!!! - Mona Nomura from IM

Correction: it's funny because it's *extremely* true - mike fabio from twhirl

awesome. I should have browsed FriendFeed more before posting this one myself! - Thomas Hawk

made me laugh - Richard Akerman

hahhahahhhaha I love the Facebook 12% (or something) that has no clue what's going on but loves looking at pictures -- that's almost all my real life firends on there LOL - Mona Nomura from IM

so many damn truths there LOL - Dobromir Hadzhiev

haha, this is cool. where's friendfeed?... aah, to small and geeky I guess - Peter Efland

Funny because it's true! - Sullivan

Somebody had to come up with a piechart for FF - Jason (bossin cats)

now this is FUNNY. - michael sean wright

Facebook: 13% Our moms. Mom hasn't hit Facebook yet, but she is on Twitter... and followed my husband... and Britney Spears.... BUT NOT ME. - Pixie

hahhahahhahahha!! Alix LOL! - Mona Nomura

I guess I'm in the MySpace 12. :) - EricaJoy

Yeah... and I cant block her mom.... :( - Shawn Whitmire

I bookmarked this yesterday, hunted all over for copyright notice or authorship, because I want to use it in a presentation. Couldn't find way to attribute aside from URL! Generous folks ... - Patricia F. Anderson

this is awesome - Angela P.

I know Mona, the MS categories are hliarious! And what about divorcés on fb? - fn (fairnymph)

Hey - Myspace is still useful for independent bands! I'm embarrassed to have its iPhone app (on my last page) so I can check up on my band's issues/shows/whining/etc. on the go... We do, however, get lots of friend requests from butterfly tramp stamps, and we deny them because there is no way they looked at our profile. But seriously, if a BAND denies your friendship on MySpace you need to re-evaluate your life. - Isabelle

Awesome! This is two weeks old but I just found it today. - Stephan Miller from Friend Deck

No. Way. - Tinfoil 2.0

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-nuff said....or not said. I don't want any more snowballs thrown at me...PLEASE! - Jennifer Windrum

and you people complain about a little chapstick and lips every now and again. sheesh. I'd much rather see chapstick and lips any day of the week over getting a "crush jason alexmi" request or getting *two* sammy is sexy requests in the same day! - Thomas Hawk

=O - Shevonne

You know you can turn that off right? - Eric P

hahahahhaa - Shevonne

horrible - andy brudtkuhl

OUCCCCH (E.T. Voice) - sean percival

no doubt. i'm always blocking apps. i don't want play around with hatchlings or pieces of flair or get involved in any dang food fights. - Jason Shultz from twhirl

wow - Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)

That right there is the biggest reason I can't stand Facebook and I would dump it in a heartbeat if it didn't mean that all of my family and distant friends would instantly have a shitfit. - SOMEBODY!

Also - Facebook = "Real life Friends". If you only friend people you're actually friends with it's actually a terrific application for keeping in touch. If you try to treat it like a Friendfeed/Twitter/MySpace then you wind up with a load of crap and its utility takes a nose dive. - Eric P

PREACH!! - Derrick

thankfully i've avoided this kind of garbage - chrisofspades

I didn't add them. They are invitations. - Thomas Hawk

Totally agree with you. couldn't have said it better. - Karoli

@Haggis: Agreed. And I too block pretty much every app invite I get. The irritating part is when someone gets all uppity with me because I didn't return their snowball or superpoke them back. I'm like...srsly? You send me that ridiculous crap and then have the nerve to get mad at ME for not participating? - SOMEBODY!

I am blocking most apps, because things can get outta hand ... - Rene, Pro Button Pusher

@Amanda: I tell/have told all my friends that they can send those requests, but that I categorically deny all of them. It's surprising how that already decreases the number of requests. - Rene, Pro Button Pusher

I do get tired of all that crap. My bro sent me a video to watch on Farcebook a few days ago, but to see it I would have to download yet another silly wall. I don't need more than one, nor do I need to install multiple calendars so you can see when my birthday is. Go to my profile. - Ian May

For every app invite i block, i seem to get twice as many the following day. Its better now their not all over people profiles pages when they do get added though. - Simon Wicks

Thomas - I think you're really gettign confused between Facebook and these leeches trying to suck off the Facebook platform. Just ignore them and these requests would never appear. Or better yet - DEfriend anyone who would be so stupid as to include you on a list of requests. JUST DUMP THEM - and everything will be fine. - Marc Canter

But seriously...you really should accept my Pirates vs. Ninjas request. - Adam

You're just waaaay too popular, Tom ;-) - Dave Fortheloss

Yep. I put a moratorium on adding apps and made that abundantly clear, but I still get all the cr@p. - Julie Barrett from twhirl

this is just one example of the silliness and boring nature of facebook. Frankly it's just not engaging. There's so much wrong with it and this is just the start. FriendFeed is a far superior platform for probably 100 different reasons. - Thomas Hawk

I have found that blocking invites from certain users and applications is very helpful. - Adam

@Thomas I agree with you 100%. I think FB is near unusable.. You're right it's not engaging - it's more of a distraction and there's very little value proposition for me to connect with people. I get the same with email/IM/flickr.. FF is far superior in my estimation - andy brudtkuhl

that's just crazy! insane! crazy?...insane? - .LAG liked that

Holy crap and I cry when I see 3 of them on my bar. - Anika

Just looked at this and confirmed that I have no interest in joining Facebook. - TranceMist

I'm not a fan of the tons of virtual goods and apps either, but I've got tons of friends who would qualify as "normal people" and cannot imagine living without FB. It's a rich way for them to keep in touch with people. I like FF a bunch but I also recognize the bandwagon effect that exists with FB. - Cecyl Hobbs

*Brain cramp* - Shey

HOLY FRAKKIN' FRAK - Josh Haley

Sweet baby Jesus - Rahsheen the Dream

I've just been blocking all Facebook apps. - Morton Fox

Are you shitting me? wow I don't even get that much action on Facebook. - Patrick from twhirl

INSANE Bro! - Francis Aldana

@Morton Fox: I do the same. Problem is that you have to opt out of each crappy app that anyone you know has managed to dig up. If you don't log in often and deal with these head-on, the simple act of opting out can be daunting. - Keith McCammon

It's striking how many people hate Facebook who nevertheless for various reasons feel unable to abandon it -- not so much a virus as a fungus. It's depressing to think that due to network lock-in my daughter may be stuck on it for years to come. - Tim Ostler

something will come along to replace it. it's the inevitability of things. - Jason Shultz from twhirl

I don't get why people who don't like apps don't block them all, or why people who do like them feel the need to send invites to everyone, let alone whine that you haven't accepted. Most apps I use have a button that shows your friends with the app, and I only send to those. - Pixie

@Keith IIRC there's a greasemonkey script that lets you block them all at once. - Pixie

Yep. Stuff like that's why I get the heebie jeebies about 5-10 mins after logging into Facebook. - Susan A. Kitchens

Ahhhhhh, the voice of reason! I'm so glad I'm not alone. - Rob Fahrni

RT yourself from June 2008? - ThePicMan

Sweet baby jesus on a stick! - Bec Rowe @d0tski

Jebus Herschel Krustovsky! That's ridiculous! - Abbas Haider Ali

You should make that your Twitter background. :) - Pete D

This post is what made me finally deactivate my Facebook account. I've had enough. - Rochelle

HUGE LOL - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)

aw man, what happened to the flickr image? - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)

yep, I just IGNORE these types of apps/notifications- I have SO many sent to me and I would literally need to quite my job to attend to them full-time. It's insane. I think 95% of them are a waste of time imho... there are always going to be those people who love to do the spamming but it doesn't mean you need to pay attention to them :) One part of FB that I also do not love. - Deanna Belle Govoni

This is one of the big reasons why I try and limit friends to people I know in person, and a few others who I can trust to not act like invite-wielding idiots. - Chris Charabaruk

that's crazy! - K.D.

Why would you blame facebook for you having idiot friends? - Richard Lawler

Who ever said Facebook is cool? It's a rambling mess suitable only for people with lots of spare time and nothing else to do with it. - Todd Brunner from twhirl

shit like that is what makes me hate FB. they need an option saying "please auto ignore all invites from everyone". i used to have a greasemonkey script which did it, but the bloody things are getting smarter - Terry O'Fee

Richard: Who said I have idiot friends? Intelligence has nothing to do with people trying to share their fave FB apps with everyone else, especially before Facebook put in limitations to keep apps from spamming their users' friends. - Chris Charabaruk

Thing is, once burned, twice shy. So only people I can trust to not send me lots of invites get to be friended to me on Facebook. - Chris Charabaruk

it's just some people. i know great people who forward every single email online. there's one person, ive given her an old yahoo email adress so i dont hurt her feelings :P - Terry O'Fee

Smart people catch on to spamming apps quickly, they recognize when they've been spammed, instead of signing up and passing them along, or continuing to request you join (insert game of the week.) If your friends can't figure out what's annoying to you, how can you expect Facebook to? - Richard Lawler

immediately block app requests as they come in! according to the picture there were not so many apps involved here, but blocking them from the beginning on spares you more invitations.. - Johannan Edelman

I thought my FaceBook was bad when requests piled up, but you definitely win! I don't feel quite so irritated about it, now ;o) - Seth Greenblatt

Yeah, that's one thing I hate about FB, those cutesy apps. I almost never participate in that... - Rick Cogley

Try Facebuprofen. - david beckwith

Just say no to 99.9% of all facebook apps and your problems are solved... :) - JR

ha ha - Saravanan

Aman: Sad to see I'm not the only one who suffers so. - Chris Charabaruk

WOAH! You know, I think it is funny, I removed ALL my apps the other day, AND told all my friends that I removed my apps, and they are STILL sending me app invites. If you keep up on it, it's fine. If you don't, it looks like this... /sigh - Danielle Closs

Holy Facebook Crap Batman! - Zulema ❧ spicy cocoa tart

Some apps are good but most are just spam. Good apps are hard to find but there are a few nice ones out there, I like the ff app and the twitter app. I also use the slayers app and the compare people app. I'm a little shallow. - Wesley Robin Guerrero

I hate the updates that I don't need. A large number of apps are useless. - Palak Mathur

Urgh! So true! - Vera

I just ignore pretty much everything that's not a message or a new friend request. - Jim the Blatant

NADD - bifurcafe

if your notification board looks like this, you just seem to agree to all those useless "send xyz a flower/pet/other crap"-applications. ignore those and you'll have your personal internet-operating system based on your friends and your life - natadd from twhirl

DELETE BUTTTTTOOOONNNNN!!!!! - Susan Beebe

Mine looks almost as bad as that and I only have 8 friends (real life friends & family) - April

Thanks for the pic Thomas, you've reaffirmed my decision to ignore all the app requests I get from friends with too much time on their hands. - pitlord from twhirl

Use http://www.ignoreall.com/ Cleans up everything in a jiffy. - jho

I like FF for commenting on stories and seeing a discussion. I like FB for smaller discussions. FF bigest minus for me is the lack of a notification if someone specifically responds to me. - ChiliMac

That's a big list... I'm getting tired of hitting the ignore as well. - Gary Gifford Jr

I'd be a rich man if if I got a penny for everytime I click ignore. I'm just not making that much use out Facebook nowadays! That's why I decided to give FriendFeed a test trial. - Vincent Nguyen

This is why they made the block function, I've blocked over 500 applications and I don't get many requests anymore. I promise, it works. - Aaron Myers

It looks like facebook just threw up on your screen, IGNORE ALL!! And back away slooowly... - Peter To

I don't get it. I have 600+ friends on FB (not crazy huge, but not an insubstantial number). About once a week, I do a combo of ignore-app's and ignore-all-apps from a few friends, and voila! In about 1-2 minutes, I'm all set. 1-2 minutes a week. How many friends do you have on FB, Thomas? And how many years has it been since you've cleared things out? While I think FB shares some of the blame, is this situation any different than not cleaning *anything else* out once in a while? - Adam Lasnik

"I created three versions of the same photograph, showing a cute baby with spiky hair in a rowboat. One was a 5-megapixel shot, one was 8 megapixels and one was 13. I asked 291 Digital, a New York graphic imaging company whose clients include ad agencies and fashion companies, to print each one at a posterlike 16 by 24 inches. (They were digital C prints, printed on Durst Lambda at 400 dpi, if that means anything to you.) We mounted the three prints on a wall in Union Square in Manhattan. Then, cameras rolling, we asked passers-by if they could see any difference. A small crowd gathered, and several dozen people volunteered to take the test. They were allowed to mash their faces up against the print, step back and squint, whatever they liked. Only one person correctly identified which were the low-, medium-, and high-resolution prints. Everybody else either guessed wrong or gave up, conceding that there was absolutely no difference." - Thomas Hawk from Bookmarklet

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Mike Herf showed me similar samples when they were deciding the default resolution to have Picasa upload to Picasaweb. The thing is, if you take a high quality high res sensor and downsample, you'll still have a great image. - Joe Beda

It's the same with video. I almost wish my video cam was 720p instead of 1080p, just so I didn't have the anxiety of throwing out quality to save disk space while being fully aware that I'm not a videophile. Same goes for the anxiety of keeping my RAWs. - Blake Caldwell

Been saying this for some time. Especially important in the P&S market because the additional resolution isn't warranted AND can add noise to the image making it worse than one from a lower res camera. - Rick Bucich from twhirl

We went from a 5mpx cam to an 8 mpx cam for work. No one noticed. In a pinch, we've used our 1.3 mpx cellphone cameras for our work and clients have raved about the great quality shots. - Anika

Wa-wa-wait. If you have 5, 8, 13 Mpx images and you print them out at the SAME resolution (400dpi - the Durst is a fine machine, by the way), you should be getting three different SIZES, not three 16" by 24" images. All this shows is that for having a good 16" by 24" print at 400 dpi, a 5 Mpx image *may* be enough - and that the RIP for the Durst does a great job at extrapolation. - dario

dario, I think what they were saying were that they printed the same size, but at 400dpi. - Anika

Anika, exactly! I mean, all three images were enlarged by the RIP - obviously the 5 Mpx quite a bit more than the 13 Mpx - it's not what I'd call "scientific" but I concur it helps to show that a good 5 Mpx camera can take perfectly good pictures. (I miss drum-scanned 120 slides a bit, tho - you could blow those up to the size of a wall :)) - dario

I've seen them all, and man, they're all the same. - Morgan

Well if you print them all at 400dpi then I would expect them to look pretty much the same. But I can guarantee they would look different on a good monitor or using a good photo re-touching program like Adobe Lightroom to fix them up. Especially if you were using RAW. - David McCarter

If you can print them at 16x24 with no discernible difference in quality why would it matter what they look like in Lightroom? - Brian Sullivan

I wonder if we can get Pogue to post the images. - Kevin (barely visible)

So you mean, that having more megapixels isn't going to make me a better photographer. Oh No! - Alexander Kesselaar

"But on Feb. 3, the San Francisco-based freelancer found himself on the other end of the lens -— with an otter apparently looking at the photographers through a video camera viewfinder. Aguirre was on Capt. Yohn Gideon's Elkhorn Slough Safari boat with several other professional photographers when the group spotted an otter in the distance. Gideon steered closer as Aguirre framed the shot. Then, Aguirre noticed something odd. "I was like, did I actually see an otter with a video camera or was I hallucinating?" he said. The screen on Aguirre's digital camera soon confirmed what he'd seen: an otter floating on its back, video camera grasped in its paws, lens aimed at the boat of excited photographers. The humans had a bad angle, but Aguirre managed to snap a single clear shot before the otter dived, video camera in tow." - Thomas Hawk from Bookmarklet

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Excellent shot! Has the otter uploaded the video somewhere? - Peter van Teeseling

Someone should get that otter a FriendFeed account. - Thomas Hawk

Jim Goldstein was the photographer who put together the photo trip when this occurred. He posted about this right after the event: http://www.jmg-galleries.com/blog... - Greg Lato

Thanks for the reference Greg. Actually there is another photographer who got the photo and his series as I've seen it is far clearer than Enrique's. The otter was holding her pup as well (not seen behind the video camera) in Enrique's photo. Sea Otters sure are amazing and entertaining creatures. - Jim Goldstein

Someone get that otter a Vimeo account! - Thomas Hawk

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