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Will Robinson

Problem Comparison: Tiger Woods vs. Jay-Z - http://flowingdata.com/2009...

December 7 from Google Reader - Comment - Like - Share

Info Glutton, Tracy and Private Sanjeev liked this

:-) - Ruchira S. Datta

Ruchira S. Datta

How False Rumors Can Cost Lives http://canonical.org/~kragen...

December 4 - Comment - Like - Share

Jeremy Hylton, Joel Webber, Amit Patel and 6 other people liked this

PLEASE RETWEET - Jim Norris

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You're such a wag, Jim. :-) - Ruchira S. Datta

I want Kragen to write more! Or at least make it easier to discover his new posts. - Amit Patel

Amit, do you know about Kragen's mailing list? - Adewale Oshineye

I do, but it needs a feed ;) - Amit Patel

Piaw Na

Early E-Reader Buyers Are A Bunch Of Rich Smart People (AMZN, BKS, SNE) - http://www.businessinsider.com/own-an-...

December 3 from Google Reader - Comment - Like - Share

Info Glutton and Ruchira S. Datta liked this

Wow. Who'd have thought! - Nick Lothian

Johns Hopkins

The Marriage-Go-Round: http://krieger.jhu.edu/magazin... [Arts & Sciences Magazine Fall Coverstory]

December 1 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

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April Buchheit

"Blue Cross sent me a postage-prepaid postcard to send to my Senator opposing a Public Option" (PICS) - Democratic Underground - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss...

October 26 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Laura (hear me raura?), Michael Muller, Jay Cuthrell and 98 other people liked this

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

148 more comments

Ingenious. - Itachi

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 Mastracci

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, Dreamer of FF

Love this post. - Trish R

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 (a.k.a. dendroica)

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... - Fa La La La 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 Mastracci

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 Mastracci

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 Mastracci

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... - Fa La La La Lindsay

lolling at the "insurance is a gamble" statement. Classic. - Andrizzle Gizzle

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

So basically you're gambling, hoping that you will "win the game". At what point do you decide you need insurance? And hopefully you don't get anything before then. It is pointless to argue with someone like this, just let him enjoy his smug satisfaction on having figured out the whole mess. - Andrizzle Gizzle

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 (a.k.a. dendroica)

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. - Mahmood Padura

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

Health care is not a right http://peikoff.com/video-u... - Crutis

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

@Brad Nickel - The right to life does not imply the right to the labor and property of other individuals. Medicine is exactly that: the products and services of tremendously skilled individuals. To claim by right their labor and products is the moral equivalent of slavery. - Crutis

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

@Victor, no I call it what it is: charity. Charity should be encouraged. @Brad, when you stop laughing maybe you can refute the right of a physician to contract with a patient without government interference. Until then the only laughable idea is the logical conclusion of your argument that physicians could be imprisoned unless they run their businesses for free or at a loss. - Crutis

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

April Buchheit

"But still, my blood runs Friendfeed Blue"

October 21 from iPhone - Comment - Like - Share

Susan Beebe, Maggie, rowlikeagirl and 35 other people liked this

Thank you, Johnny. - April Buchheit from iPhone

2 more comments

:) - Josh Haley

Mine too April, glad to have an "inside source" say it though. Apparently, my FF Blue bleeds more than most though: http://ff.im/ag8yj - manielse (Mark Nielsen)

that may indicate oxygen deficiency - Mike Chelen

Adam Rifkin

@rohitkhare: "Twitter is the first derivative of the blogosphere."

October 1 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Info Glutton and Ruchira S. Datta liked this

That's hilarious. - Ruchira S. Datta

michael silverton

People Spend 3x More Time on Facebook Than Google - http://digg.com/tech_ne...

September 18 from Digg - Comment - Like - Share

Info Glutton liked this

"And as we've said until we were blue in the face, back during the "what is Yahoo's value" bru-hah-hah ... people spend nearly 2x More Time on YAHOO than *both* Google and YouTube; and 75% as much time on YAHOO as Facebook. Hello? McFly? Yes, for every one of you mainstream media morons who took part in the public flogging of Yahoo, we're now accepting full page WSJ and NYT apologies to Jerry Yang and the entire Yahoo community, any time you're ready." - michael silverton

Paul Buchheit

Tweeting :)

August 13 - Comment - Like - Share

Itachi, Alfredo, gmarketer and 270 other people liked this

via http://www.reddit.com/r... - Paul Buchheit

25 more comments

Funny! - Robert Scoble

too true - James Miao

Hey, I can tell those Mark Zuckerberg prongs haven't started working yet. ;-) - Robert Scoble

A good reminder that it could have been a lot worse. - Christopher Galtenberg

Heh - Charlie Anzman

Hey! I resemble that remark! - Chris Messina

funny and true :) - Ali

Very clever. - Nicholas Kreidberg

LOL - Steve Chou from fftogo

apparently you can trade some symbols and numbers for letters and it's FFing - Katy Barrilleaux

I love that!! :D - Susan Beebe from iPhone

ReTweet what the middle one said 4/5 WooHoos - Zax Stevens

LOL :D - zsafwan 

That is *exactly* why FF will become more mainstream than twitter.. try explaining how to tweet to your parents (who are finally comfortable with email)! - Chris Myles

Go Chris! - Charlie Anzman

ROFL! - Darren Heydon

Haha! I have this on my facebook :) - Joe Dawson from iPhone

: D - Taylanov

Awesome! - Ladybug Heather

Haha! - muratt

ahahha! brilliant - Jacque

That's about right. - Josh Haley

thats funny lol.. where did u find it - Nicholas Skinner

that's *agent_x* cartoonist from sunny queensland, aus ~ http://twitter.com/agent_x :) - Peter Renshaw

I just noticed you posted my comic. Thanks. I keep them all here if you are interested - http://www.agent-x.com.au/ - agent x

agent x, I like you. Bookmarked. - Dennis Jernberg

Mathew™ one of a kind to Mathew™'s feed, Against the FF Takeover!, FriendFeed Feedback

A scene from one of the worst moments in social networking history:

August 10 - Comment - Like - Share

Evgeni Leshtanski, Zee., TiTi and 24 other people liked this

LOL! ♫ ♫ "ooh, take the money and run"!! ♫ ♫ ;) - Vincenzo Piromalli

2 more comments

Facebook considers this such an important moment, the only representative from Facebook was Zuckerberg. - Andy Bakun

Like taking candy from a baby. FF developers and concepts are ten times the platform FB is. But I guess Mark has superior Business skills so he steals it all. respect for Mark's business skills. - Robert Higgins

:) - Ebru Baranseli

Jenny Morman

News > Politics > Jenny McCarthy: Death’s New Buddy - http://suicidegirls.com/news...

July 31 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Andrew Leahey, Andy Bakun, Piaw Na and 11 other people liked this

"The most horrifying news of the year for me, so for, was Oprah’s decision to give Jenny McCarthy her own television show. McCarthy is the voice of the anti-vaccination movement. It’s a movement based on lies and rumor, bereft of scientific evidence and extremely dangerous. Giving McCarthy a daily platform to spew her unrelenting nonsense will eventually lead to the deaths of many children." - Jenny Morman from Bookmarklet

16 more comments

"Causation and correlation are two different things. The McCarthy’s of the world believe they are the same thing. An action or occurrence can cause another (such as smoking causes lung cancer), or it can correlate with another (such as smoking is correlated with alcoholism). If an action causes another, they are probably correlated, but just because two things occur at the same time, it does not mean one caused the other. That is what Jenny wants the world to believe." - Jenny Morman

In her world, where she is a former Playmate and failed actor taking on scientists, autism is caused by vaccinations because the number of vaccination shots have increased at the same time the number of autism cases increased. Can you find any holes in that brilliant theory? Have more toxins been introduced to our environment? Have our children been exposed to more plastic? What about... more... - Jenny Morman

Bring in the lemons! - Eivind

thanks for sharing this - chaz2b

"The anti-vaccine movement has been criticized quite a bit from sensible humans and these crazy people called “scientists.” Amanda Peete took McCarthy on with facts, but the media turned it into an episode of “Cat Fight.” Sadly, people like Larry King and Oprah have Jenny McCarthy on because she is more fun than Mr. Boring Armed With Facts Scientist. Usually, the scientist is not as... more... - Jenny Morman

The Anti-vaccine movement makes me sad. I just don't have words for this. What is wrong with schools today that children grow up into adults that trust "new age" woo-woo over the meticulous, documented, rigorous work of science? Whatever it is, this is a problem we need to fix ASAP. - Matt Mastracci

I agree Matt! - Edward Zwart

This issue really pisses my mom off. She works at a non-profit that assembles information for people with disabilities, so she works with people who study autism. She pointed out that while McCarthy touts her son as the prime example of how you can cure or fix (or whatever) autism, she also has the money to stay home with him 24/7 and teach him constantly. She's filling people's heads... more... - Heather

I like the complete misunderstanding of the concept of herd immunity, plus the total confusion between correlation and causation (which one implies the other again?). More ignorance on both side of the debate, great. Maybe this (http://www.askdrsears.com/thevacc...) can help. It is very unfortunate that the reaction to an irrational... more... - Antonio Piccolboni

lol, if you capitalize it, it seems more ominous - Edward Zwart

@Antonio you have a valid point about how the concept of herd mentality was presented in this article. Thank you for pointing that out. Also agreed on the importance of critical thinking. Oprah and Jenny McCarthy annoy me to tears and so I confess I didn't read the entire article through thoroughly rather just the tidbits I posted... - Jenny Morman

I did read the Dr. Sears link you provided and it is well written. I didn't, however, read anything that sways my opinion that childhood vaccines are a good thing overall. @Ed, hahahaha I've recently caught myself capitalizing random words in sentences at work to try to get across their importance. It cracks me up! - Jenny Morman

One last thing. The other reason the push for the additional studies re: vaccines in the attempt to try to find a link to autism bothers me is because there are so few research dollars/researchers and there are pressing issues where we *know* additional research is urgently needed. Here's just one: http://www.sciencedaily.com/release... - Jenny Morman

Herd immunity http://www.google.com/url..., not herd mentality. That was just the 10th word of my comment. - Antonio Piccolboni

The new McCarthyism. - Andy Bakun

Antonio, I've been considering a staggered, delayed schedule also, but one issue I have with that is that if it's not the vaccines themselves that are related to developmental problems, but rather other compounds or the method of preparation of the vaccines--that is, the vaccination rather than the vaccine--the child potentially ends up being exposed to more risk (because of more... more... - Andy Bakun

@Antony "mentality" was a typo on my end. - Jenny Morman

Bret Taylor

FriendFeed has been almost completely blocked in Iran as far as we can tell. We have a large number of very active Iranian users, and we noticed a steep decline in activity yesterday. Graph below.

June 15 - Comment - Like - Share

ILLA, egza, Ozer Wrzl (EN) and 790 other people liked this

:( - Paul Buchheit

205 more comments

:( :( - Rachel Lea Fox

:-( - Kol Tregaskes

Related to the election? - τorƍue

:( - Ross Miller

that's so bad... - Eren Emre Kanal

:-( - Kevin Fox

τorƍue: Yes, as far as we know - Bret Taylor

این نمودار نشاندهنده افت فرندفید به دلیل بسته شدن آن در ایران است - Mycaptain

Bret: Is this based on IP numbers located in Iran, or actual activity from those users? If it's IP based, it'd be interesting to see the activity on a user basis and see if they've been able to route around the blocking. - Ken Sheppardson

:( - Marina Remi

Could it be related to Twitter being blocked (and therefore the twitter traffic import being blocked)? - Stephan Osmont

): - Jim Norris

Some users are definitely going through proxies. This is total # of unique visits from IPs originating in Iran - Bret Taylor

That tells it's own, sad, story. - WorldofHiglet

:((( - Oğuz Serdar

Wow. - Rochelle

If Twitter were blocked and FriendFeed weren't, I'd expect an uptick in FriendFeed activity, not a 92% drop. - Kevin Fox

I.e. given all the users who've previously accessed the site from an Iran IP number, how many have been active from different numbers in the past 2 days. - Ken Sheppardson

Sad. - Jen (SquirrelGirl)

Instead of "liking" this, shouldn't we have an "unlike" button? - Steven Melfi

:( Bret: According to Stephen fry, these are the iran proxies: 218.128.112.18:8080 218.206.94.132:808 218.253.65.99:808 219.50.16.70:8080 . Can you track these IPs? - Roberto Bonini

I knew this day was coming. Too bad. - Robert Scoble

Steven - same feeling here. I always feel weird "liking" bad stories on FF - Mike Bracco

How does traffic from China look? Or North Korea? - τorƍue

:( - Helen Sventitsky

do not like :( - Tamara

@τorƍue Twitter has been restored in China - Stephan Osmont

Hey... we saw issues with blogfa.com as well: http://blog.spinn3r.com/2009... - Kevin A. Burton

like for spread but not like for the situation - Imprenditore

I wonder what the international community can do about stuff like this. Eventually the "bad guys" will lose. - Michiel Sikkes

Hopefully, we'll never see a graph like this for Turkey... - Onur Şentüre

that's because the government has blocked access to friendfeed,twitter,facebook,youtube and ... after election and after protests in Iran cities ! - Farshad

Man... :( That's really a corrupt government. Hope it gets better soon. - Peter

That's horrible. - Barış (beyn.org)

Kheyzaran mentioned over the weekend that both Twitter and FF were blocked for Iran starting I believe on Friday. He is using a proxy when possible to keep us updated - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Bret, any analysis about how many people unable to access FF directly are still able to access it via proxy? - Daniel Dulitz

:-( - bookmeister

:( Let the voices be heard! - Brian Daniel Eisenberg

So sad... - Luka

Sigh :( - Havang

can you suggest a way in friendfeed to show the situation in iran to the world ? its very important - Farshad

I doubt any regular North Koreans have computers τorƍue - Eric @ CSTechcast.com

Daniel: Well, we are still getting a bunch of Farsi comments and posts. They may be Persians from outside Iran or from Iranians using proxies. We don't have a detailed analysis breaking those down at this point. - Bret Taylor

The stigmata of evil. - Tim Tyler

all cominucation devices are blocked .even phone & cell phones ! - MohammadReza

see this for example : http://abcnews.go.com/Interna... - Farshad

Watching the "guerrilla cyberwarfare" aspect of the elections and reactions has been fascinating. Iran's universities are obviously full of resourceful, passionate geeks. - John Craft

not good in terms of freedom - Sheri Fresonke Harper

this is really bad. i hope there's some resolution to this. the people or iran have shown a lot of strength and courage to protest the illegitimacy of recent events. i don't think this will stop things - Cee Bee

Is it possible that the same folks from Iran that are active on Friendfeed are the ones out protesting? - MVB (Grinch of FF)

please help us , we are under attack ,change friendfeed logo if you can - فرزاد

we need a new way - Semiramis

@MVB we all are Protests - MohammadReza

That's sad. - EricaJoy

:( Dislike. - Ruchira S. Datta

:( - © D/\\/IIID ℠ ®

P.S. Kevin should turn the logo green in support of the Iranian's being disenfranchised. - EricaJoy

:(( - ramin

For those that are in Iran: Have you tried http://fftogo.com as a workaround? - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

make a room for us, invite your friends we will fill it with latest news - Farshad

I'm completely for having a fair vote, but I'm not sure that I'd want to try and align FriendFeed with a particular candidate, which is what a green logo would imply. - Kevin Fox

Many iranians using proxies to access FF. and therefore their IPs changes to fake IP . - آدمیرال

MohammadReza: Maryam's mom is still able to call her relatives and friends in Tehran, so they are keeping some voice traffic open, if not all. - Robert Scoble

Farshad, I'm trying to post news here: http://friendfeed.com/world-n... - Kol Tregaskes

No words for that... - Frank

thanks kol :) - Farshad

@Kevin, totally understandable. - EricaJoy from IM

If Iran thinks they have nothing to fear, then why block Friendfeed? - Frode Stenstrøm

Frode: because the government is like China: they believe that by retarding the flow of information they will reduce the threat of protests and governmental overthrow. - Robert Scoble

Very reminiscent of the prelude to the fall of the Shah - Alan Morris

I don't speak Persian, so I don't know all the searches, but there are still (luckily) a lot of Persian users posting: http://friendfeed.com/search.... If you are Persian and looking for updates, try our search engine to find the few users who still have access. - Bret Taylor

Frode: and in Iran's case, they are run by conservative religious authorities and they don't like the fact that they are not in control of information flow like they used to be. They like to think they can still control information sources and, since they can't, they try to block places where their citizens can go to share information. - Robert Scoble

is it a joke? iranian users seems the %90 of friend feed. it could not be real! - Fırat DEMİREL

Firat: There are no units on the vertical axis of the chart. - Ken Sheppardson

Firat: This is a chart of traffic from Iran, not of FF's total traffic. - Kevin Fox

Firat, i doubt that this graph is a percentage graph... probably more likely that it's measuring hits, sessions, or total data transfered (mb, kb, etc) - Chris Heath

Kevin: what impact did this have on FF's overall traffic? - Robert Scoble

Robert: Iran is the #6 country for FriendFeed in terms of page views per day. - Bret Taylor

something is cooking out there... - mehdi

Thanks all for answers. i told that it could not be real.. :) excuse me, i ve just read Bret's notice and looked at breaking point. i saw what i've missed before.. bad news for ff and iran.. :( - Fırat DEMİREL

These statistics are incredible, especially the normally heavy useage of FF in Iran. - Curt Mercadante

Bret Taylor, we can tag our pix and vids about iran election by an english keyword such as 'iran' or 'iranelection'. I think it will help to ff non-persian users to find out more about unrests in iran. - آدمیرال

Iran restored cell phone service Sunday that had been down in the capital since Saturday. But Iranians still could not send text messages from their mobile phones, and the government increased its Internet filtering in an apparent attempt to undercut opposition voices. Social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter were also not working. - Üstün Üzüm

Do *not* like. :( - Pete Delucchi

:( - Russ Jackson

:( - Mitch

http://www.boston.com/bigpict... - فرزاد

آقا یکی توضیح بده اینکه من(ما) لایک میزنیم! عملا دیسلایک ه ! :( - younes

Younes says that our likes to this graph mean dislike to tehran's regime censorship - آدمیرال

I can't find any evidence of Twitter being blocked in Iran. Anyone? - Martin Bryant

TechCrunch just picked this up: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009... - Robert Scoble

Thanks for the translation آدمیرال ! - Ross Miller

ممنونم آدمیرال عزیز - younes

خواهش دوست من. - آدمیرال

martin: those words are not mine actually from a news article from washinton post. - Üstün Üzüm

On twitter people are retweeting the IPs and ports of unblocked proxies, can we do something like that here? - Canageek

martin, i'm from iran. twitter is blocked. what evidence you wanna? screenshot!? - آدمیرال

yes Canageek. we use proxies for tweeting - آدمیرال

Authorities blocking the internet are just reinforcing solidarity between people, can't they understand ? - Stanislas Jourdan

Stanislas: not to mention they encourage their smartest and richest people to leave (the ones who have technical skills). There's a reason why Silicon Valley has 10,000 or more Iranians living here. Their government sucks and the people are getting tired of it. Of course if their government was great I would never have met my wife (who grew up in Tehran). So, there is good to come out of a crappy government! :-) - Robert Scoble

it has always seemed to me that the iranian user base is ENORMOUS here. wow. unbelievable. - edythe

It is interesting how much civil unrest that is brewing across the globe towards their governments. The knee jerk reactions in attempting to block certain websites shows how much they didn't expect the net to become such a widespread conduit for cutting through the bs and informing those that wish to know. I wish those who take a stand all the best. - alphaxion

:( - Roberto

Another way for those that are in Iran is to access through Netvibes (but I don't know if it works or if it's blocked too), adding Friendfeed, Gmail and so on such as modules - Roberto

Thanks for sharing this, Bret. It's valuable evidence of what's going on, evidence which wouldn't have been available even a few years ago. - Michael Nielsen

sad - Pedro Beltrao

Very interesting...so much for democracy and voting rights in Iran... - freedom fighter mom

If anybody in Iran feels up to it, can you temporarily disable your proxy and run a traceroute to friendfeed.com and twitter.com then post the results here? - EricaJoy

Bret and Paul, can you let us know if the traffic comes back, which would tell us they've unblocked FriendFeed? - Robert Scoble

Robert: absolutely, we will let everyone know when it comes back up - Bret Taylor from email

Steven: You Like that it was posted, not the content of the post. - Tanath

Bret, thanks for sharing the info about the dive. Shame, but what could we have expected from the Iranian status quo? - Jon Osterholm

البته یه چیز هم هست اونکه بعد از فیلترینگ همه با آی پی غیر ایرانی می ان فرندفید و برای همنی آمارشون اینجا ثبت نمیشه ... وگرنه فکر نمی کنم از لحاظ تعداد نفراتی که میومدن کم شده باشه ... بلکه هم بیشتر - HΛMΣD ƧΛFΛ

Yes, it happend and we have to use proxy to access friendfeed. Look at democracy in Iran... - Zahra (raoros)

The coversations and comments here are educational. - Seek Ground

@بی بی, you might try https://friendfeed.com/ - Jim Norris

:( - imabonehead

Damn. - Steven Perez

http://mojipage.com register in this website and add ff widget! twitter is blocked in iran so I am posting twitts by a script or choqok(http://choqok.gnufolks.org/) - ★amin.m★ from MojiPage

Good luck to all of you trying to get around the censorship. I hope the big sites are doing what they can to help out. - Eric @ CSTechcast.com

Looking at the potential of this event in the future for numerous causes is mind-boggling. Really amazing. - Charlie Anzman

Come to think of it, does FF have a presence in China? I'd imagine it's blocked there. I've seen Chinese on here, but never sure if that's from China or speakers outside. - anna sauce

Tnx Bret - C o n f o r m i s t

Thnaks :) - Exir

این چی میگه؟ - Lord hozeh

ببین شب انتخاباتی چکار کردیم با این فرفر. wow! - ali

چه همه لااااااااااااااااایک! - ali

:(( - AJ Batac

Damn. - Derrick

Expected. - Michael W. May

Yes, Friendfeed is blocked in Iran. Right now the papers and TV channels here are ‎controlled by the government and our access to satellite channels is blocked too. ‎Friendfeed and Twitter are quite vital for us now. Our main source of exchanging ‎information and news is Friendfeed. Via Friendfeed we let everyone know that where ‎people need help and where to go and how to help them and... more... - Selma

Selma: does https://friendfeed.com/ work for you? - Bret Taylor

Nope, they have blocked all https addresses, we have had to sign in to Friendfeed via anti-filters for the past few months. - Selma

its a shame. it was one the main media we used to inform ppl. thats why they filtered it. now many users cant sign in - Myri∂m

Can't we "help" in some way? Providing proxies, I don't know, the kind of stuff pirates do. Pirates, and people trying to make a Revolution happen.... - Zackatoustra

It may not be long before Turkey joins the party. - Sarp Tüzün

It's very sad to see this happen - Michael Fidler

tnx all of you... - emin

internet was our last hope ...but it block...and we cant use it easily... - Opium

:( - Caroline

I just spoke with my friend Andres, the main BBC correspondent for the Middle East/Afghanistan, and he mentioned the web is being fire walled in Iran much the same as the the "Great Firewall" during last year's Olympics in China. - sofarsoShawn

The Iranian websites that people used to exchange information about the election protests ‎in Iran are under cyber-attacks by the government forces and from anonymous sources. ‎Many of them are down right now. These Iranian websites were our few last remaining ‎channels to inform people. What can we do about that? Is there anyone out there who can help us with this?‎ - emin

i was 53rd active user in friendfeed until this filtering. now i can open FF with proxies and if i can fine. a Vpn but many Vpn here come from companies that have relations with security services, i thunk they allow us to bypass filternig and then, they will arrest who has wrote against their goals - خیزران kheyzaran

Can't we transfer the data/databases of the sites you, iranian guys, use to any new domain we could buy? I want to help. Not by throwing rocks to "security service" forces, but, at least, by making possible for what YOU have to say to go public, worldwide. - Zackatoustra

FF is a useful website for Iranian People to get reliable information about demonstration against presidential election. - پارسـا

so so sorry for iran people... I hope they will win... - Tanaydin Sirin

and Now Yahoo messenger and google talk blocked in iran :(((( - پارسـا

Some amazing images from Iran - http://ff.im/42pgD - Brent - Loving Life

http://i.friendfeed.com/376e729... - Lord hozeh

Does http://fftogo.com work still? - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Selma: 1- I don't use a proxy but clearing all but one (deleting them all logs me out) instance of each friendfeed.com cookie name and refreshing the page always solves this for me in Firefox. Has never happened on Lunascape or IE. Good luck. - Alexandros Georgiadis

google block fftogo for iranian users!!! - ★amin.m★

Friendfeedがイランでblockされているというコトらしい。いったいどういう理由でだか分からないけれど……もし、国内のゴタゴタの影響であればいずれtwitterも、ということになりかねないのかも。／でも、fftogoを使えば迂回できるのかな？ - Sakurai.Catshop

What about email, amin.m? Are you able to post to FF by emailing share@friendfeed? - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

I don't know about email. now I am using freegate or another site like http://mojipage.com - ★amin.m★

Could http://dev.ctor.org/f2p, http://frienddeck.com or http://peoplebrwsr.com work for friendfeed? - Alexandros Georgiadis

Very sad. - Parth Awasthi

The reason I ask is because if you can email a post, then try sending it to share@friendfeed and also to YourUserName@friendfeed. Then when someone comments you'll receive an email about it and you can comment back to the thread via email as well. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

:(( - Nimaa from MojiPage

No wonder why ! - Pelin

@Alexandros Georgiadis:for frienddeck.com I see this:You are accessing this page from a forbidden country! but dev.ctor.org/f2p worked! thank you :) - ★amin.m★ from MojiPage

+ don't use your ISP's DNS server, verify your Firewall, search for rootkits.. + If you really wanna use Tor, be 'mobile', check the onion's status, don't be too confident, continue to use encrypted protocols & 'mobile' ports. At least, read Tor's docs and articles about Tor & privacy/security.. - Thierry R. Andriamirado

now chat like gmail or yahoo messenger are blocked too - egza

I don't know if these can help but I put them here anyway http://www.noiseriver.com/ http://moopz.com/ - M F

for me,yahoo messenger is not blocked yet! - ★amin.m★ from f2p

Alexandros: Frienddeck could work for certain parts - posts and queries against user accounts are proxied through the App Engine, searches are direct against Friendfeed so they could probably not work. - Paul Kinlan

Thanks :(( - مـهدی معتمد

:( booooooo - Duncan Rawlinson

:o - FKU

DAMN! - Vicey

whoa, NOT good - Susan Beebe

We wish the people of Iran well in these difficult times - Marc

Not good at all. Best wishes to the Iranian FFers. I hope this whole mess gets cleared up quickly and with as little violence as possible - Kamilah Gill

this is terribly wrong - Francisco Costa

A government that takes away people's Friendfeed will not last long. - Goran Zec

WOW CRAZY - Matt Kaufman

I like that 667 people liked this, that's 667 people hoping it all gets resolved justly and peacefully. - Steve C

now we are 676 people who liked that =) hoping too everthing gets resolved peacefully. - Ibrahim Tarlig

Bret, is there any update on this? Is activity still low? - Kol Tregaskes

Yes, we are still being blocked - Bret Taylor

:-( - Kol Tregaskes

:-( - Arif Siddiquee

definitely DON'T LIKE this... >_< ...would love to be able do more than retweeting proxies - Daniele

Best regards from Chile to all iranian people, we know a lot about bad government and human rights. Good luck, strength and courage to all of you. - Roberto Arancibia

:( - Shey, Jamaican of FF

It's to bad there is such attempts to block free flow of information, how long will it be before there is more amazing differences happening? Such limits, hmm. - Ray Marr aka Knatchwa

They have to keep the militants in check. Thank goodness for the pipes that were broken. - tony

بیا بالا ای فید من - egza

Digg.com is block in Iran now. - Sahandram

:-( - Paolo Valzania

:(( - Mitchell Tsai

Interesting censorship- same can happen in America - I would like to talk to you abt Friendfeed and bringing over some large groups do you have time? - JanSimpson

I've seen those censorship about FriendFeed (Iran). Do you know some interesting and objective blogposts about it? - Thierry R. Andriamirado from email

:( - Rachel Lea Fox

Do you have a similar graph as ff's been blocked in China? - K.D.

#GFW - xywf

And China now has a similar blockage. You should also check on it. - Kenyth

Sometimes we forget how easy we have it than other countries. But until people revolt & I mean a HUGE revolution injustices will still go on. - Gabriella Sannino

ای بابا این فید رو شخم زدن :)) - egza

پرلایک ترین فید فرفره این - ramin

jeddi? - HΛMΣD ƧΛFΛ from IM

آره حامد آمارشو قبلا در آورده ام - egza

che jaleb , oonvaght por comment dartarin feed kodoome? bebinim mishe feed 2khtare mardom e farzad davan davan ro be oon beresoonim? - HΛMΣD ƧΛFΛ from IM

حامد اینجا رو ببین http://friendfeed.com/amirsem... - egza

ba mobile am ... to bebin bara manam tarif kon :D - HΛMΣD ƧΛFΛ from IM

بعد از این فید که هستمی این http://friendfeed.com/funny-p... در رده دوم لایکه ,اینجا شش هزار و خورده ای کامنت داره http://friendfeed.com/ideali... این فید از فارسی زبانان فرفر همین نیما خودمون http://friendfeed.com/nimaa... در لایک 204 تا این هم از آیدا http://friendfeed.com/elaheye... بیشتر از 2400 کامنت داره - egza

Jenny

Hyojin is turns out, not a Jedi :-(.

July 27 from Facebook - Comment - Like - Share

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Kol Tregaskes to Kol's feed, FriendFeed Feedback

Am I going mad or were we able to hover over the comment icon for the timestamp of that comment?

July 24 - Comment - Like - Share

Michael Fidler, Victor Ganata, Info Glutton and 3 other people liked this

Well it's not there now. :-( - Kol Tregaskes

15 more comments

It's still there in Safari. - pea

Its working in Firefox. - Santa CW™

OK, just Chrome dev maybe? - Kol Tregaskes

And - oh what CW said. - pea

Still working here on Safari. - Robert Scoble

Works in regular Chrome. - Santa CW™

It's not showing up for me in OSX Chorme 3.0.195.1 - Ryan Massie

its showing in Chrome 2.0 xxxx ... Chrome dev might have issues .. as it does with bookmarklets too - Petr Buben

OK, so I'm not that mad then. I can go to sleep without worry. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Sweet! - TheHenry

It is there for me on Chrome. - Alex Scoble

I'm currently running 3.0.195.1. - Kol Tregaskes

It seems to work fine here. - Tyson Key

Woah! Cool! - Heather

Oh, that's odd Tyson, just me. :-( - Kol Tregaskes

Very cool! - Michael Fidler

Robert Scoble

Why I like FriendFeed, reason No. 2197. #keeppaula isn't a big deal over here like it is over on Twitter right now. Maybe we should all pray that FriendFeed does NOT go mainstream?

July 18 - Comment - Like - Share

Mike Fruchter, Ozgur Uckan, Molly Gordon and 32 other people liked this

I have no clue what #keeppaula is but I don't care either. Twitter's Trending Topics mean almost nothing to me anymore. - MarkCarras

27 more comments

I have rarely, if ever, even looked at the the trending topics. Only real time I notice is when others tweet about them. - Curt Mercadante

Mark: a popular show in USA is American Idol and Paula was one of the judges on the show. Not that you cared. Twitter has largely killed off the geeks by catering to celebrities. Huge change in just a year. - Robert Scoble

What are they doing to Pauly Shore? - Johnny Worthington from iPhone

I seriously hope friendfeed doesn't go mainstream. I kinda like having a geeky corner on the web (like what Twitter use to be). - Daynah from iPhone

Daynah: the problem is FriendFeed will go mainstream. The only question is whether FriendFeed will go mainstream by stabbing early adopters in the back, like Twitter did, or whether it will be done organically, in which case we can always find a way to get along? - Robert Scoble

I really can't see FF going mainstream as Twitter did. I feel like it would HAVE to be organic. - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

I can't imagine FF going mainstream like twitter. Most people don't have the time or inclination to do what it takes to be comfortable here. - Myrna

OMG, they're kicking Paula off Idol???!!! - Hutch Carpenter

great point Robert! - BEX

for the record, Kara is smokin' - Josh Haley from iPhone

Josh: for the record I assume you aren't talking about Kara Swisher. That's the sort of geek I am, cause I only know one Kara. - Robert Scoble

For normal folks who don't follow celebrities or thousands of people, Twitter is pretty similar to FriendFeed in terms of overall usefulness. I'm not seeing a whole lot of dumb crap in my Twitter feed. - mrshl

I'm cutting lots of people from my list of who I am following. - Francine Hardaway

mrshl: in your feed, no, but I guess you don't use search very often or look over at trending topics. - Robert Scoble

Yup, keep FriendFeed cool please. #keepcoola - Mitch

Absolutely. - Peter Thayer

How can anyone who takes advantage of the possibilities on FF not see its great distinction from twitter especially creativity, for one. - Myrna

FriendFeed is a better service than Twitter... And about 98% less spam. - Mark Davidson

Because most people can't see how the future is looking like for Friendfeed, they won't take us seriously. We won't really have to worry about the mainstream issue. Clue #1: So far, no trending topics list. - Amir

Twitter needs better filters. - Steve Lynch from twhirl

Steve: and less spammers. But that cannot be controlled, ony guided (i'm quoting Chris Pirillo's 'What is community' speech from Wordcamp '09) - Amir from iPod

I agree, MarkCarras, and #hashtags are lame too. - Andy Bakun

FriendFeed's values, culture and innate brilliance are too good to repeat the errors of twitter; in other words I don't see FF going mainstream by stabbing their early adopter community in the back - as mentioned above. Organic growth + "Do No Evil" will be the future path to FF mainstream user adoption. - Susan Beebe from iPhone

Small is good, but this smacks of Indie Rock Pete's complaint, "Nothing's good if anyone else likes it." - Info Glutton

I follow almost exactly 1/2 as many on FF than on Twitter which I think is indicative of the fast adoption rate for #FF. Just a couple months ago, the numbers weren't nearly as close. The find Twitter friends feature has had a lot to do with it. - Rick Bucich

? - Joe

Amen - Santa CW™

No kidding. - Molly Gordon

Jenny

Lurves it! The Helvetica Swiss Army knife: http://ffffound.com/image... (via @andreafjeld)

July 20 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

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Anthony Citrano

great piece on #twittergate non-news by @karaswisher - "stolen equals stolen": http://kara.allthingsd.com/2009071...

July 17 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Info Glutton and michael silverton liked this

i'm not the biggest fan of @karaswisher but dude! yeah. Stolen == Stolen ... we were dumbfounded that there was even a question. arrington and techcrunch have officially jumped the shark on this one ... for like the 666th time, right? yet, people will REWARD them with massive traffic spikes. when will we learn? - michael silverton

Ash

Starchy, disgusting banana. Checking to make sure I don't have a yellow t-shirt with a black zig zag on underneath my sweater.

July 13 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Info Glutton liked this

Anthony Citrano

The Never-Before-Published Letter From LSD Inventor Albert Hofmann to Apple CEO Steve Jobs | Huffington Post - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ryan-gr...

July 8 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Info Glutton, Kenton, michael silverton and Jen (SquirrelGirl) liked this

“That Jobs used LSD and values the contribution it made to his thinking is far from unusual in the world of computer technology. Psychedelic drugs have influenced some of America's foremost computer scientists.” - Anthony Citrano

“He was still thinking, ‘Let's put it in the water supply and turn everybody on,’ recalls a disappointed Doblin, who says he still hasn't given up hope that Jobs will come around and contribute.” - Anthony Citrano

Of course, there is a wide range of outcomes for psychonauts. Philip K. Dick's work http://www.philipkdick.com/ explores many of the worst case scenarios, while his prolific work itself speaks to the flip side of the coin. I'd credit many different organic and synthetic neuro-actives with igniting my own creativity and thirst for knowledge, including the 1990 insight that we *needed* to... more... - michael silverton

Paul Buchheit

O'Brien: Valley's one-time godfather of multimedia is leaving for Ohio - http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_1274...

July 7 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Robert Scoble, Russellreno, Clare Dibble and 8 other people liked this

"In truth, Canter needs a fresh start. His penchant for sharing his unfiltered thoughts have pretty much left him with no more bridges to burn in Silicon Valley. No venture capitalists or community groups would back him here. So, it's time to reboot. Canter attended Oberlin College, about 35 miles outside Cleveland. And he will be teaching a class at Case Western Reserve University in the fall while living in an area of east Cleveland called Shaker Square." - Paul Buchheit from Bookmarklet

4 more comments

Case, where people go once they've burned all of their bridges elsewhere ;) - Paul Buchheit

"But his departure will leave a void." People who are not cursed with some version of the ability to see these technological trajectories as plainly as Barry Bonds can see the trajectory of a fly ball really don't have much of a frame of reference. Once one catches a certain number of those long fly balls in a row, it's pretty obvious that more than luck is involved. We should be asking "WTF is it in some human brains that is able to do this kind of forecasting" +/- some margin of error. - michael silverton

Of course, there is also a strong element of "forecasting" the future by deciding to build it; or not. Especially in Silicon Valley. I saw this time and again during my fifteen years there and hence my own rants about the inefficiencies of massive consolidation of capital; which serves to set up far too few gatekeepers for far too many emerging capabilities. It's been my observation... more... - michael silverton

I like how Ohio is linked in this thread, in case you never heard of it. - Clare Dibble

I wonder what sort of class he will be teaching. - Clare Dibble

Ash

RT @laughingsquid Sarah Palin Threatens To Sue Entire Internet, Via Twitter http://wonkette.com/409650... (Not an Onion headline)

July 5 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

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April Buchheit

Baby Hedgehog - http://swiss-lupe.blogspot.com/2009...

July 5 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Anton Tanderup, i80and, Chad Spacey and 24 other people liked this

small bag of thorns, but cute - Gtp19

Oh how I wish these were legal in California! - Georgia Diehl

Jim Norris

Helpful caption? — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...

June 23 - Comment - Like - Share

Info Glutton, Ruchira S. Datta, Maggie and 13 other people liked this

It's not very belt-like. Then again "Bible blob" sounds a bit insulting. - Soup

6 more comments

Hmmm, every time I've ever heard reference to the Bible Belt, it hasn't been the southeast, it's been the upper midwest. - Shawn Kirsch

But the Southern Baptists are from the south... right? - Andrew C

United States Embarrassment Zone? - mike

Just eyeballing it... doesn't that zone overlap "true barbeque" pretty well? =) - Andrew C

I got a chuckle from "(not to be mistaken as an epidemic)". - April Russo (app103)

Agreed, April, that's pretty damned funny. I've always referred to Atlanta (where I live) as being "the buckle of the bible belt". - Joel Webber

You can see the “bible belt” in Regional Interest on http://www.google.com/insight... (also use the drop-down to compare to “grits”) - Amit Patel

Brad DeLong

Ezra Klein: Health reform is, I think it fair to say, in danger right now. The news out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee was bad.... But the news out of the Finance Committee is much, much worse... - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-kl...

June 19 from delicious - Comment - Like - Share

Piaw Na, Info Glutton and Ruchira S. Datta liked this

Not good news. I get the feeling, like this is an episode of 24 - the clock is ticking on getting HC reform passed, and in the scurry to get it through, everything that amounts to real reform is being thrown out. - Info Glutton

Brad DeLong

DeLong: Equality of Opportunity - http://econ161.berkeley.edu/movable...

June 19 from delicious - Comment - Like - Share

Info Glutton, Michael R. Bernstein and Ruchira S. Datta liked this

Jim Norris

Why Paul Krugman and Niall Ferguson are hammering each other about Treasury bond interest rates. - By Daniel Gross - Slate Magazine - http://www.slate.com/id...

June 6 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Greg Guitarbuster, Mike Reynolds, Info Glutton and 2 other people liked this

"In evaluating the relative claims of the pessimists and the optimists, you also have to evaluate the messengers. And in this instance, the Fergusonians lack credibility. H.L. Mencken tagged the Puritans as people possessed of the "haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." Ferguson represents a strain of intellectual Toryism bedeviled by the haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be getting social insurance. (Fellow sufferers include Clive Crook, Andrew Sullivan, and George Will.) Their solution to the problem of large deficits always seems to be to cut entitlements and never to raise taxes." - Jim Norris from Bookmarklet

wait, isn't that the dude from CSI? ;) - Call me Bronco

Nice post, however you are missing the point, the point is Sotomayer could not rule any better or any less than a white male from his experience. The Judicial System is a prime example of how the crooked this country is...it is not about Justice but who bullies, kills, pays to get Justice. The next time you want to pick on conservatives, stop and think "Would I want to be criticize? if so, am I going to discuss the issues or just name call?" Nice Post - JanSimpson

Brad DeLong

Repair California - About the Convention - http://www.repaircalifornia.org/about_c...

May 27 from delicious - Comment - Like - Share

Info Glutton and Ruchira S. Datta liked this

Hear, hear! - Ruchira S. Datta

Anna John

raspberry buttermilk cake | smitten kitchen - http://smittenkitchen.com/2009...

May 22 from delicious - Comment - Like - Share

Info Glutton liked this

yum. - Anna John

Steve Isaacs

HEY KANYE, CUT IT OUT WITH THE FUCKING CAPS. PUT IN THE EXTRA 3 SECONDS TO TYPE IN SENTENCE CASE. THANKS, THE WORLD.

May 21 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Info Glutton, Charlotte M, Chieze Okoye and 7 other people liked this

Caps Lock is the text version of autotune - Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)

3 more comments

Twitter does not like Caps People. - Trish R

or....you could just not read his blog. weird, I know, but it's what I do. unless it bothers you that somewhere, someone is typing in all caps. - Richard Lawler

++Rob - Josh Haley

Nothing says arrogant prick like all caps all the time. - Robert Stribley

Anna John

RT @mashable Is Shaheen Jafargholi the next Susan Boyle? http://www.youtube.com/watch... (Heart-stopping at first, then so uplifting. Go Shaheen!)

RT @mashable Is Shaheen Jafargholi the next Susan Boyle? http://bit.ly/wlcV7 (Heart-stopping at first, then so uplifting. Go Shaheen!)

April 18 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Info Glutton liked this

this kid reminds me of david archuleta. - Info Glutton

Info Glutton › Likes