“I have made Chore my default browser, rebooted several times, but Twirl continues to to open IE7 when selecting a linK, Can anyone help me with this?”
not a fan of the new season, hopefully it'll pick up. - rambn
I agree with Rambn. Loved the entire first season, haven't been as into it this year. Starting to feel repetitive, like what happened in the later seasons of "Sopranos." - Lon Harris
via twhirl
It's interesting to see how many things still ring true in the advertising and marketing industry: especially when they're selling an idea to a client. Lots of times it'll be one genius idea that just comes after really failing with the original. It's also interesting to see the culture that has bred a lot of traditions and mindsets that are still around today in the industry. I can't wait until they hit 1966/1968: that was a crazy time for advertising. - Mark Trapp
@Mark - yeah I hope this series continues into the tumultuous sixties - many possibilities. right now I'm chuckling at the products they've advertised have gone out of favor - lucky strike cigarettes and aerosol deoderants. - Jason Kaneshiro
Oh, sure there are the cultural aspects of that time period, but I'm more interested in their reaction to Helvetica :-P I love their dismissal of Pepsi. The season has really lost ratings so who knows what type of life it'll have, but their intention was to hit the entire decade in 2 year increments: season 3 would be 1964, season 4 would be 1966, etc. - Mark Trapp
Uh-oh- only seen part of season one so far. Does the second season have a real decline in equality? - Abby Martin
I'm enjoying Season 2 a lot. I actually think it is getting better. - Barak B
"Young Republicans will comprise less than two percent of all delegates attending the GOP Convention. A meager 42 young Republicans will participate in a convention with 2,380 total delegates, according to initial reports. By comparison, 631 young Democrats comprised 15 percent of the 4,234 total delegates at last week's Democratic National Convention.
Republicans are paying the price for failing young Americans over the last eight years. Exploding deficits, an unending war and rising costs in everything from gasoline to tuition have driven young people away from the Republican Party." - Ruth Ferguson
via Bookmarklet
I'm going to miss the boob shots. oh well. - rambn
agreed. it's never a good idea to compare yourself against your competition unless you believe you are far behind - politics, business, etc.. - Jeremy Toeman
@Jeremy - the bigger problem is having the Presidential candidate of one side be compared to the VICE Presidential candidate of the other. THAT is the real trap. - Ben Parr
Ben: that's happening because we all have the fear that McCain is so old that his Vice President will see action at any point. My mom died when she was 66. How old is McCain? - Robert Scoble
are you really afraid McCain is going to die in office? is that what people are afraid and the real reason they don't like Palin? Wow seriously people? that's silly - Jonathan Jesse
Jonathan: no, that's the reason why people will look far closer at Palin than at Biden. But the real reason that I don't like Palin? The list is building and building quickly. - Robert Scoble
@Jonathan: The two trains of thought are not mutually exclusive. Yes, I fear Palin has a better chance of being President with McCain's age. However, this does not preclude me from also not liking her position on several key issues, nor her abuse of power as Governor of Alaska. - AJ Kohn
Jonathan, McCain's age at the end of his 1st term exceeds the avg life expectancy....it puts extra attn on his choice for VP. - Ruth Ferguson
Also, the reps defend Palin's inexperience w/ an Obama comparison. Trying to seperate the two, in their minds seems impossible.. - rambn
good point. for me the bottom line is: no matter how the GOP machine spins this, Sarah Palin is not qualified to be *a heartbeat* away from the presidency (there are other women that McCain could've chosen to play the gender card). but a more important issue here is not Palin's inexperience. it's McCain's character. see "Forgetting Sarah Palin--It's McCain's CHARACTER, Stupid!" http://bit.ly/37L3Og - ~C4Chaos
Palin more qualified than Obama is the theme the Reps are pushing. She has executive experience which they say matters more than legislative experience. This is a dangerous meme for Obama. - Alex Nesbitt
I think Palin is meant more to take away Obama's arguments that he's the change and reform agent. If he loses that luster and reputation, I honestly think Obama's done. - Ben Parr
Judgment is just as important as experience, though I believe he has enough experience. Obama has certainly shown judgment - Ruth Ferguson
“In case I haven't said this yet, I am very much looking forward to the next 10 weeks. Every day will be filled with hilarious Countdown, Daily Show, Colbert, and Real Time (welcome back, Bill).”
Daily show is on Mon-Thur @ 11PM Eastern, Colbert follows at 11:30. Countdown is on every M-Thurs (sometimes Friday, too) at 8PM & 10 PM, and Real Time is on Fridays at 11PM. - Peter "that one" Ghosh
Getting out my 10 foot clown poll for this one... :) - John Worthington
Religion has a place in school. It's called the Theology class room. Where the christian creation can be taught along with the other dozens of creationist doctrine. How they going to like that? - Not Not Geoff Schultz
I thought that's the reason private schools existed in the first place - Rodfather
Why not teach religion as part of literature? It's not half-bad fiction. - Patrick Beard
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Because as literature, it's not really that good? - ·[▪_▪]·
I teach philosophy in public school and religion is very welcome in that mix. But dang, they are looking to develop an underground by poking around in the private schools. I wonder if home schooling there will take off more (as it has in the US) in reaction to the bans. They may actually be making things more dangerous if so. - Boo
Boo: I agree, regarding underground. The option to learn should exist, but not mandated. Like Geoff said: "Theology Class" - Mona N.
Yes, teaching the world's creation stories in a theology class makes perfect sense. "Teaching religious doctrine as if it were true" doesn't make sense. Which doctrine? Which truth? - Ayşe E.
as to the question: I can see some merit in it, although it's difficult to reconcile in terms of a free society. We are far better off equipping our children with critical reasoning than blind theology. If they then decide to follow, so be it. - Duncan Riley
I can't believe that people don't think science is THE religion in our paradigm... :P - Kenn Ejima
Duncan: Yes, I looked it up during ongoing "Ban the Pledge of Allegiance" controversies :) I just wrote it to get people's attention. Pete: ? - Mona N.
I support the motivation for this law, only object to telling privately funded schools what they can and can't teach. I blogged about this (http://frethink.com/?p=79) and have gotten nearly 20 replies (on Disqus), mostly supportive of the law. - Jack Carlson
i agree with Daniel Dennett on this one. a solution is not less religion, but more religion. mandatory teaching of world religions in schools is a good start. they are already doing it in Modesto, CA - http://bit.ly/2ywsfs - ~C4Chaos
Jack: WOW. @~C4Chaos: Interesting, thank you for the link. - Mona N.
I agree, Tad. As long as they're privately funded, they can teach wizardry and alchemy as fact. - Jack Carlson
I'm not sure I like my site's comments being rerouted through Disqus. I wish there was an option to have them appear on the site while comments could only be made through Disqus. If I disable Disqus, do the comments already made disappear? Or can I export them back to my blog? (Sorry for the off-topic) - Jack Carlson
Jack: I don't have a self hosted WordPress blog, and don't want to give you an inadequate answer. I suggest asking on the DISQUS forums. The dev team is really active there :) http://disqus.disqus.com/ - Mona N.
Mona, just to be clear, I'm not in favor of making this illegal. It's a big world w/ lots of ideas. Best to expose the kids and teach them how to think critically about them. - Ayşe E.
+987923749823739874 For Critical Thinking!!!!!!!!!! - Mona N.
“FriendFeed's growth rate had stalled for a few weeks there. It's now restarted thanks to new beta version. New features get attention which get new users.”
Indeed, I was feeling the same thing. It really felt like it was stalling. I was having lunch with a friend yesterday mentioning exactly that, but with the beta it seems to have leaped out of the ditch and back into action. I've enjoyed FF much more today than I have in a number of weeks. - Thomas Hawk
funny, I was just drawn back here after a few weeks away having read a twitter about new features :) - Dave Pook
Robert can you provide a link to where you see the growth rate increase? and which metric are you referring to? - Allen Stern
Allen: since I'm one of the top recommended people to follow I can see when growth on the service slows down or speeds up based on how many are following me. - Robert Scoble
or because jaiku is down and people are here waiting - sampsa
That's true. Actually, I'm using FF more since the re-design than before. In LatAm, though, Facebook is not (yet) the most popular social network but it's growing super fast. - Martin Añazco
We're like monkeys. New features = bananas! Time to feed the monkeys! - Steve Rubel
There is a lot of excitement here, but it is also August so slow growth is expected this time of year. - Russellreno
using twhirl, I haven't noticed any changes. - rambn
via twhirl
Everyone I knew was using friendfeed like a month ago. Now I am the only one left. It's dead. Next - PC Easy
via twhirl
FF released their beta yesterday and I got my friendfeed shirt today....coincidence!! - Satya Boora
It only looks like new users. They're probably all fake-followers. - Chris Kim A
So FF growth can be correlated with ego growth... interesting - Jason Carreira
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE using small groups of 5 or 10. I can run "best of week" on the small groups & see tons of new stuff. Whether or not I delete someone from my main feed (the "fake follow") is meaningless. People just get swamped out when following 700 people. - Mitchell Tsai
Is it that FriendFeed introduced new features, or is it that people were talking about FriendFeed? For example, if the news reported that Britney Spears mentioned "FriendFeed," would the Scoble Metric show a spike solely based upon publicity for the FriendFeed brand? - Ontario Emperor
via fftogo
The real question then is why anyone would follow 700 people in the first place. - Cyndy
Cyndy: I don't know, I follow 3,200. I find that the noise level is just right. - Robert Scoble
i guess i am confused - you are ok with being a default and letting everyone follow you but you only care about the people "I follow". - Allen Stern
Allen: I wasn't a default when I started using FriendFeed. I personally don't like being a default. The recommender engine is useless to me too. We need a far better one. But first they need to rebuild their database. There are far more important things to fix in the database. Why can't you see all items that mention Allen Stern and have two or more likes? Because the database needs major work. If that work gets done then all of a sudden we'll get a better recommender page, too. - Robert Scoble
Cyndy: I'm at a dance camp in Maine with 630 people (part of a larger community of a few thousand). If everyone at this camp was on FriendFeed, I'd love to have them send stuff into one folder. This community has been running for 30 years, and people have married/divorced/had kids etc... I'm not interested in following 12,000 nameless business cards, but I enjoy following people with good posts, and there are many here at FF! I'm thinking about making 100 groups of 10, to hear more people. - Mitchell Tsai
Okay, sorry, but gotta butt in and ask: which dance camp? :) - Adam Lasnik
just curious: how do you know that the new beta version brought in new users? maybe it was the blog posts that just brought FF back to more readers that drove new users? - Jeremy Toeman
I am waiting for the next wave of traffic charts. Seems like its been much more than 30 days. Yuvi? Thomas? - Russellreno
Speaking of exciting web apps that have stalled out, what's the deal with Swurl? - K Welch
I've been tracking the compete chart, but it'll probably be another week or so until they are updated with August numbers. - Thomas Hawk
This is a great little movie. The pieces fall together perfectly, and you are still as in the dark as the main character until right at the very end. - ◄ Chris Nixon ►
"If it makes you feel better, you can rationalize Obama's missing 10-point lead on the basis of Clintonite sulkiness, his slowness in responding to attacks, or the concern that Obama may be too handsome, brilliant, and cool to be elected. But let's be honest: If you break the numbers down, the reason Obama isn't ahead right now is that he trails badly among one group, older white voters. He does so for a simple reason: the color of his skin." - Jason Toney
via Bookmarklet
This has been my fear all along. There is no other reason for Obama to lose this election. If he does I will feel deep shame for my country. - Kyle Hebert
I don't think skin color is as big a factor among that group as a socialist political platform. I think most everyone in both major parties really like this guy. What's not to like? He is an excellent speaker and comes across as very genuine. But many people will be voting against him because of his politics. That's how it should be anyway. - Josh Haley
For my daily dose of silliness, I want a poster with the words, "Too handsome, brilliant, and cool" on it. I would totally buy one. Now back to serious stuff. - ha3rvey (That One)
I've been saying all along that people talk a good game but once they're alone behind that curtain faced with the choice between black and white, I'm not sure I have faith in some people to choose on experience and skill and merit and not the color of a man's skin. I have also been saying that I hope I am very wrong for not trusting people. We'll know soon enough. - .·*♥pea♥*·.
Josh, I'm going to need you to unbox that a bit for me. Obama's no radical and his platform is only slightly left of center. Which parts do you find Socialist? - Jason Toney
Most of the wackiest Obama lies - that he's a secret muslim or unpatriotic America hater or terrorist sympathizer exist primarily to give older whites a justification for not wanting to vote for him. What it boils down to, though, for almost all of the white friends and relatives we have in the South who aren't voting Obama is that he's black. The oldest among them make no bones about it. One said, "I'm not votin' for no pickaninny!" - Tad - the Meme Maker
The only good news is that about half of these folks we've talked to are so disgusted with the GOP that they may not vote at all. Humorously, I've heard frustrations about the lack of affordable health care and at the same time the fact that McCain is way too liberal. - Tad - the Meme Maker
Jason, any hints of universal healthcare is viewed by the right as a hard core socialist program. - Tad - the Meme Maker
Wait, so if Obama is not elected, it's because we're all a bunch of racists? Really? And that isn't racist at all, right? People aren't allowed to have differing views or be scared of Biden **AA leanings, they're just racists if they don't vote for Obama? - Jordan Hofker
Obama will lose because he isn't fit to be a leader. It has nothing to do with race. But that is how this campaign will operate. If you criticize Obama, you are a racist. If Obama loses, it's because of race. - Spencer Scott
Once Obama played the race card himself, he pretty much gutted any of his fans' attempts to accuse others of racism for not being an Obama fan themselves. - Akiva Moskovitz
"any hints of universal healthcare is viewed by the right as a hard core socialist program" ... which is kind of hilarious because obama's plan centers around business, not government. it's rather un-socialist really. - tiffany
@jordan: no, a vote against obama is not proof positive of racism, but until i see some of these anti-obama voters say that they agree with mccain's policies rather than some variation of "what do we *really know* about obama?" i'm going to assume that racism -- or at least some "he's a black dude with a muslim father and a funny name" type of bigotry -- is at work. - tiffany
Jason, I refuse to accept defeat. At some point I believe they will get people to see: stop looking at Obama and think, really think, can you afford $8/gallon gas, no job, food supply problems or high becuase it can't be shipped to your local grocery store. No job because your service or product become an optional item for tight budgets...it goes on. - Ruth Ferguson
So if a black person doesn't vote for Obama, what then? (S)He's a racist, too? I mean, come on, this shouldn't be a big issue being written about. Words and actions should. - Jordan Hofker
Jeez, headlines like that are the problem. Is it not possible for a black man to lose an election because of something other than race? That's just wrong. - David Risley
Jordan- There's a difference between race playing a significant factor and saying that all whites that don't vote for Obama are racist. Race is a significant factor in this election, because there are still a lot of bigots among us, but it won't be the only factor. As for him not being fit to lead. I don't know how you figure that. If GW was fit to lead, if Bill Clinton was fit to lead, if JFK was fit to lead, then Obama is fit to lead. He's had about as much (or in the case of GW) more experience as those. - "Awesomesauce!" Scoble
tiffany, so just because I don't agree with McCain's policies and I'm unconvinced of Obama's qualifications means that I'm some kind of bigot? You need to rethink that logic and quick. - Akiva Moskovitz
Alex, just because a president is elected doesn't mean that he's fit to lead. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that only a second-term president is fit to lead the country because no one has past experience as a president of a nation until they step into the office for day one of work. I think Obama has all of the characteristics of a great leader; I don't question that at all. Everyone should, however, question everything else about him just like they're questioning everything about McCain. - Akiva Moskovitz
Why is it bad for someone to not like Obama because he's black? People seem fine with accusing McCain of being 'another old white guy'. Sadly, bigotry will probably always be a part of the process: people didn't like Romney because he's Mormon; people didn't like Kennedy because he was Catholic; people didn't like Clinton because she's a she; people didn't like Carter because he was an incompetent buffoon; and so on and so on and so on and so on. It's ignorant and inexcusable but it's still sadly a factor. - Akiva Moskovitz
I disagree on the questioning part, Akiva. The choice is quite simple, to me. Either you want more of what we had for the last 8 years, or you don't. McCain will give you more of the same, Obama will give you something different. I don't want more of the last 8 years, so my choice is Obama. It's that simple. - "Awesomesauce!" Scoble
Alex, I understand that. A lot of people would risk 'cold comfort for change' with a vote into what could possibly be a wild unknown. It's concerning, though, that, for many people, it's the only factor that matters: they don't care what Obama really stands for; they just care that he claims to stand for something different than Rove-Republicans. And the dude can speak. He could inspire me to shave my eyebrows if he tried. - Akiva Moskovitz
Alex - and that's a fine way to look at it. I don;t agree but that's OK too. However the reality is that the current polls are not that far off what is usual for a partisan Dem / Republican election. There is no huge loss of support for Obama that was expected or whatever - in short, there is absolutely no evidence of racism. Obama has real problems as a leader, real problem with experience, real policy differences with his opponents. To say that if he was white this would be a landslide is a fantasy. - Soulhuntre
This whole "Saint Obama - if your not with us your a racist" schtick is also part of the problem :) - Soulhuntre
This problem with "experience" is entirely crafted by the other side. Last election they said that Kerry had too much experience and this time they are saying that Obama hasn't enough. Experience is totally not a qualification for president. As someone else said, the only way to get it is to have been president already. And to say that Obama can't lead is to ignore his accomplishments entirely. - "Awesomesauce!" Scoble
If he does not win it will be for multiple reasons but to suggest racism is NOT a factor is either stupid or naive. When was the last time someone was arrested for planning to attempt to shoot one of the other candidates - to my knowledge there has been the report of white powder being sent to a McCain campaign office. Men arrested this weekend with guns and one arrested for discussing killing Obama and having guns as well. I do not like McCain's policies but for most of us, even the 70% that do not approve of the current administration - our feelings do not drive us to that point. I - Ruth Ferguson
do not recall seeing pictures online of Ms. McCain tied up on a cover of a magazine discusisng lynching. I do not even follow the hate websites and these are a few things that have been so widely circulated you could not avoid them. I think one of Clinton's offices may have been vandalized but I believe several of Obama's were and their love notes left behind had nothing to do with his foreign policy or whether he is willing to drill, drill, drill. I won't claim racism on everything that happens in this campaign, just as I don't in my own life. but don't act like it is not a factor. - Ruth Ferguson
wow. there are a lot of points being made here. Some I agree with, some I disagree with. I just have to say it is refreshing that no one has started the personal attacks that is usually so prevalent in comment streams. That being said, Weisburg is making a strong and powerful statement. Who wants to read a passive piece? would that make you think? would that make you want to comment on this stream? No. If he wrote, "um, race is just one factor in why Obama would lose" who the hell would care. - Anna Lynn M.
and if you think race is not an issue then maybe you haven't experienced being stopped because you were driving the wrong car in the wrong part of town or been followed in a store for who knows what reason or all sorts of things. Old habits and beliefs take a long long time to change so to think that it is not a factor is wrong. - Anna Lynn M.
@akiva: ok...let me rephrase since you (willfully? deliberately?) missed my point: disagreement about policy = valid reason. concern about his experience = legitimate reason (but rather silly when you think about it). concern about the fact that he's a black man, has a muslim father, and grew up in hawaii = bigotry. bigotry = not cool. - tiffany
Alex, earlier, I was only getting at this sensationalist headline. I think it's garbage. Anna, by making this the headline, he became part of the problem, instead of someone just discussing a potential contributing reason a candidate might not win the election. - Jordan Hofker
Another good reply is to ask, 'What do you mean?' Occasionally say it in a slightly alarmed tone for fun variety. - Akiva Moskovitz
If you have time, simply start talking to them in detail about how you are. - ·[▪_▪]·
If you take the question literally from a linguistic standpoint, you should begin by explaining how biology works and then describing how your parents met followed by a philosophical jaunt into existentialism. End it with a Nietzche-esque foray into nihilism and then point accusingly and shout, 'Thanks for ruining my day!', and finally run away sobbing. - Akiva Moskovitz
this was so new to me when I came to live in North America... I felt that I wanted to give them my full health condition in response :) - Rebkin
Like Rebkin...this was new to me when I came to the US for grad school. This was a big culture shocker ...I still have not gotten over it :-) - kamla bhatt
I've been in Canada for 17 years -- still not used to it - Shey
The best greeting for me: Hey - a nod - and keep walking. - Brenda McLaren
@Josh I refuse to dignify them with responses! - Shey
Louis, I'm doing excellent today - lots to do though. How are you? ;) - Jesse Stay
Trying to place it ... —was it Seinfeld or another standup with the walk down the office hallway (again) greeting-replacement: "Acknowledge." - Micah Wittman
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'How are ya!' is like saying hello for Northerners here in the UK! - Joe Dawson
