FriendFeed kind of ruins the fun by expanding the URL. Just think: without URL shorteners, the RickRoll would never have taken off! Then again — maybe it's the other way around... w/o the RickRoll, maybe TinyURL never would have become popular! ;)
- Chris Messina
Does not say much for TechCrunch then lol
- Rob Cairns
Youtube must hold the baseline data point. That an lavatory walls.
- tom murphy
Yeah, aside from the rickroll link, Techcrunch does attract commenters only a few levels above Youtube commenters, and they're pondlife for the most part.
- Martin Bryant
from iPhone
When a new medium arises that’s powerful enough to make incumbents nervous, then it’s probably powerful enough to win, and the best thing they can do is jump in immediately. - http://factoryjoe.tumblr.com/post...
"Scholars, advertisers and political activists see massive online social networks as a representation of social interactions that can be used to study the propagation of ideas, social bond dynamics and viral marketing, among others. But the linked structures of social networks do not reveal actual interactions among people. Scarcity of attention and the daily rythms of life and work makes people default to interacting with those few that matter and that reciprocate their attention. A study of social interactions within Twitter reveals that the driver of usage is a sparse and hidden network of connections underlying the "declared" set of friends and followers."
- Chris Messina
from Mento
"But what they were really interested in was the idea of how Twitter users interacted with each other as “friends.” Consistent with behavior on social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, Twitter users interact with a small number of friends compared with the total number of friends and followers declared."
- Chris Messina
from Mento
"The centerpiece of President Obama's domestic agenda is an $819 billion economic stimulus plan. The Senate will consider the measure this week, with an eye toward the amount of tax cuts and spending. Republicans and Democrats spar over what to consider a tax cut. An analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office tallies the tax-cut portion to be significantly less than the one-third Democrats claim it to be."
- Chris Messina
from Mento
"Uncontrolled population growth threatens to undermine efforts to save the planet, warns John Feeney. In this week's Green Room, he calls on the environmental movement to stop running scared of this controversial topic."
- Dave Riddell
from Bookmarklet
"Government 2.0 Club is a national organization that brings together leading thinkers from government, academia and industry to share ideas and solutions for leveraging social media tools and Web 2.0 technologies to create a more collaborate, efficient and effective government — Government 2.0."
- Chris Messina
from Mento
"After taking a gamble on the acceptance of Mini DisplayPort as a connection for computer screens, Apple is about to be rewarded as its technology is now expected to become part of an industry-wide format that also includes extremely high resolutions and multiple displays on a single link."
- Chris Messina
from Mento
"On this site you will find select broadcast quality footage that Al Jazeera has released under various Creative Commons licenses. Through Creative Commons licensing, you are able to legally share and reuse our footage."
- Chris Messina
from Mento
Author and scientist Richard Dawkins has admitted he loves Christmas carols - and celebrates Christmas every year with his family
- The Fat Oracle
from Bookmarklet
What? He totally is :D Dawkins is as much about extreme absolutes as any religious fundie
- Mo Kargas
Not confusing - he likes the idea of a winter shindig and for once is not harping on about how it's all worthless because it happens to be somehow related to a religious event. I think he's growing as a person....:)
- WoH: Minding her Steves
Mo, I did come away with a similar impression after reading The God Delusion (which I enjoyed nonetheless) and also watching some of his talks. But perhaps it speaks to my bias that I find his fundamentalism slightly more acceptable than religious fundamentalism because he doesn't push it on others and because I get where he is coming from. :) Contd..
- The Fat Oracle
I made my dad (we are Hindu+Buddhist mongrels) watch Dawkin's TED talk and he said that though Dawkins says he is very spiritual, perhaps he doesn't get it yet because the truly spiritual seek and are certain about nothing. And that those who are certain and claim to know the path, by definition do not...LIke u said, applies to both sides.
- The Fat Oracle
Kamath, I'd say that's his major appeal as well. Yes, his, and his followers, fundamentalism isn't as serious as the religious types. My main problems with Dawkins and a lot of atheist philosophers is that they claim science an exclusive domain of atheism, and they get downright insulting if you don't accept their absolutist views.
- Mo Kargas
I'm not a Christian and I still love Christmas - carols and all.
- iTad
Tad me too :). Mo, I know. I feel strongly about that too.
- The Fat Oracle
Today's commercialized Christ Mass really isn't the religious festival it once was, so even Dawkins feels at ease celebrating it.
- Ernie Oporto
Dawkins to me is the prototype of an atheist zealot. I don't like him. Don't like the pushy, single-minded way he writes about science and everything else. I don't like his vicious attacks on Stephen Gould. Gould to me was the prototype of the intellectual who understood science, scientific endeavour, and its complex interactions with human life. And he taught me more about evolution and the history of science than Dawkins ever could.
- ˈpɛbə