Facebook? Facebook. Facebook!

Digital Warfare?

"This is your last chance. After this there is no turning back. You take the blue pill: the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill: you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes." ~ Morpheus, The Matrix

Battle for the Internet?

Google's Sergey Brin warns Web freedom faces greatest threat ever?
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Do you remember the first time you heard the phrase 'the internet'? For this blogger, it was in January 1994 while vacationing with the United Nations in Mogadishu, Somalia. A young American military officer, camping inside a bombed out building at the airport, had linked a computer via satellite to this digital highway called the World Wide Web.

Maybe it's just me, but on most days, it feels like this still adolescent, globally interconnected digital world is drowning in information but starved of knowledge. So, could someone please help me understand why Paris Hilton is famous?

Charles Barkley in Drag?

Google It?



[pseu·do·nym]

A fictitious name used by an author to conceal his or her identity.

"Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights, and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation—and their ideas from suppression—at the hand of an intolerant society. The right to remain anonymous may be abused when it shields fraudulent conduct. But political speech by its nature will sometimes have unpalatable consequences, and, in general, our society accords greater weight to the value of free speech than to the dangers of its misuse."
~ Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens
McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Comm’n 514 U.S. 334, 357 (1995)

How to Remove Your Google Search History Before Google's New Privacy Policy Takes Effect?
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CIA Following Twitter And Facebook To Analyze Public Opinion, Predict Major Events?
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Theory: Could an agent of a foreign government, employed by one of the major social networking services, directly access the accounts of human rights activists in different countries? For example, Facebook uses both facial recognition and global positioning software. Theoretically, anonymous user data, obtained using these specific technologies, could be shared between foreign governments attempting to suppress internal political opposition. Also, employing these technologies could cut both political ways.

Hacked e-mails reveal Syrian spin used to defend crackdown?
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The more a conspiracy theory appears technically plausible,
the more likely that same theory becomes highly probable.
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SOPA & PIPA? "We are Devo"?

(█ ) ███ ██████ ██ ██ click "Share" ██ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██. This posted blog comment has been found in violation of H.R. 3261, S.O.P.A and has been removed.

Google Rallies Opposition to Anti-Piracy Bill Backed by Murdoch?
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Update:
SOPA + PIPA + Public Opinion = D.O.A.
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Five Seconds or LESS?

The amount of time folks spend visiting a BLOG. 

With the dramatic rise of Facebook, blogging itself has become an endangered art. While I've devoted countless hours posting various items on this small corner of cyberspace, realistically, it's rather doubtful this site will ever attract an active, worldwide following. So, why do I continue to BLOG? Well, it's FUN. That's it. No more, no less. I enjoy sharing my political ramblings and images of our world.

While my wife and I were still living in Beijing, I received an e-mail from a musician in California. Basically, he wanted permission to use one of my Wiki photos for his next album cover. I said sure go ahead...no charge.

His name is Sharif.

Here's the final version of the album cover itself, followed by a short poem this blogger wrote about memories along with a music video from Sharif's album Kisses and Lies.

There was a time, not long ago, 
when record covers were considered works of art...

There was a time, not long ago, 
when friends would sit around and listen to music together...

There was a time, not long ago, 
when people played stupid board games...

There was a time, not long ago, 
when families still shared the joys of laughter around the dinner table...

Some memories can never be downloaded...
Perhaps some ideas should never change.

No matter where the next road takes me,
I'll always remember that along the way,
It's not the place, but the people
who make us who we are.


The Facebook Effect [Kindle Edition]

Google+ the NEXT generation of Blogging?

Last month, I posted a comment regarding the need for Google to fully integrate Blogger with it's new + platform. Evidently, the techno-geeks at Google have already been kicking around this idea:

PC World
Users Can Now Replace Blogger Profile With Google+ Profile
October 24, 2011
by Juan Carlos Perez

"In the first integration between the Google+ social networking site and the Blogger blog publishing platform, users will be able to replace their Blogger profiles with their Google+ profiles, the company announced on Monday."
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...contrasting imagery...

Photo by Peter Rimar of an Iraqi Schoolgirl, Baghdad, Iraq (March 2005)

Anything you WRITE, LINK, LIKE or UPLOAD on Facebook or Twitter CAN & WILL be used against you in a court of law?

While I know it's a bit early, I've been contemplating my New Year's Resolution for 2012. On January 1st, this blogger will ATTEMPT to start speaking out of BOTH sides of my mouth along with releasing volumes of frivolous HOT AIR from the lower UNMENTIONABLE reaches of my body.


The Los Angeles Times
Alabama teacher allegedly mocks
special-ed students on Facebook
(October 17, 2011)
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"If at first you don't succeed..."

Jakarta, Indonesian (July 2009)

The Meaning of Life (DVD)

Visionary: February 24, 1955 ~ October 5, 2011

"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." ~ Steve Jobs

What's Tweeting You?

After two years of tracking over 500 million messages written by 2.4 million people in 84 countries, researchers at Cornell University have discovered that the cliché Tomorrow is a New Day starts shortly after a breakfast of Cheerios.




Evidently, a majority of people wake up happy, but as the day progresses, dealing with the reality of daily life takes its emotional toll. Then, right before folks prepare for bed, individual moods generally shift back into a positive gear.

On the surface, the research study itself appears rather benign. How people feel and when they feel it adds yet another mundane piece to that complex puzzle called the human condition. However, with the dramatic rise of social networking sites like Facebook, important privacy questions need to be raised regarding how personal digital information is being collected and analyzed.
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For 99.99% of human history, private correspondence between individuals took the form of an old-fashion, handwritten letter. At some point, the same level of privacy protection governing the international movement of snail mail needs to be extended to the internet.
Where is the line between collecting marketing data vs. reading private e-mails? 
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"I really believe that we don't have to make a trade-off between security and privacy. I think technology gives us the ability to have both." ~ John Poindexter

Nothing to Hide: The False Tradeoff between Privacy and Security (Hardcover)

The Pleasant Resort Community

In February 2008, my wife and I moved to China (PRC). Prior to getting on the airplane, I signed up for a month long TEFL course in Beijing. The goal was to learn something about the country and then find a job teaching English.

While I was attending the first week of class, my wife visited the local Public Security Bureau (PSB) to register our passports. Upon arrival, all foreigners living and working in China are required, by law, to register within 24 hours. Two days after reporting to the PSB, we became the target of government monitoring...

As I walked into the building where my TEFL course was being held, a man was standing in the center of the lobby. More than 100 people were standing in one of the four elevator lines. Everybody except this one lone man.

When I entered the elevator, after making direct eye contact, he brought his cell phone to his ear, smiled, then turned and exited the building. This whole sequence of events happened in a matter of seconds. From the look on his face and body language, it was evident he had been waiting for me to arrive for class.

After this brief encounter, for the next two months, this private American citizen was closely followed each and every day around the city.

Eventually, I developed this observational theory regarding Normal and Abnormal behavior. For anybody that's taken any sort of mass transportation in a developing Asian country, as a westerner, it's impossible not to notice the mad rush of people trying to get to the head of the line. 

Indeed, I cannot count the amount of times my wife and I were completely cut off and crushed by a large wave of humanity. My family knows that I HATE standing in line and places with extremely large crowds. I would rather let two or three subway trains pass, then allow myself to be packed inside a compartment like a human sardine. So, when a local didn't board the 2nd or 3rd train that passed thru a subway station, that individual was displaying abnormal social behavior. It rather easy to spot the people tasked with following this blogger.

One morning, as I stepped into a subway car, I noticed this oddly dressed young couple. He was wearing a poorly tailored black suite and the girl had on a K-Mart special looking evening dress. This pair looked completely out of place for the time of day.

In Beijing, each subway train runs roughly 30 compartments. Since each train has 3 doors, there are exactly 90 different possibilities to enter the train. During regular hours, the trains run approximately 1 min. and 50 sec. to 2 min. apart.




The next day, I boarded the train 30 minutes later than the previous morning. That means at least 13 different trains (with 390 compartments) had passed before I had walked into the station. When I entered the subway train, this same couple, wearing the exact same clothes, quickly moved from a forward compartment and stood next to me...
Coincidence?
This blogger remembers thinking to myself "this CCP couple really needs to buy some new clothes".

60 Minutes - Stealing America's Secrets (DVD)

To Facebook or NOT to Facebook?

It's ALL about choice. Up to this point, Facebook hasn't had any REAL social nutworking competition. There's a reason why the auto industry produces different vehicles. Consumers should DRIVE the internet marketplace.

Indeed, after the Goldman Sachs backroom investment deal with Mark Zuckerberg, a deal which left average Americans standing on the sidelines, I've been waiting for a dot-com to challenge the Jolly Green Billionaire. READ MORE...

China forbids Google+ Social Network?
In life, I've learned that most things usually happen for a reason.
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Why, IF Facebook is BLOCKED in the People's Republic of China, does the Chinese Communist Party want to buy Facebook?
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Broken Dragons: Crime and Corruption in Today's China (Paperback)

"Democracy is like a rice cooker. When too much pressure builds up inside, excess steam is released so the cooker (society) doesn't explode." ~ Self