Crosswalk etiquette

I appreciate it when people run across a crosswalk instead of walk.  It’s like saying, “thanks for stopping, I know your time is important.”  It’s the little things that make me love strangers.

I missed the Palin drama.

Was it inappropriate for Levi to go on TV and discuss the intimate details of his estranged baby momma?  — Yes.

Was it inappropriate for him to neglect to tell the Palin family?  — Yes.

Was it innapropriate for a state Governor to go on record attacking the 19 year old Levi?  — YES.

Palin’s camp released the following statement,

“Bristol did not even know Levi was going on the show. We’re disappointed that Levi and his family, in a quest for fame, attention, and fortune, are engaging in flat-out lies, gross exaggeration, and even distortion of their relationship,”

Odd that if you take the second sentence and replace ‘Levi and his family’ with ‘Governor Palin’ and ‘their relationship’ with ‘her decisions as Governor’ it retains sense as it relates to her run for VP.

We’re disappointed that Governor Palin, in a quest for fame, attention, and fortune, is engaging in flat-out lies, gross exaggeration, and even distortion of her decisions as Governor.

Song a day Mann.

Have you heard about the song-a-day guy yet?  I love this guy.  He’s unemployed and to pass the time he started writing a song a day.  This is a great example of Generation Y’s creativity and ability to create media like it is second nature…probably because it is.  Between Twitter, Yelp, Facebook, You Tube, MySpace, blogs and everything else we use to create content my generation is creating exponentially more content than previous generations. This scares our parents and family members because they still worry about McCarthy-era big brothering.  This is going to be a ‘learn the hard way’ situation for most of us.  Although I recognize the dangers of broadcasting myself I refuse to let that scare me into completely censoring myself.  I hope that other Gen Y’rs do the same.  This guy is clearly, putting himself out there and most of his videos have a political edge.  Props Mann. 

Who to trust in a world or experts, pundits and bloggers?

The answer:  no one!  A study described in the NYT today, says that “expert” predictions, although they do have a slight impact on public opinion are no better than random guesses. The best part too is that the better name recognition with this expert, the more likely they were to be wrong!  Sigh…who can we trust nowadays.  Is Krugman wrong too!?

The expert on experts is Philip Tetlock, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. His 2005 book, “Expert Political Judgment,” is based on two decades of tracking some 82,000 predictions by 284 experts. The experts’ forecasts were tracked both on the subjects of their specialties and on subjects that they knew little about.

The result? The predictions of experts were, on average, only a tiny bit better than random guesses — the equivalent of a chimpanzee throwing darts at a board.

“It made virtually no difference whether participants had doctorates, whether they were economists, political scientists, journalists or historians, whether they had policy experience or access to classified information, or whether they had logged many or few years of experience,” Mr. Tetlock wrote.

Indeed, the only consistent predictor was fame — and it was an inverse relationship. The more famous experts did worse than unknown ones. That had to do with a fault in the media. Talent bookers for television shows and reporters tended to call up experts who provided strong, coherent points of view, who saw things in blacks and whites. People who shouted — like, yes, Jim Cramer!

Weed is the big issues even with 465,476 votes on 13,725 questions from 28,425 people.

Obama held an online forum today.  As if Leno, 60 minutes, his public press conference etc weren’t enough exposure already (I’m not complaining).  And these were the top questions from each category – taken from the Open for Questions forum at WhiteHouse.gov.  The most notable questions are from Financial Stability and Budget — both about marijuana legalization.  Hot topic right now.  A bill to legalize marijuana is coming up across state legislatures as well, like in Mass.  (Thanks for the heads up JS).

Some media outlets are saying that Norml pulled a fast one on the voting by rallying all their members.  Either way, the President brushed the question off with a grin and possibly some inner-monologue reminiscing.  His response was (USA Today),

“I don’t know what that says about the online audience,” the president says with chuckle.  “The answer is no, I don’t think that is a good strategy to grow our economy.”

You can watch the whole question session here.

Education:  “The Founding Fathers believed that there is no difference between a free society and an educated society. Our educational system, however, is woefully inadequate. How do you plan to restore education as a right and core cultural value in America?”

Home Ownership:  “President Obama: What benefits from the stimulus plan are there to those of us who are paying our mortgages, but living paycheck to paycheck?”

Health Care Reform:  “Why can we not have a universal health care system like many European countries, where people are treated based on needs, rather than financial resources?”

Veterans:  “The unemployment rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is higher than the national unemployment rate. Our veterans are a national treasure. How can you, the VA and I ensure our veterans are successfully transitioning into civilian life?”

Small Business:  “what specifically can the federal govt do to lower the cost of providing quality health coverage for small business owners”

Auto Industry:  “What steps are being taken to ensure that the auto industry uses the bailout money it gets responsibly, so that we don’t end up in this same situation in a few years?”

Retirement Security:  “Will you require Congress to pay into social security like the rest of us?”

Green Jobs and Energy:  “”Will you consider decriminalizing the recreational/medical use of marijuana(hemp) so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and a multi-billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?””

Financial Stability:  “Would you support the bill currently going through the California legislation to legalize and tax marijuana, boosting the economy and reducing drug cartel related violence?”

Jobs:  “What are your plans for the failing, “War on Drugs”, thats sucking money from tax payers and putting non-violent people in prison longer than the violent criminals?”

Budget:  “With over 1 out of 30 Americans controlled by the penal system, why not legalize, control, and tax marijuana to change the failed war on drugs into a money making, money saving boost to the economy? Do we really need that many victimless criminals?”

Were moustaches always this cool?

Guys love facial hair.  Most ladies do not.  But facial hair prevails all the same, especially lately.  In the last week alone I’ve read 5 or more articles about facial hair and its range of uses for marketing and publicity.  The themes range from its use to raise money for non-profits…

Whether waxed, curled, combed or crocheted, moustaches can be a way to impress or intimidate the people around you.  But growing facial hair can also be a way to raise money and awareness.  For 826 Boston — a nonprofit writing and tutoring program — they have taken advantage of the moustache craze to support their growing organization.

…to a bingo-esque game at a Harvard grad school, or the newly formed NYC Beard and Moustache Championships.

I bite.  Guys…what gives?  Why is growing facial hair that cool?  And if you think it is indeed that cool (or even if you don’t) , check out these sites.  American Mustache Institute, Moustache Me, Fake Moustache.

Guess who might be next in the moustache revolution?

Colbert / Steele rap…pimpest thing on TV in months.

Amazingness…worth the full watch.  

Barackotology

Have you seen Obama’s bracket?  Doesn’t reflect the risk taker streak that we’ve come to love.  Hello?  3 #1s and the obvious #2?  Way to out on a limb.  The AP agrees, the bracket was an ‘educated’ bracket.  I’d like to see a three-seed in his final 4, maybe the ‘Cuse?

Politico says that his full bracket will be released tomorrow at noon.  For now we just have to be happy knowing his final four: Louisville, Pitt, UNC, and Memphis.  I’ll be waiting with baited basketball breath to check it out tomorrow.  The guy who interviewed him, Katz, declined comment — keeping the seal of secrecy until Sportscenter tomorrow.

Facebook feeling the twueeze.

Facebook recently changed their homepage.  Hmm…some features coincidentally resemble Twitter.  For instance, instead of asking for your ‘status message’ I am… they are asking “What’s on your mind?”

You can also direct a “What’s on your mind?” message to anyone…kind of like @.

If I was Facebook I’d be scared too.  They had a lock on the market for a while.  MySpace was lame, and LinkedIn was professional.  Plus no one really respected friendster or any of the other borderline sites.  But now we are being inundated with online social networking.  Too much if you ask me.  Even if you don’t ever play Second Life, you might as well be.

PopURL, top of the line aggregator.

I just got my google reader to a happy place when I heard about this amazing page.  

The new web savvy thing (thanks Ben) is the aggregators of aggregators.  Reading blogs and newspapers is super time consuming.  But its become a way of life for many.  The only way to be really connected.  It is almost like what happened with email, at first they saved time.  Do they still?

An example of an aggregator of aggregators is kayak – its the best because it combines all the best airline flights.

a relatively late entrant into a market dominated by Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz. But Kayak decided to do to those sites what they had done to the individual airline sites. Kayak aggregates the aggregators, adding new layers of information to the basics of flight times. It’s all part of the miscellanizing of business as information escapes and joins up with more information. 

Aggregtating the aggregators, I feel a domino affect coming on.  Websites are just going to go the route of McDonald’s drinks…their large was big (like igoogle) but there is still one more size to add, supersize.

Laid off, woohoo!

Ok, my title might be kind of cruel given the dismal work climate.  But you’ve got to check out this site.  Its the new Stuff White People Like…but with a contemporary twist. 

It is called Stuff Unemployed People Like

I feel like I’ve lived in the Wal-Mart era, the Whole Foods era and now the Unemployed era.

Twitter as a search engine

Twitter Bird

As a new generation learns about Twitter it is important to think of Twitter as having a fluid definition.  Gen Y is super aware of the concept of a sexual identity spectrum, well Twitter also has an identity spectrum.  This is what I usually hear from people who don’t “get” Twitter.

‘Why do I care?  Ok, you’re having dinner now.  You’re stuck in traffic now. Boring.’

I understand the sentiment and I think it is kind of lame when my friends Tweet their every moment’s emotion and location.  But, after that stuck in traffic you might find a link to a modern interpretation of Descarte, or a new social media marketing platform idea.  Twitter is everything and nothing.  By choosing who you ‘follow’ you are deciding what kind of content you receive.   Choose just friends and be prepared for a lot of mundane comments.  Choose companies and be blasted by their propaganda…but choose a blogger who has something to say and you’ve got a lot of new original content coming your way.  I’m obviously partial to bloggers, but Twitter is used best when it is eveyrone’s personal search engine.  

I’m not the first to notice this.  Michael Arrington makes some great points,

 

At a dinner tonight with a friend the conversation turned toTwitter. He just didn’t get it, and he’s certainly not the first person to tell me that. Specifically, my friend didn’t understand the massive valuation ($250 million or more) that Twitter won in its recent funding. I told him why I thought it was more than justified: Twitter is, more than anything, a search engine.

I told him what I thought of Twitter as a micro-blogging service: it’s a collection of emotional grunts. But it’s wonderful nonetheless. And enough people are hooked on it that Twitter has reached critical mass. If something big is going on in the world, you can get information about it from Twitter.

Twitter also gathers other information, like people’s experiences with products and services as they interact with them.

Yelp, attacked again.

Again, I’m disappointed by the response of Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman.  The Yelp debate has reminded me that life isn’t about actual wrongdoing, it is the shadow of impropriety and then the subsequent full force denial that can get you into more trouble.   In general the only thing I think Yelp is doing inappropriately is failing to communicate what their angorithm process is.  Otherwise, I do not believe that Yelp does anything wrong, but I do believe that they are making some unethical decisions by refusing to explain themselves fully. They should take a play out or Craigslist’s book.  Check out their blog that fully explains what they do in terms of ‘erotic services.’   Case in point, a new group of outcries from business owners comes — this time from the Chicago Tribune.

The owner of More Cupcakes, Patty Rothman, said that last fall a Yelp Chicago staffer walked into her Gold Coast shop and “guaranteed us good reviews on the site if we catered one of their parties for free.” Offended but resigned, Rothman complied. And just as promised, positive reviews bloomed for the business right after the party, Rothman said.

The phenomenon of catering a Yelp Elite event and then getting tons of good reviews does happen.  The sales people know this and obviously use it to their advantage.   I mean, it is pretty hard to not review a place positively after they gave you something for free.  But everything we do in life has an Ayn Rand esque tendency about it — we go because we get free stuff, the restaurant gives us free stuff to show off and hopefully develop some street cred.  Pretty easy quid pro quo and not at all unethical.  I recently went to a wine tasting at a wine store that I wouldn’t normally have checked out last week for a Yelp Elite event, it turned out to be a great store.  The staff was knowledgeable and the alcohol reasonably priced, so ya I’ll write a good review about them.  That is what Yelpers do.  But when you read the above blurb, it sounds like Yelp is being completely unethical.  The CEO really needs to work on his PR.  People don’t know how Yelp works and they just want to know — minus all the algorithm talk.

Another Yelp phenomenon mentioned is this new article is the business owner email.  I personally don’t really want to hear from a business owner and at times am afraid to write a bad review because I assume I’ll be contacted.  But, I am writing in a public forum and therefore don’t complain about it unless a business owner is really rude — then I think that person should be banned from Yelp.  I guess that happened to one such business owner.

But as the Tribune learned during a chefs round table last summer, citizen Internet review sites have proved mixed blessings to many merchants. These sites, they say, can be sources of praise and constructive criticism but also vicious attacks.

Consequently, many, especially restaurateurs, have developed a strained relationship with the site and its Yelpers. Chicago chef Graham Elliot Bowles is one of them. He says he has had his “account removed” for personally contacting those whom he felt posted reviews that were “baseless, lacking in truth or intentionally hurtful.”

Another reality TV show ruined

Ignorance isn’t bliss in my book, except when we’re talking about reality TV.  So many shows that had that feel-good vibe have gone down the tubes lately.

Man vs. Wild — shot because Bear got caught staying in a hotel.  Now all he does is eat animals because at least we know he’s not just pretending to eat them.  But if I wanted to watch a guy eating weird food I’d watch that crappy Food network show.

Little People, Big World — donzo after Matt, the little person Dad, got caught drunk driving.  Not cool.

And the latest incident?  Perez is letting us know that supposedly Jon from Jon and Kate Plus 8 is going to college parties, flirting with the volleyball team and thinking of getting a divorce from Kate.  He quotes some girl as saying,

“He walked in with two girls he met at Mimi’s bar,” senior Evan Heisman tells In Touch. “It was so cool.” According to witnesses, Jon played beer pong with some girls on the volleyball team and then joined a group of students who headed to Memories bar for a nightcap. “We were talking and chilling,” reveals Heisman. Jon returned to Memories the next evening. “He was obliterated,” says Pott. “Juniata girls were flirting with him and he was loving it and having a great time.” “We might be getting a divorce,” Chloe Pott, a junior at Juniata College, heard Jon tell her friend at Memories bar on February 7.

Oh no!  I can’t handle it anymore.  I think I should just stick to movies nowadays.  

The only good reality show left for me is Millionaire Matchmaker.  Hope it doesn’t turn out they are orchestrating some huge underage sex ring or something gross like that.

Don’t pick on Craigslist

Craislist really amazes me.  Mr. Craig Newmark did something really groundbreaking, and I’m not talking about Craigslist.  I’m talking about no banner ads — that is loco!  From the one and only, wikipedia…

Newmark says that Craigslist works because it gives people a voice, a sense of community trust and even intimacy. Other factors he cites are consistency of down-to-earth values, customer service and simplicity. After first being approached about running banner ads, Newmark decided to keep Craigslist non-commercial.

I respect the morals of Mr. Craig so much that I hope this lawsuit business dies down quickly.  The Globe reports,

Cook County’s sheriff filed a federal lawsuit against Craigslist on Thursday, saying the popular online classifieds site promotes and facilitates prostitution on a massive scale.

Sheriff Tom Dart wants Craigslist to eliminate its “erotic services” section, suggesting that many of the section’s ads are blatant solicitations for prostitution.

This is a total waste of time.  Do prostitutes use Craigslist?  Definitely.  Would they find some other way to get to their customer otherwise?  Definitely.  Prostitution is the oldest occupation in the world.  What we should be doing is working to unionize and legalize prostitution so women (and men) can have rights when they feel the need, or want to put themselves in such a vulnerable position.  In my opinion we shouldn’t look down upon any prostitutes, whether they want to be doing it or not, they’ve made that decision and as a society we have to understand that it was their decision and should try to support them through ‘workplace policies.’