Don't Feed The Trolls - Occupy Movement Edition

Oct 3rd, 2011

Some observations. For a large portion of this afternoon, comments under the #OccupyWallStreet thread on twitter were mostly coming from naysayers, challengers and some very rude trolls. The thing is, they all kept harping on how the Occupy movement needed to "go get a job." So... why were they the ones tweeting?

Hmm. Anyhoo, I kept seeing this charming fellow. He harped. He bitched. He moaned. And then? He tweeted this.

I couldn't resist. I had to ask.

Cue the internet's version knuckle-scraping spittle-dribble

Gosh. I had so many problems with that on grounds of reason and basic interpersonal skills that I couldn't stop laughing. I mean laughing. Like when you are a stoned teenager type-laughing. Before I could respond, he brought a "friend." Aww. Dig the avatar.

Again. Some questions cannot remain unasked.

Cue crickets... Alas, they have given me no more to work with.

In any event, don't try this at home.

Don't feed the trolls.

Online Gaming For A Better World

Sept 19th, 2011

It seems that the online gaming community has made an astounding contribution to the sciences. No, really. The nature of the program that was used represents a remarkable way to support complex research. The gamers essentially became virtual lab assistants in the fight against retro-viral threats.


Agence France-Press reports via Raw Story:

"Online gamers have achieved a feat beyond the realm of Second Life or Dungeons and Dragons: they have deciphered the structure of an enzyme of an AIDS-like virus that had thwarted scientists for a decade.

Quote Of The Day 2

June 10th, 2011

"The left and the right live in parallel universes. The right listens to talk radio, the left's on the Internet and they just reinforce one another. They have no sense of reality. I have now one ambition: to retire before it becomes essential to tweet."
-- Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) discussing modern communication in 2009

How The Internet Is Telling Us What We Want

May 3rd, 2011

Meet Eli Pariser of TED. The following is a presentation from a recent TED Talk in which he demonstrates how many of the sites we use most on the internet are editing what we see without our knowledge. In everything from search engines to social networks, algorithms are selecting out certain information based on past use in the name of "personalization." His examination of different Google Search results across multiple users during the Tahrir Square demonstrations is a bit chilling.