Recently, the people at The Good Book switched me to the website's new format. I reacted accordingly. Facebook is making it harder and harder for users to hide certain things. Namely, the inability for users to edit their News Feed or the notifications that appear on their walls. I don't want to know EVERYTHING that my friends are doing nor do I want everyone to know what I am doing. I applaud the Facebook staff for creating an exceptional website that allows me to connect and reconnect with my friends. I trust that they will take heed to the venomous petitions that are floating around and make the necessary changes to the privacy settings.
A dating site that markets itself as an elite community for beautiful people with a "strict ban on ugly people" has axed about 5,000 members for packing on the pounds during the holiday season. The international site BeautifulPeople.com threw out members after they posted photos "revealing that they have let themselves go," according to a company statement.
"As a business, we mourn the loss of any member, but the fact remains that our members demand the high standard of beauty be upheld," said Robert Hintze, founder of BeautifulPeople.com. "Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded."
This story is hilarious in an "are you serious" type of way. I have written my thoughts on society's "skinny is sexy" obsession on more than one occasion. I just couldn't resist commenting on the huge set of cajones BeautifulPeople.com has for publicly removing "overweight" people from their website. I am 99% sure that the mass removal is a publicity stunt. I hadn't heard of this website prior to reading about it a few days ago. I don't believe the "all publicity is good publicity" philosophy, but apparently I am in the minority. Honestly, I don't think anyone who is truly looking for love and companionship would want to join this website. We all have preferences, but losing your attraction to someone because they gained some holiday weight is pretty shallow. At least give them a few weeks to hit the gym...
The news came as Facebook achieved the goal to be "cash flow positive" in the last quarter, ahead of its 2010 target.
"This is important to us because it sets Facebook up to be a strong independent service for the long term," Zuckerberg said in his blog.
Zuckerberg said in building new and better things, Facebook's developers face important challenges that require rethinking the current systems for enabling information flow across the web. Facebook claims that its users in 180 countries spend a total of six billion minutes on its social networking site every day and that 40 million update their status at least once a day.
Despite this success, Facebook is coming under increasing competition from micro-blogging site Twitter.
I joined some social networking websites, College Club and Black Planet, as an undergrad and I had some bad experiences. Consequently, I was apprehensive about joining Facebook when I became aware of its existence. I eventually joined Facebook because I realized that my previous experiences on social networking sites were caused by my idiocy. I'm not going to expound upon that realization so don't ask me any questions. It's water under the bridge at this point...
I check Facebook a couple of times everyday. It gives me the opportunity to connect with people, wish folk happy birthday, play Scrabble, and a number of other things. I wouldn't go insane if Facebook was to cease its operations, but I would probably be sad for a few days. Staying in contact with your friends as an adult can be pretty difficult. Without Facebook, I would probably lose contact with 80% of the friends I have gained over the years. It seems like people naturally grow apart as they age and move away from each other. Facebook does a good job of keeping friends connected. I'm glad that it is finally turning a profit and I hope the site will continue to improve.
China accused Google Inc. on Thursday of spreading pornography after Chinese users were unable to connect to the search giant's Web site, while Washington called on Beijing to scrap its order for personal computers to be equipped with Internet-filtering software.
"We have found that the English version of google.com has spread lots of pornographic, lewd and vulgar content, which is in serious violation of Chinese laws and regulations," said foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang at a news briefing. He said authorities summoned Google representatives and told them to "remove the material immediately."
Chinese Internet users were unable to connect to Google's main search site or its China-based service, google.cn, beginning Wednesday evening. Qin did not respond to questions about whether the government was responsible for the outage. But he said he hoped the problem can be "resolved immediately."
The Chinese government has given me a couple of good laughs over the years. The level of oppression over there is so widespread at times that I have to laugh to keep from getting angry. Don't get me wrong, I know the United States government pulls more than its fair share of shenanigans. The US government, however, still protects the vast majority of the freedoms afforded to its voters by the Constitution. Anyway, the Chinese government really needs to chill out. Google doesn't even house the porn. It simply indexes websites. Moreover, there is an infinite amount of easily accessible porn on the Internet. With or without Google, Chinese citizens will be able to get truck loads of porn.
T.I. has a song called "Porn Star" that glorifies his alleged porn star lifestyle. It's not my favorite song on the Paper Trail album, but it fits this story well.
Hey, I been watchin' you a while now And I just wanna find a way to make you smile now Why you blushing, forget about them other guys now I know you ain't gon' try and tell me that you shy now I realize that you're beauty could intimidate Them suckers you ain't got no business wit them anyway
A replay of the nation's only file-sharing case to go to trial has ended with the same result — a Minnesota woman was found to have violated music copyrights and must pay huge damages to the recording industry. A federal jury ruled Thursday that Jammie Thomas-Rasset willfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs, and awarded recording companies $1.92 million, or $80,000 per song.
Thomas-Rasset's second trial actually turned out worse for her. When a different federal jury heard her case in 2007, it hit Thomas-Rasset with a $222,000 judgment. The new trial was ordered after the judge in the case decided he had erred in giving jury instructions.
"There's no way they're ever going to get that," said Thomas-Rasset, a 32-year-old mother of four from the central Minnesota city of Brainerd. "I'm a mom, limited means, so I'm not going to worry about it now."
This ruling is more symbolic than anything. It's pretty clear that this woman doesn't make enough money to pay back the recording companies. I understand why record companies are suing people who download music illegally. Those companies spend millions of dollars to promote their artists. When people download music illegally, record companies and musical artists usually end up in the red. This doesn't mean the record companies aren't at fault. Most of them distribute music that is absolutely horrible. I can only think of 3 or 4 albums that have been released in the last 2 years that were actually worth the money. In the past, record labels would profit immensely from an album released by a one hit wonder. Nowadays, people will download a single from iTunes or simply pirate it from Limewire. I think more people would buy music legally if the quality of the music improved.
I enjoy walking into the music section of a store and buying albums. Unfortunately, I haven't been making many purchases because most of the music these days sucks. Illegal downloading isn't cool, but I understand why some people do it.
Weird Al Yankovic has a song called "Don't Download This Song" that puts a comedic spin on this issue. I think you all will enjoy it.
Once in a while
Maybe you will feel the urge To break international copyright law By downloading MP3s From file sharing sites Like Morphous or Grokster or Limewire or Kazza
The Webby Awards are given to people who have demonstrated excellence on the Internet. Established in 1996 during the Web's infancy, the Webbys are presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a 550-member body of leading Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities. The 13th Annual Webby Awards expands the mission of the Webby by honoring excellence in over 100+ Website, Interactive Advertising, Online Film & Video, and Mobile Web categories.
The video above is entitled "Bill O'Reilly's Producer" and it won a Webby in the Video Remixes/Mashups category. This spoof is even more hilarious than the original Bill O'Reilly tirade. I'm glad this award show is in existence. There are a lot of creative people on the Internet that deserve recognition. The strong celebrity presence at this event surprised me. The cynical side of me believes that most of the celebs in attendance are publicity whores. Their undying desire for attention doesn't bother me in this case because their presence brings more attention to the Webbys.
When I heard there was an award show called the Webbys, I thought the rapper named Webbie was honoring people. I'm glad I was wrong. I'm going to post a song by the Baton Rogue native anyway. Just for laughs...
You know you want it
Girl don't act like you don't want it Girl I want it just as bad as you do
The Maxim Hot 100 results are in and this year, the magazine has given nods to the beautiful ladies of the runway, reality TV and even a resident of the White House. But the top spot went to a beauty from a different kind of “House.” The Fox medical drama’s Olivia Wilde snagged the top spot for 2009. Sliding in at number two is “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” co-star Megan Fox.
Michelle Obama is the only first lady to ever be named one of Maxim’s hottest women, debuting at number 93.
“(President Obama) may be dealing with two wars, an economic meltdown, and a rapidly graying dome, but at least our commander in chief gets to come home to the hottest first lady in the history of these United States,” the mag said.
As a youth, a list like this would have bothered me because only a few of the women I find attractive are on it. Where is Melyssa Ford? Why is Beyonce #52? I had to use Google to find out information on Olivia Wilde? She is a moderately attractive woman, but there is no way in hell she should be number #1. Sanaa Lathan was at the Maxim Hot 100 party as a guest of Gabrielle Union, who was #71, and she didn't even make the list. Her absence from the list pretty much invalidates it in my eyes.
My adult side realizes that Black males are not Maxim's target demographic. Maxim is doing what it has to do to stay relevant and make ends meet. There is only one magazine that shares my view of beauty and it folded a few months ago. King will be missed. I am a big fan of women who make "The Men All Pause." Klymaxx knows what I'm talking about.
Don't you know the men all pause When I walked into the room The men all pause The men all pause And the brides held their grooms The men all pause
The founder of Craigslist does not plan to close the "erotic services" section of the website despite criticism that has intensified after a medical student was accused of killing a Boston masseuse who advertised there. Craig Newmark contends his site already allows users to flag inappropriate material they believe should be removed. "Sometimes a bad guy of some sort tries to pull a fast one on our site," he said in an interview that aired Friday night on ABC News. "We don't want it there, it's wrong, and that's why we have the help of the general community and the law enforcement community getting rid of things like that." Newmark's comments defied a request by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who asked Craigslist to immediately eliminate photographs in the "erotic services" section, hire staff to screen images and ads that violate the site's terms of service and fine users who violate those terms.
Craig and his list are catching a lot of heat these days. The Craigslist killer story seems to be affecting people on a personal level. Hundreds of murders happen everyday and most of them don't get any media coverage. This story is more compelling than others because the murderer took an unconventional path to get to his victim. People use Craigslist everyday to search for apartments, sell furniture, find graphic designers, and a host of other things. I'm pretty sure that the majority of these people do not think about the safety risks associated with online transactions. Nowadays, one really cannot afford to be that care free. The young lady who was murdered may have known these risks and its possible that she tried her best to fight off her killer. Even if she was an unsuspecting victim, her death is really a tragedy.
The people that want Craig to eliminate the "erotic services" section mean well, but their anger is misguided. I think the website is doing a relatively good job of thwarting criminals. If the "erotic services" section is removed, those who break the law will find another way to get to their victims. The stigma attached to erotic services probably contributes to the public's outrage. People opposed to those services need to get over themselves. We all have to do what we have to do to get by these days. This story reminded me of Devin the Dude's "Do What You Wanna Do". Craig can run his site however he wants and people have the right to complain about it.
Hallelujah can tell this
Devin's got some shit wouldn't give a fuck if you dissed Because shit to each's own and each owns voice You can be stealin killin or chillen whateva your choice Smoke some weed smoke ya pipe fuck it Life if how you live it I grab the mic while the DJ groove it
