Assimilated By Facebook – Is Resistance Futile?
[ 4 Comments ]Posted on February 24, 2011 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
I would have never discovered the disturbing similarities between Facebook and the Borg if I hadn’t tried to escape “the collective”.
Have you been assimilated yet? You may not have even noticed it happening. Do you have shadowy memories of a previous life in which you didn’t check Facebook every morning when you woke up? When you didn’t think in status posts, putting yourself in the second person to construct clever phrases like “John or Jane Doe is [insert comment-baiting one-liner]? When you didn’t feel vulnerable and afraid when the hive mind was not humming around you sharing their thoughts in a constant stream intermingled with your own? My little joking analogy here isn’t so far off base. We’ve asked before if the internet is actually a giant flesh-eating robot, but we think it may be worse. Facebook may actually be controlled by the Borg. If you’re a normal human, with your life firmly rooted in the real world, you will have no idea what I’m talking about. But if you’re a person who spends a fair amount of time on the web, you have almost certainly at some point found yourself – and perhaps still are – spending an awful lot of time interacting with Facebook. Early on, we would wonder to ourselves: “am I weird? Am I the only person who feels like some kind of Facebook addict? Personally, when I validated this feeling with my friends who pondered the same question, it only made me feel like they were weird too; it didn’t provide much comfort. But the results are in, so we can stop second-guessing ourselves. Yes, it’s a problem. We now know that a third of women 18-34 check Facebook when they first wake up, even before they go to the bathroom . We know that serious addiction sites label it a problem, as do PhD Psychologists. As far as I’m concerned, this is a moot point. What concerns me is the fact that Facebook bears such a disturbing resemblance to the Borg, and there may be NO WAY to escape the collective. Recently I thought I’d at least give Facebook a rest, but still found myself unconsciously logging on, to find that nothing new of interest awaited me – the same banal stream of commentary, the same pleas to support liberal or conservative causes from my friends. And nobody commenting on my crap. That’s the killer. When the little red number is low, and only indicates comments on other people’s stuff. How depressing. So why the hell was I reflexively logging in for more letdowns? Probably because I’m a Faceborg Drone, that’s why. I thought to myself “Wow, I think I’m going to have to actually de-activate my account for a few days, and go back when I feel more rational about the whole thing“. But no-OO-oo. Facebook tried to scare me with images of the fellow drones I’d be abandoning, and actually wouldn’t LET me de-activate unless I assigned another person (who is on Facebook) to manage a couple of apps or pages connected to my account. DIRTY TRICK, Facebook. But I expect nothing less from what I now know is an alien collective that intends to “add my biological and technological distinctiveness to its own“. Below are examples of how Facebook is like the Borg, and how hard they make it to escape the hive. More soon, I have to go share this piece on Facebook now. Read the rest of this entry »
Is Governor Rick Snyder Planning To Sell Michigan To Taiwan Like He Did Gateway?
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on February 23, 2011 by admin in Politics
If so, he might want to reconsider his ill-conceived plan to destroy its film industry. It’s one of Michigan’s greatest assets at the moment. And by the way, why isn’t he on Dickipedia?
 Can Rick Snyder do the same amazing things for Michigan that he did for Gateway? |
We already jokingly offered Michigan’s new governor some suggestions for turning things around in the state; we were trying to be a little positive about having a pro-business, Republican governor. But we didn’t mention the film industry in Michigan, because WE DIDN’T THINK HE’D BE SO GODDAMN STUPID as to try to kill it. Oops. Did I raise my voice? Sorry. What is wrong with this guy’s brain? How could he not get this? As a Michigan resident, I can say with confidence that the business brought to the state by offering incentives to the film industry has been the greatest thing happening here in decades. It’s easy to debate the industry’s real impact on the state’s economy – pieces like this one gleefully focus on negative anecdotal information to paint a negative picture, while articles like this Detroit News piece paint a much more positive picture (with actual numbers and facts, by the way). But one thing you CAN’T debate has to do with two equally important factors; things that aren’t about short term financial results, and that you can’t plot on a graph. Sentiment, and opportunity. I’ve lived in this state most of my life; I saw the 70′s labor exodus as a child, I’ve watched the ups and downs of the auto industry from sellout to bailout, and I can tell you that I have NEVER in all those years seen the kind of excitement, passion, and inspiration for business and entrepreneurship I’ve seen since the state opened its doors to the film industry with incentives. I’ve worked in film myself, and have a lot of friends much more inside the business, and one thing I’ve heard repeatedly over the years is that the west coast base of the business LOVES hiring midwesterners. Why? Because of their work ethic. If there’s one thing Michiganders have, it’s an understanding of a hard day’s work, and film work, as we all know, calls for marathon hours. What better marriage could you imagine? I could go on about this forever, and yes, it would all be anecdotal. But I’m astounded by Rick Snyder’s failure to recognize the incredible opportunities for Michigan’s future here, and instead focus on short term budget wrangling. But I guess I shouldn’t be. This is perhaps similar to his strategy in his role as custodial CEO of the Gateway computer company, which was eventually sold to Taiwan’s Acer. But only after the company outsourced half of the jobs it provided stateside anyway. Is this your plan for Michigan, Mr. Snyder? Not if the people have their way. There are plenty of campaigns afoot to show your support for Michigan film, and more forming daily. I’m personally a “take it to the streets” kind of guy, so I like Michigan Film First’s plan for a rally March 3 . Got a suggestion for how to show support? Feel free to share it as a comment.
Don’t Worry, BP Happy!
[ Comments Off ]Posted on February 22, 2011 by admin in Clean & Green
Solar Power? Plastic Bags? The Oil In The Gulf? A roundup of clean and green topics you don’t have to be worried about, or already aren’t.
One of the hardest things about being an environmental activist must be keeping up with whatever it is that you’re supposed to be being active about. First the world’s heating up. Then it’s not. Then it is again. And now, after several years of alarm about the perils of plastic bags – at least a dozen countries have banned them outright according to the single serving site called which countries have banned plastic bags.blogspot.com – the UK environment agency has some pending report saying they’re not so bad after all. Their report focuses on carbon footprint issues though, and curiously overlooks other key issues. One of which is that we use at least a half billion of the things a year, and they have a predicted lifespan of (at the very minimum) a couple hundred years. Another of which is that in many countries the issue is as much related to health or simple aesthetics. When I was in Kenya a few years ago for instance, you could always tell when you were nearing a town, because the plastic bag litter density seemed to increase proportionately with your distance from the town center. So would you like paper, or plastic? Well, you’ll have more time to ponder that now, because according to Ray Kurzweil, you also no longer have to worry about solar energy progress. We’ll be all set in twenty years. Which is good, because in the same article, he also says we’re gonna live forever. And forever is long enough to watch a lot of flip-flops on oil spill concerns. Because you know that Deepwater spill you stopped worrying about? You can start again. About the only positive turnabout recently was on pharmaceuticals in the water supply. No, the problem hasn’t gone away, but now at least it’s okay if there’s Ecstasy in it. Maybe it’s time someone raised a stink about that whole methane assprint of cow farts thing again. It’s been a while.
What The Hell IS Presidents Day, Anyway?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on February 21, 2011 by admin in Holidays
There seems to be a lot of confusion around what Presidents Day is actually celebrating. We’re here with the facts, and links to OTHER facts, if you don’t like ours. And by the way, Sarah Palin would make one mother of a founding father, don’t you think?
 Sarah Palin would make one mother of a founding father, don’tcha think? |
It’s interesting that Presidents Day, in spite of indicating a plurality, only specifically acknowledges one president, i.e. George Washington. To add to the fun, please note that the Uniform Monday Holiday Act did not officially call Washington’s birthday “Presidents Day”, it just placed the official holiday between February 15 and 21, which means it never actually falls on his birthday! In spite of these easily researched facts, the holiday is often inaccurately described in the mainstream, multi-million dollar a year press as a combined celebration of Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthday, as in this AOL piece. But that’s okay. As George himself said: “If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter”. And in this case AOL is only leading us dumb and silent to ignorance, not slaughter or anything. And ignorance is pretty hip these days. Especially when it comes to George Washington and the other founding fathers, who have sort of become the idealized heroes of the teabaggers and Sarah Palin. A phenomena that this USFCA piece observes is probably because they imagine that the founding fathers were “a composite of Atticus Finch, John the Baptist, and Ronald Reagan”. Let’s be clear though, Sarah isn’t partial to George or anything; much like newspapers and magazines, when it comes to founding fathers, she likes “all of ‘em”. Bill Maher gets a little harsher on this topic in the clip below. Enjoy, and Happy Presidents Day! Read the rest of this entry »
Great Songs With Nonsense Or Gibberish Lyrics
[ Comments Off ]Posted on February 20, 2011 by admin in Music
It’s a fine line between nonsense and gibberish, especially when you insist on Mondegreening everything songwriters are saying. And mispelling “Lambs eat oats” doesn’t count either.
 Eep Opp Ork Ah-Ah is not actual gibberish; Jet Screamer provides a translation right in the song. |
One of my favorite pop songs ever was Kidney Bingos
