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Sep
01

Obama’s Speech from August 31st – Now Wordled!

My favourite online tool = Wordle. It really is. Perhaps there are many better things I am missing out on, but this nifty site provides an interesting look (sometimes) at the words emphasized in a speech, or article or what ever you desire. When viewing it as a wordle, you get to see the frequency certain words are used, giving an idea of what was on their mind when they wrote it – not just the message they are saying, but the message they want to imply.

So here is Obama’s speech from August 31, 2010 on the end of the Iraq war. If you would like to read the transcript, you can find it here. This speech seems cold, but one of filling your duties; doing what is responsible. One quick note of about something that I noticed off the bat was how “women” was pretty easy to find, but “men” took forever (near the bottom and smaller.) In the transcript, Obama says “women” five times and “men” only three. For the folks out there that are oddly worried that Obama is Muslim, rest to sure that while “god” doesn’t appear in this wordle, he does say it twice; no mention of allah.

Here is George W. Bush’s speech on the Victory of Iraq war way back in 2003. He really like polarizing his words. “Terrorists!” “Freedom!” “Military!” “Liberty!” Also doens’t look very victorious when frequency of words are taken into account (transcript here.) Read the rest of this entry »

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Aug
31

Psst.. You might be an atheist!

Recently I came across this article called “An Agnostic Manifesto: At least we know what we don’t know.” and it made me realize that there are just not enough articles, videos, dictionaries, or blogs on the internet yet explaining what agnostic means and what atheist means. By not knowing what these terms mean, the arguments the author makes (as like others who don’t know the definitions) are based on numerous faulty assumptions.

Lets start at the basics: the definitions of agnostic, atheist and their antonyms, gnostic and theist, respectively. From the Oxford Dictionary:

Theist – belief in the existence of a god or gods, specifically of a creator who intervenes in the universe.
Atheist – a person who does not believe in the existence of God or gods
Agnostic – a person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God
Gnostic – relating to knowledge, especially esoteric mystical knowledge

In summary, theism/atheism deals with holding a belief (positive or negative) and Gnostic/agnostic deals with holding knowledge in such a belief. A theist believes there is a god and an atheist disbelieves. An gnostic KNOWS their belief is true (thinks they can prove it) and agnostic doesn’t. Any person holds a position in both belief and knowledge of that belief. So… Read the rest of this entry »

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Aug
30

Twitter: Be careful on what you click


I didn’t think much about clicking on tiny urls in tweets. Hey, they are pretty convenient, right? But these tiny urls can also be used to hide the site it is sending you to.

Recently, I started to follow back a new follower on my twitter account . They were pretty new to twitter so I thought I would give them a shot. Shortly after, this twitterer (tweeter? twit?) sent me the following direct message:

Hello, engaging foto you have there. So tell me, why r u following @nprpolitics? ;)

‘Okay’ I thought..’ This isn’t really something that would merit a private message, but hey, this person is new to twitter’, so I responded – all in less than 140 characters:

Tks! I follow NPR bc they don’t over tweet like FOX, CNN, MSNBC etc. But I still get some pol. news that I wouldn’t normally come across.

That whole 140 character thing is both a blessing and a crutch.  It forces you to be concise in your communication, but also removes opportunity for better explanations, as my tweet above wasn’t the exact reason, but the shortest one of many I could think of (hey if “I” sent a direct message to someone asking why they are following a site, it probably means I’m really interested in knowing why.)

The next day I received the following 3 direct messages:

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Aug
27

Mississippi School: To Run for President – Must be White

When I first came across this story on Gawker, I had to check the calendar, but nope, I did not travel through time; it is still 2010.

As first reported on Mixed and Happy, the Nettleton School District has a policy that requires them to restrict certain positions in student elections by two races: black or white. So if you are a black student and want to run for president, you can’t. In some grades, if you are a white student you can’t run for other positions that have been designated for only “black students”, depending on what grade. If you are East Asian, South Asian, Aboriginal, Metis, Saami, or anything else that doesn’t fit in the two designated categories of “black” or “white” need not apply. If you are mixed, the school looks at the race of your mother (I wonder what they would do if the mother is mixed as well?).

Click on image for larger version.
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Aug
26

How Goldline Works and Why it is Seen as a Scam

If you’ve watched Glenn Beck you know about Goldline. Goldline is one of Glenn Beck’s sponsors. They make money when you buy their product (as most companies, of course). Glenn Beck pushes you to buy gold through his attempts to scare you and imply that gold is the only way to ensure your money is safe.  Beck then recommends Goldline or you see commercials for Goldline, where Goldline hopes you call them first out of convenience, or out of trusting Glenn Beck’s recommendation.

Sure, gold is a good investment – as bullion, but that isn’t what Goldline tries to sell you. Due to their business practices, Goldine is currently under investigation together by the Santa Monica City Attorney’s office and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, and in a separate investigation by Congress.

Thanks to The Big Picture and Jess Bachman, here is a graphic chart that provides an excellent summary of how Goldline works and provides some background as to why they are under investigation
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Dec
14

Marcia White Ruins Dexter Finale for Millions

Must be REAL fun at parties.

Must be REAL fun at parties.

Dear Marcia White,

Thank you for posting the ‘game-changing’, jaw-dropping ending in the title of your blog article thus ruining the surprise ending for millions of viewers across the world (yes, there are people outside of your timezone that watches Dexter AND uses the internets.)

What a cunt. Seriously.

When she posted her blog at “Le High Valley Live” (aka Express Times), the season finale was only a half hour through in Canada, hadn’t even started to air in the UK – not to mention other countries it will air it in the future –  and folks (including those in Marcia’s timezone) who DVR it, buy the DVDs, or watch it On –Demand with the whole family.

Even people that were just searching for “Dexter” in general got stung by this spoiler. (This also applies to folks search regular Google for ‘dexter’ and ‘rita’.)

ScreenShoof spoiler

not cool, Marcia. Not cool.


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Sep
11

When does this man work?

Seriously.

Two speeches this week – one to children, one to the nation – and another speech on Monday to Wall Street. On top of it all, he is still doing his weekly address online every Saturday morning. (I wonder when he films these and if he does more than one at a time or if the camera is just there for whenever he is in the ‘mood’.)

Awesome pic of the Pres

Awesome pic of the Pres

Looking at that site further, apparently this guy gives like 9000 speeches a day. When does he have time to do his job? I respect the whole importance in communication thing and for the most part would encourage it, but isn’t this volume just a tad time-consuming?

Is it normal for the US President to communicate this much? I honestly don’t recall seeing any past US Presidents on my television this frequently. Am I being ignorant?

Awesome pic of the PM

Awesome pic of the PM - note the fireplace

In comparison, I believe the last time the Canadian Prime Minister addressed the nation was in December 2008. It was a pretty important deal about the potential collapse/take-over of our government, and even then his speech was only around 4 minutes long AND it was televised at 7 pm, as to not disrupt primetime shows.

Short, to the point, and considerate of our regularly scheduled programming and viewing habits (and the networks sensitivity to potential loss of advertising dollars.) Plus, it was filmed in a wooden room and began in a way that was like we just walked into his wooden office and interupted him from reading. All that was missing was a crackling fire in the corner and him wearing a cardigan.

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Sep
09

Glenn Beck’s Handlers frantically try to Scrub Clean Evidence

In the wake of the controversy over the allegations of whether Glenn Beck raped and murdered a girl in 1990, Glenn Beck and his handlers are in the process of trying to shut down people’s first amendment rights and freedom to search for the truth. Certainly does not sound like someone who claims to “love” his country.

While no one is saying that Beck did commit these atrocious crimes, more questions have been raised with his continued silence while his handler’s claim that the site in question should be closed. In the complaint sent, it notes:

“The Domain Name gleenbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com fully incorporates and is confusingly similar to trademarks in which Complainants [Glenn Beck and Mercury Radio Inc.] own rights …” (emphasis added)

Confusingly similar? I’m not saying that there is any truth to this rumour, but it does make you wonder why Glenn Beck would claim to have any “similarities” to it, unless there was any truth to it.

On Glenn Beck’s show on September 8th, short of admitting or rejecting these allegations – as any America-loving-person who did not rape or murder a girl in 1990 would obviously do – Beck informed his viewer that he used to experience blackouts, thereby keeping open the possibility that he did rape and murder a girl in 1990 . No one is claiming to have all the facts. All we are doing is asking questions. Sadly, if with this in mind maybe even Glenn Beck will never know the truth.

“by the end of this week people will go t o jail” – Glenn Beck on Fox & Friends September 8, 2009

“by the end of this week people will go to jail” – Glenn Beck on Fox & Friends September 8, 2009

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