STEAM MACHINE

“Who would want to see what I am doing all day?! What would I Twitter?  -Hey the burger I got at Mcdonalds was a bit soggy, I think they should rethink the process?-”  

The above is a common perception of what you would say if you caught onto the ‘Twitter’ craze.  I know that’s what I thought when I first signed up.  My brother is actually the one who pushed me on and I am glad he did.  At first, I started out saying things like “Time to go to work”.  Most likely the blandest, dullest statement anyone would ever want to read or be reminded about.  

After some searching around and sifting through equally dull statements from people “that just didn’t get it”, I came upon some treasures.  My first Twitter love was the ‘TedFeed’.  TED is a website that hosts many of the intellectual thinkers for our time.  It’s like the best YouTube for the most curious people.  I don’t know if it’s good to say this or not, but I try to watch one TED video every night before I go to bed.  It keeps things jumbling around in the noggin.   Now that I was following the TEDFEED, I could get updates on new lectures posted to the site which in turn satisfied my hunger for input (thx johny 5).

That is a quick example of how you can use Twitter to create your own streams of information that you are interested in that isn’t edited by big publications.  Think of it as a big group of friends getting together and eventually everyone huddles into groups that they are the most interested in and think they can get the most out of.  Even if you are not totally interested on talking to one particular person in your ‘huddle’, you still want to over hear their conversations just in case something comes up that is useful to you.  

If I wrote that analogy well enough and you could follow, that is what makes Twitter so powerful.  I do not agree with critics who say that Twitter is just an evolution of the degradation of our language and how it is used to express ideas.

Google is helping internet expand into poverty-stricken Africa using O3b Networks (Other 3 Billion w/o internet, serious) Article 
Many people like Google, many hate Google.  Usually it stems from core beliefs such as the one I am about to lay on you.  I think this is a perfect example of capitalist free-market anthropology where the alpha companies use there above normal profit to do some good.  Now come the cynics who say its for Google’s self-interest though, “the more users, the more revenue for countless ad apps”.  Of course it is, but the greater development opportunities for these people who have this technology far outweigh what Google is getting from it. 

If bringing the internet to Africa was going to be a successful profitable venture then the countless private companies in Africa would have done it instead of squabbling over fragmented infrastructure problems.  Some people will say, “How are they going to use computers and internet when they don’t even have fresh water to drink!”.  To that, I point to the Cell Phone phenomenon where they have been widely accepted in rare places in Africa. 

This might be out of place but if Google came out with their “google phone” where you listen to a 10 second Ad before making a FREE call, I would be all over that.  Its called voluntary exchange where I’m getting what I want and Google’s getting what they want.  I wouldn’t feel swindled. 

I think we sho

In quick other news: THERE WAS NO BLACK HOLE TODAYS YOU DOOMSDAYERS!  SCIENCE REPRESENT!