Tag: Facebook

A Terrorist is a Terrorist, NOT a “Shooter,” NOT a “Gunman.” A Terrorist.

Cristina Page's photo.

So is he a crazy “shooter” or a terrorist?   Does it matter what we call him?  This is the question on all the Sunday talk shows – but yesterday . . .

Listen to Cristina Page ( Yesterday at 12:58pm)

Interesting how the media is characterizing this premeditated act of terror against Planned Parenthood as committed by a “calm and crazy” person whereas the attacks in Paris, including Charlie Hebdo (another workplace targeted for political reasons), were carried out by terrorists who were only characterized as “calm”. The media’s attempt to make the string of fatal attacks against clinics isolated attacks by insane individuals, whereas the string of fatal vigilante attacks by Muslim extremists are considered political acts of terror, is because the media fears being seen as taking sides in the abortion debate.

Then read this:

And this, from CNN – a real surprise:

Huckabee: Planned Parenthood shooting is ‘domestic terrorism‘  CNN

Here’s the first post I read about this topic – also from Christina Page.  Thank you Christina for reminding us all of the importance of words!

The media needs to change this language immediately. They are referring to him as a shooter. He is a terrorist. This language needs to be corrected from the inception (I think behind the scenes so as to not make that the issue). If they start naturally referring to him that way, that’s what we want and that’s what it will be. All of the messengers should just not sway from this language. Terror was understood right from the start in Paris, this is the very same. One officer killed, four officers shot and 4 civilians.

It’s gratifying to hear so many establishment pundits, right and left, advocating the conscious use of the word “terrorist”  but if it weren’t for the advocacy from women like Christina and others, who knows how much longer it would have taken to get them to do it?

When You Ask Me About Smart Social Media – This Is IT!!!

The great Daniel Silva using the news of the day to subtly remind us, through this Facebook post, that his new book is coming (sort of) soon.  Nice job Daniel!

Hedgie Steve Cohen an unwitting player in art sale controversy

Billionaire art collector Steve Cohen, one of the most successful hedge fund managers ever, has become the unwitting catalyst in an alleged international art fraud stretching from New York to Monaco and Singapore.

The alleged fraud was uncovered during a New Year’s Eve dinner between Cohen’s New York art consultant, Sandy Heller, and Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev — when Heller told his pal that Cohen had just sold a Modigliani painting, “Nude on a Blue Cushion,” for $93.5 million.     NYPOST.COM

GONE GIRL – I Wish She’d Kept Going

dorothy parker gone girlOK so I was all set to do some real work this morning.  I was.  Then I saw this in my friend Katherine Stone’s Facebook feed:

Gonegirl katherine

Katherine is a remarkable person whose fierce advocacy for women with post partum mood and anxiety disorders is legendary.  I listen to her.

The problem is, I really really hate Gone Girl.  Really.

First of all I figured out the ending near the beginning.  Secondly, the ending was kind of lifted from SPOILER ALERT: Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent.  Third, I’m betting the movie, soon to be released, is really good, which will just get more people saying nice things about the book.  David Fincher.  Ben Affleck.  Neil Patrick Harris.  What could go wrong?  I read they changed the ending, too.  In principal, that usually bothers me but in this case I’m really curious to see if the change makes the story more palatable.

I am far from the only person with negative feelings toward this novel.  The sample in Katherine’s feed includes comments like these:

Rachel Kaffenberger Great writing but the characters just pissed me off. I hated that book. Awful, horrible people are in that book.

Jen Neeld Bradshaw Ha! I read it two weeks ago and I still have some rage.

Asha Dornfest That book freaked me out.

Deb Rox I threw the book. You can guess which scene.

Kit Kelly I hated it.

And my own two personal favorites:

Susan Petcher I feel like “Books that Make You Hate Humanity” needs to be a new FB meme.

Doug French I wanted the last sentence of the book to be, “And then they all piled into a Greyhound Bus and drove into a volcano.”

I’m with Doug.  There were also some positive comments but these are the ones I agree with and there are already enough good comments out there in the ether and it’s my blog so….

Even so, it is true that the book evoked a ton of comments and a lot of emotion.  I guess there’s some skill required for that to happen but if that’s true, she’s squandered it.  Allegedly her other work is better but that’s no excuse – especially for a public which seems to be gaga for this one.

Right now I am reading California, a dystopian, almost too real story of a dark American future.  It’s probably only on the radar screen because Stephen Colbert used it as an example of books by young first-time authors who are most hurt by the Amazon-Hachette battle.  Since then it too has gotten a lot of attention so one makes me think of the other.

California doesn’t have as many stars on goodreads.  For me though, it’s so very much more exciting and provocative.  Her characters are more than horrible stereotypes, and it’s Edan Lepucki’s first published novel which is exciting.

This is not a contest between California and Gone Girl or between Stephen Colbert and Ben Affleck.  At least not to me.  I just didn’t want to be this mean about a book without including one that has my attention, is unpredictable, and includes some decent, interesting people.

Don’t we love that books can get us all riled up like this?  Far more fun that terrorists and the NFL!

And for a treat, here’s the Colbert Report after LePucki’s book made the New York Times Best Seller List:

OH and #boycottNFLsponsors.

 

 

Kevin Spacey, David Letterman, Twitter and Moms Rising – All in One Post!!!

OK so I’m in London and a friend posts this on my Facebook page.  And I should be telling you more about London and that we’re leaving for Paris this afternoon (on theEurostar!!) for the weekend but this is just fun.

ALSO on that same Facebook page though, from Moms Rising, is this:
Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner “…we are now lagging behind the rest of the world in closing the gender gap. According to the World Economic Forum, the US ranks 31st of 128 countries overall, but 76th in educational attainment, 36th in health and survival, 69th in political empowerment, and 70th for wage equality for similar work. In the representation of women in our Congress, we rank 71st.”


Reps. Maloney, Biggert reintroduce Equal Rights Amendment

So when you’re finished laughing at Kevin and Dave, think what we can do about these devastating numbers! I’ve just gone to work at Causes Managing Editor at Care2 and we have an active women’s rights section there – and we all know plenty of other places to raise some hell.  Somehow, seeing it all aggregated like this makes it worse, no?

FABULOUS SCRABULOUS, LAWRENCE LESSIG AND A FACEBOOK CRISIS

ScrabulousWay back a million years ago in the 1990s, the Internet mantra was "information wants to be free."  In other words, if you could figure out how to get something up on the Web, it was meant to be there.  So there was Napster – all the music you could grab.   Books, games,  news, music, images — whatever you wanted you could find. — for free.  Just like, right now, you can find the wonderful Scrabulous on Facebook.

Then attorney and — really — guru of the Information Age Lawrence   Lessig launched an entirely new way to define copyrights and began to institutionalize a new perspective on information.  Basically, since musicians, film makers, visual artists and authors were all sampling previous works within their new creations, Lessig demanded a new approach to the protection of intellectual property. 

So our beloved Interweb offers us a chance to find out anything about anything and gather any information from any source, but it also offers us real ethical problems:

For most of my life, I’ve made my living producing television news pieces and being pretty well paid for it.  Now, I’m often compensated for my work on the web – except for this blog.  I wrote and published a book, published book reviews for years and have written and published other features.  I get paid for my work; that’s how I live.  If all information were to break free — who would pay the creators?  Or, for that matter, the distributors.  Even if books are published online they need to get there; advance URLS have to be sent to reviewers, someone has to edit and proof-read.  That work, unlike information, does not want to be free.  Lessig would say it’s too late to worry about that – online access has released the information so stop complaining and find another way to monetize your work.

Fair enough.  I have heard Lessig speak about this and it’s thrilling.  The 60’s girl in me loves the anarchic idea — after all, information does want to be free.  But the analysis and creation of that information – not so much. Right now Hasbro and Mattel are trying to get a restraining order against Facebook, requiring the removal of the Facebook version of Scrabble, Scrabulous, for copyright violations.  Created by a couple of brothers in India and posted for free, it’s one of Facebook’s stars.  I’ll be devastated if the game is actually removed because it’s such a kick.  At the same time, I understand the concept of getting paid for distributing content, not just for creating it.  The Scrabulous brothers chose to built and post Scrabulous for free.  That’s their decision.  But even company employees (including the people who make Scrabble boards and design their labels and ship the game to gift shops and Toys R Us, also have to eat.  It’s as if all sides are right.  Lessig’s exploration of all this is invaluable, but there’s no answer yet – except of course in the law, which currently favors the terrestrial owners of such properties.  Josh Quittner, in his Fortune blog, has another perspective.  We’re on a journey here just as we’ve been with the rest of the wonders and miracles that are the Web.

What do you think?  It’s worth a comment here, no?   

IF YOU CARE ABOUT EDUCATION – OR THE FUTURE – OR TECHNOLOGY – WATCH THIS

This link arrived from someone I deeply respect as a person and an educator.  Remember that it was made by current college students.  What do we think?

Breast Feeding, Facebook and How Could This STILL Be Going On?

Cindy_rick_josh_31975_2
My son is 32 years old.  The first two weeks of his life he lost a pound and a half.  I just didn’t seem to have enough milk and there was no one – no lactation consultant or nurse-practitioner or even another other mom to ask for help.  (This was Manhattan in the 70s; there was a lot of anti-natalism and many of my friends literally asked "Do you really want to be pregnant?"&nbsp) When I finally went to to the pediatrician he told me I had to supplement the nursing with formula. It felt like such a humiliating sign of maternal failure before I had even begun.  Soon after, the milk ran out altogether.

I wish I could describe the tears, the guilt, the sense that I’d damaged this lovely, lovely child for life.  I was, after all, hurting his development and immune system.  And bonding.  And who knew what else?

So when I read about the breast-feeding explosions on Facebook (and I have a Facebook page and admit I really like it, which makes it worse) or Delta Airlines, all these years later and still happening, I’m doubly sad.  These attitudes add to the stress that inhibits milk production and I know how stressful nursing can be, especially in the beginning.  I know the devastation when it fails.  I know the almost unanimous research about the advantage of breast-feeding these new little people, and I believe the "it takes a village" theory enough to feel that it’s everybody’s responsibility to help kids grow up healthy and secure.  That’s why I’m here among the nursing moms my kids’ ages.  They’re strong and inspired and right on the money.  The capacity to nourish an infant is a privilege and a right.  And natural.  And in no way anything but lovely.  I mourned for so long the loss of it for my own children. I still do.

PARDON ME, DO YOU THINK THE WEB CAN CHANGE THE WORLD?

NtenI began my day at the plenary session of one of my favorite conferences –NTEN — The Nonprofit Technology Network. It’s a gathering of mostly non-profit activists who use the web to enhance their work. They are sharp, committed and fun.

Nten_weissbergThe main session this morning was off the charts: David Weinberger, from Harvard’s Berkman Center for the Internet and Society.   He nay be the best speaker I ever heard – certainly one of the best.  Of course he’s funny and sometimes outraged – both very good things — but he also offers really thrilling analysis of our lives online and the role of each of us in making the Web what it is, and what it will be.  Read more about him from another admirer, at the conference blog. 

I also popped in at "Using Technology to Support Your Mission." Very cool but it turned out to be techier than I wanted, so wandered around running into people.  This community is so vibrant and purposeful that it’s a wonderful place to hang around.  These are people who don’t think the web can change the world, they know it has.

By the way, beyond what I’m learning in sessions, I can tell you what’s hot by the sessions I couldn’t even get into:  The Age of YouTube: Using Video Online to Reach the Masses and Leveraging the Power of Participatory Media.  Fortunately the YouTube one, at least, was videoed and will appear on the NTEN website where we can attend without sitting in a corner on the floor and sweating from the major body heat surrounding each of us.

Even so, in all it was a great day; sorry this report is so brief.  More tomorrow.