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Texas senator's filibuster heats up the Internet

YouTube and Twitter provided blow-by-blow coverage of a long, heated filibuster Tuesday in Texas that the major cable networks failed to carry.

State Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth) held the Texas Senate floor Tuesday in a filibuster and session that lasted almost 13 hours, the Texas Tribune reported Wednesday.

Davis was trying to prevent passage of Senate Bill 5, a controversial bill that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. It would also have required doctors to have hospital admitting privileges within 30 miles of an abortion facility, perform abortions in ambulatory surgical centers, and administer drugs that … Read more

Cornell's boasting, luminous, Twitter oopsie

We all make mistakes. Why, I once dated a self-described humanitarian who treated me very badly.

One shouldn't, however, mock those afflicted with error.

An exception might be made for those afflicted with vast raw intellect and boast about it.

I am, therefore, moved to a small titter by a minor faux pas perpetrated by Cornell University on Twitter.

Cornell, you see, is terribly excited that its hometown, Ithaca, N.Y., has been named the smartest city in America.

So it flexed its twittering fingers and posted: "Ithaca is named smartest city in America by neuroscience research facility … Read more

Has Facebook morphed from innovator to serial copycat?

Facebook has recently been criticized for being uninspired, for basically redoing features from competitive products rather than adding truly innovative new elements to its platform.

Last week, for example, Instagram (which is owned by Facebook) rolled out a new 15-second video capture and sharing feature, which has been characterized as a response to Twitter's Vine and several other video-sharing apps that preceded it. Adding filters and image stabilization isn't groundbreaking, despite Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom's view that taking some of the fuzzies and wobbles out of video is "completely mindboggling." No doubt, Instagram had to … Read more

Rusty the red panda was lost and found on Twitter

Rusty is safe. The little red panda that went missing roughly 24 hours ago is now back home at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. But, in the interim, he caused quite a stir.

The morning after Rusty disappeared, the National Zoo tweeted, "We are looking for a missing red panda, a male named Rusty. He was last seen at 6 p.m. last night."

News outlets across the country wrote stories about the cuddly rare breed of panda that is no bigger than a house cat and has a big bushy tail. Twitter and other social … Read more

Vine for Android gets the basics: search, mentions, and hashtags

Roughly three weeks after its debut, Vine for Android has been updated with fundamental features such as search, mentions, and hashtags that were initially left out at launch.

The Twitter-owned application for taking 6-second, looping videos launched on Android at the beginning of the month. At the time, the app arrived minus several functions that Vine for iPhone owners had been privy to for months, though it did come with a handy zoom feature.

With the Friday release, Vine for Android has mostly caught up to its iPhone predecessor and now includes basics so users can share their 6-second machinations … Read more

Why Instagram video and Vine are apples and oranges

For someone who has made as much of an impact on Vine as actor and filmmaker Adam Goldberg, it was only natural to see if the new Instagram video tool presented a comparable creative outlet.

After all, in the hours immediately following Thursday's Instagram announcement at Facebook headquarters, it seemed that every tech pundit wanted to put Vine, Twitter's video service, and Instagram video head to head. And why not? Both are short-form video tools, both allow users to create small stop-motion films, and both are owned by social media giants.

But Goldberg, whose surreal, haunting, six-second masterpieces … Read more

Twitter to Paula Deen: H-word has more power than n-word

Twitter can be an ugly place.

Invective instantly rolls off the tongue and into 140 characters before the mind has been asked an opinion on its merit.

However, since the revelation that famous Southern cook Paula Deen allegedly admitted that she used the n-word (details embedded), at least some of the Twitterati decided to rise above base instincts and cook up something different: The Humor Kabob.

There appeared the hashtag #PaulasBestDishes.

And there, various people from around the world added a little sugar, a touch of salt, just the right amount of vinegar, and wrapped it around a skewer.

Angelo … Read more

Carl Icahn joins Twitter with a funny plea for Dell

As the battle between activist investor Carl Icahn and Dell's board heats up, Icahn has joined Twitter.

So what? Well, his first tweet is a funny jab -- or plea -- signaling his desire to takeover Dell.

Twitter is great. I like it almost as much as I like Dell.

— Carl Icahn (@Carl_C_Icahn) June 20, 2013 Icahn, who is a billionaire, is known for shaking up certain corporations by buying up lots of shares and then demanding they do things his way.

Take Dell, for example. Icahn publicly opposed the idea of taking the company private via a $24.4 billion buyout, … Read more

Former Twitter lawyer officially joins White House staff

Nicole Wong, Twitter's former legal director of products, is officially joining the White House.

The Office of Science and Technology Policy confirmed Wong's new role as a deputy chief technology officer in the Obama administration Thursday to The Washington Post. CNET first reported in May that Wong was tapped to be the White House's first privacy officer.

Wong, who worked as a vice president and deputy general counsel at Google prior to working at Twitter, tweeted about the change Thursday after saying goodbye to her Twitter colleagues on Wednesday. The Silicon Valley attorney has more than a … Read more