Social networking

I am a little on the touchy-feely side. On the right side of touchy-feely, of course. But it's the Polish blood, you see. Feel first, think later. Like Chopin. But not so much like Roman Polanski.

This touchy-feelingness means I've never bought a T-shirt on Amazon. However, I am rather tempted to sacrifice this principle, and any feelings attached to it, in favor of a T-shirt that features three wolves howling at the moon.

Oh, it doesn't seem like all that wondrous a design. It's just that, well, the reviews it's received on Amazon suggest … Read more

The hopeless choose to do things in ways that crush the mind.

A 40-year-old car parts worker for Volkswagen and Audi was apparently suffering extreme work-related stress.

He decided to commit suicide. But he reportedly did it with painful precision and a heartbreaking consideration for the welfare of strangers.

The Telegraph reported that the man scoured Google Earth in order to find a suitable place to kill himself. Then he printed the images from the Web, images that police subsequently found in his car, the article said.

No one will ever know why he chose Bone Hill Rocks parking lot … Read more

He is selling $25 for 87 cents. He's sold Michael Jackson tickets for next to nothing. And now he's selling an iPhone 3G for $7.48.

Perhaps you might think Nicolas Dickreuter, the creator of PsychoAuction.com, is a few bills short of a fold himself. Some of his friends think so.

Dickreuter used to work for Lehman Brothers and now he doesn't. So he set up the site, a sort of eBay on ganja, on which auctions last only a few minutes and prices are absurdly low.

"I appreciate that some of my friends are … Read more

Do you speak Wolfie?

I know that many fine, inquiring minds have attempted to delve deep into the mental well that is computational knowledge engine, Wolfram Alpha.

Well, I've had a tough day and I wanted to get to know Wolfie, man to machine. So I asked questions, I cross-examined, I stared, as did George Bush with Vladimir Putin, into Wolfie's very soul.

Here is what I found.

My first question was a simple one: What's it all about? Wolfie churned it over in his mind. His answer? Some very interesting information about the Albanian lek. Yes, … Read more

Social crises come upon us like paparazzi down the alleyways of Hollywood. In what seems like a flash, we turn around, smile, and see what we have become.

So it is imperative that I warn you of a deeply concerning trend that may well be sweeping the world: the use of laptops and mobile devices in bed.

A company called Credant Technologies, which appears to specialize in something called endpoint data protection, suspected that the world was heading toward something untoward between the sheets. So it commissioned a survey to discover whether workaholia was causing melancholia.

The results will numb. … Read more

Fine twittering is like fine wine. Deep, fluid, and just a little dark.

Which is why when one comes to consider which sporting figures have taken their tweets to an exalted level, one doesn't look at the number of followers they might enjoy.

No, one examines their tweets. One swills them around one's mouth. And one spits them out to see just what effect they might have on others.

This list was compiled with some joy and not a little pain, from research that goes beyond that which most scientists could endure.

But please let me start with … Read more

Rudy the Parrot hates him.

Last week, Rudy tweeted: "They can try but they will never get to me. Birds live twice as long as cats, sometimes longer. @Sockington will perish."

I am sure that is true. However, whereas in January Sockington had 10,000 Twitter followers, now there are more than 500,000. Rudy is stuck on 1,573.

Sockington is, as you have probably guessed, a cat. One extremely popular cat.

He is the cat that belongs to Jason Scott, a man with remarkable sideburns who is the brains behind, amongst other things, Textfiles.com. Sockington'… Read more

You have called your coach out. You have dreamed that you would win. Then you go and beat the Boston Celtics in their own haughty arena in Sunday's Game 7 of the playoffs, a win that means you will now face off with LeBron James.

You are Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic, so whom do you thank?

Traditionally, a player might thank his family, his coach, his teammates, his very special conditioning coach. But, as if to prove just how much the world has changed, Dwight Howard went in a different direction.

Oh, he thanked God. As many … Read more

It's all California's fault.

At least that's how London Times columnist Bryan Appleyard sees it, in a heartily vicious attack on Web culture and everything it has wrought along its socially destructive way.

In his post, cheerily titled "Break Free of this world wide delusion," Appleyard excoriates the cult of the Web, which--he firmly believes--resides in the masturbatory den that is the West Coast.

And while his angle of attack differs a little from that of Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton, it is just as pained.

Web 2.0, he says, can be defined in … Read more