I enjoyed this back and forth on Twitter recently between famous author Neil Gaiman and self described Midwestern mom of two April Roller who mistook him for the other great Neil: Neil Patrick Harris. This whole conversation acts as an antidote to YouTube comments.
In the aftermath of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico this summer and the subsequent inept response by BP, a Twitter account “@BPGlobalPR” became an overnight retweeted sensation. Parodying a faceless corporate PR spokesperson, this anonymous writer began tweeting on May 19, and Journalists, bloggers, and Tweeters quickly ate them up. Unsurprisingly, it…
A bee beard for David Cameron, subway energy harvesting, and using search technology to identify endangered species… this week’s green tech finds.
The Wolverine solar cell: Researchers at MIT actually looked to plants, not the X-Men, when creating a solar cell that “heals” its own UV damage.
Tweet for the honey bees: British marketing firm LBi has created a “twittition” (Twitter petition) to support honey bee populations in the UK. Each tweet added to the petition adds a bee to a “bee beard” on a likeness of Prime Minister David Cameron (shown above).
The greenest cell phone companies, solar Marines, and DIY LED Facebook notification… your green tech finds for the week.
Smart energy cities: The NRDC’s Smarter Cities project has published a list of 22 US cities taking the lead on more sustainable energy use and production. (via GreenTech Pastures)
LED Facebook notification: OK, this is only marginally green, but Instructables has a project up for a DIY Facebook notification device that uses LED lights.
In an effort to broaden their reach, LACMA has enlisted the twittering service of Rainn Wilson, whose own Twitter feed is one of the most popular on the site. His campaign is called “I HATE LACMA” and includes tweets like “LACMA isn’t nearly as cool as the African American museum down the street, BLACMA,” and “My new sculpture is displayed in the 2nd floor mens room. It’s made of feces and shaped like a big poo.”
By Internet time the World Cup seems like it happened eons ago, but Twitter’s official blog recently posted their analysis of tweets during the World Cup. Their analysis and relevance team compiled results into a cool infographic “charting fans’ use of hashflags (like #esp or #usa) during the tournament with a background of TPS [tweets…
Robyn, the Swedish disco-pop songstress, embarking on a tour with Kelis this summer has released her first of three slated albums this year already. I’ve highlighted the first single, “Dancing On My Own,” here already. The song “Killing Me” is equally as mesmerizing. The video is quite remarkable too. The song sees Robyn, repeatedly, saying…
Helen Thomas — You will be missed… If only by me. OOooof… what a week! I got my ass chewed out on Facebook for saying I would miss Helen Thomas… Okay. Half of what she said was pretty indefensible (I am of the mind that Israelis should, indeed, stop building on settlements. However, I do…
As someone who follows celebrities for a living, I’ve found that they’re fascinating creatures who radiate excitement and sex appeal in everything they do—except tweeting!
I know this because the second I joined Twitter a few months ago, I started “following” any celebrity I could track down there, anxious to eavesdrop on whatever stellar utterances were available to me thanks to this trendy form of techno-networking. But just as quickly, I was bored into submission by the fact that in this context, bold-face luminaries are every bit as trivial and fatuous as you and me!
Lady Bunny — Photo by Charles Eshelman/Getty Images I spent much of last week in three inches of make-up doing my best Lady Bunny impersonation. No, really. I ended up doing LXTV, Joy Behar, Fox Business, etc. and it’s amazing how much make-up they put on a person just so they are “TV ready.” It’s…
Similar to Draw My Tweet that Brad wrote about here, Twaggies is site where a group of artists post visual interpretations of people’s tweets. I particularly enjoy the artistic efforts of talented and fellow Brooklynite Kiersten Essenpreis‘ drawings as seen above. She’s gained attention from bloggers in the past for her whimsical and humorous illustrations.…
We love to browse the “trending topics” at Twitter to see what people are tweeting about across the world. Where else can you get relationship wisdom from millions of people simultaneously? Our most recent favorite topic is the hash tag #YouAintForMe. Here are twenty recent ones for your edification — though we guarantee that by the time this post goes live, a few more thousand will have been tweeted. (By the way, you can follow us here on Twitter.)
MiszMaddy: if you tried to get at my bestie, #youAinTForMe
BenedicteCakes: skinny jeans? #YouAintForMe
jt_makemoves: #youaintforme if you cant play the faithful part…no time for infidelity
I think the blog Draw My Tweet is good fun. Featuring cute drawings in a childlike style, the site’s author/artist chooses random Twitter updates and turns them into art. Anyone can submit their tweet, or their friend’s, to be included with a simple tag. The collected group of images, and unrelated tweets, begin to tell a story. Now if only mine gets picked!
Paula Froelich kisses a giraffe in Kenya
Heh. So. I am trying to get a life. No. seriously. Quit my full time job at the New York Post on July 25, 2009 — otherwise known as “Independence Day” and yes, I played the Martina McBride song over and over as well as “Take This Job and Shove It” when I announced the news. So anyhoo. I have been enjoying life since then — went to Africa, Mexico, Sundance, LA several times, Oscars, you name it. But after a certain point in time, ennui starts to set in along with brain rot. And I will not Brain Rot! Unless, of course, it’s called for.
Twitter: The Criterion Collection from sween on Vimeo. In an attempt to answer the question, “What if Twitter came to life?” various people submitted their filmed reenactments of other people’s tweets which were then compiled into this single video of hilarity. This is an example of when the combined collective creativity, talent, and humor of…
Homes wired for electric vehicles, artificial islands, and floating power plants… here are your green tech finds for this week.
photo by Patty Keigan
Say what you will about John Mayer’s music — here marks the spot where Lo censored Em’s compliments about “Your Body Is a Wonderland” as a matter of principle — his Tweets are some of the funniest in the biz. (Okay, so he doesn’t have a lot of competition. Britney Spears: “How’s everyone’s 2010 going so far?”) Anyway, love him or hate him — or, most likely, a combination of the two — we thought you’d appreciate some of his Tweet-wisdom (twisdom?) on the topics of love, sex, bodily functions, and other important stuff. Here are a dozen of our favorites from the last month or so — you can follow him yourself at Twitter.com/JohnCMayer:
What 1 area of your body gets touched the least? I’m going to guess sub-scrotal flange, but it could also be knee cleavage.
If you call a girl 62 times and she’s sleeping, does it read in the morning as one missed call or 62? Asking for a friend.
December 1st was World AIDS Day and it came and went with little attention from the media. You know Tiger Woods is much more important. Anyway. The Huffington Post spotlighted the Twitter feed of Chris MacDonald-Dennis. MacDonald-Dennis is a college dean in Philadelphia. On World AIDS day he fired off 100 tweets, 2,100 words, documenting his life and his HIV infection. It’s pretty moving and keeping in mind Twitter posts are limited to 140 words, the end result, when read chronologically, is like an epic poem. It is full of frank and honest dialogue and also hope. Click below to read the entire day’s posts in order.
William Shatner is once again poking fun at another fame-seeking Alaskan. If you remember, several months back, the veteran actor and musician lampooned Sarah Palin by reading her tweets to a beat poetry rhythm. He’s turned his attention towards Levi Johnston, onetime Palin family member. Something tells me this is the least of Levi’s worries.…
photo by giant_mice_kill_rabbits
A new study has found that 36% of people under the age of 35 Tweet, text, or check Facebook right after sex. For the over-35 group, that figure drops to only 8%. Are we totally giving away which side of the 35 dividing line we are located on when we say, Seriously, people? That’s really what you want to waste your post-coital warm fuzzy glow on?
What if everyone’s current favorite micro-blogging service, Twitter was available when various historical notables were around? What would Joan of Arc tweet? Abraham Lincoln? Johannes Gutenberg? Well, Historical Tweets takes a peek into the 140-character limit archives and share snippets from the lives of these historical figures and others. Speaking of Twitter, you can follow…
I’m someone who definitely kisses and tells. I have been all my life and usually it turns my partners red with embarrassment and sometimes red with anger. Additionally, I’ve never been popular with guys who seek “discretion” when hooking up. FYI: “discretion” is code word for “I have a boyfriend.” I am really dangerous to…
Mashable, the blog about social media, has compiled a list of cool Twitter visualizations. Below is a video example of Just Landed, a geo-visualization of tweets containing the words “Just landed in…” As Mashable explains, “It finds the tweets containing the phrase, checks for the location theyÂąve landed in, and the location they were sent…
Along with playing a useful role in sociopolitical upheavals, Twitter also seems to be fertile grounds for the development of memes, such as this latest one involving Michigan Representative Pete Hoekstra after he tweeted the following specious comment: “Iranian twitter activity similar to what we did in House last year when Republicans were shut down in the House.” It’s similar, except not at all. Having tossed this giant softball in the cyber air, Twitterers started taking the proverbial swing at him. Talking Points Memo collected some of the home runs…
It seems safe to say that no technology can be deemed truly mature until people are using it to cast judgment on others’ appearances (that, or to try and get a date). The founders of Twitter can breathe easy, then, now that Hot Tweeters (a sort of “Hot or Not” for Twitter) has arrived.