5940021
submission
JLavezzo writes
"Brian Dunning, host of the Skeptoid podcast, decided to combine a survey he needed data for with an experiement into the dynamics of Twitter's social networking. Did it work?
'The good parts worked better than I hoped,' he says 'and unfortunately, undesired side effects ... which rendered your Twitter account nearly useless on September 14 and 15, if you follow me or anyone else who follows me ... were just as potent. Now, before I describe what happened, let me state outright that it was shockingly naive of me not to foresee what would happen. It was dumb, it annoyed a lot of people, and I have no excuse other than failure to think it through very well. So, my apologies, and I offer no defense of what turned out to be a giant mess.'
Read on so you'll be prepared when your marketing director asks you to set up the same thing."Link to Original Source
5939931
submission
JLavezzo writes
"Brian Dunning posted an article on what he calls his 'greatest clusterfuck of the year: the Skeptoid Twitter Experiment, which rendered your Twitter account nearly useless on September 14 and 15, if you follow me or anyone else who follows me.
I have an upcoming Skeptoid podcast episode for which I want to include some informal survey data. I've also been thinking a lot about Twitter for its potential to virally spread information. So I thought it would be a clever idea to combine my survey with Twitter, which (I thought) would be a lot of fun for everyone and would accomplish two goals:
1. Virally spread awareness of my podcast, Skeptoid
2. Get a huge number of respondents to my survey
Well, it worked. The good parts worked better than I hoped, and unfortunately, undesired side effects were just as potent.'
As one commenter put it:
'Turning Twitter's echo chamber into a denial-of-service attack. How fiendishly clever.'"Link to Original Source
369489
submission
JLavezzo writes
"Founder of The Weather Channel, meteorologist John Coleman, has been making headlines with an emotional article declaring, 'Global Warming; It is a SCAM.' The text contains malaprops and is so devoid of facts that some commentators suspect it might actually be amateurish satire. Colman continues, 'Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create an allusion [sic] of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environmental whacko type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the "research" to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims.' Read for yourself."Link to Original Source
465
submission
JLavezzo writes
"On-line modern contemporary design journal MocoLoco is running an interview today with graphic designer Mike Labelle who, in his spare time, puts his architecture background to work creating Utopolis: Lego sculptures of futuristic cities. 'I find my inspiration in the city; its architecture, infrastructures and networks. In anatomy also; the way a body is shaped and is held together.'
The project began in 1997 with his childhood Lego set, recovered from an attic. Since then, the project has expanded, several pieces have been sold to collectors and institutions, and others are for sale on his website.
What's next? 'The moving city. Robots moving buildings about the city grids.'"
