Ryan (F.I.S.T.) did some more data crunching for me based on his network.
I will analyze them with greater detail later, but in short, 8% of Ryan’s Friendster network identifies as queer (mind you, not everyone identifies because of it having to do with being in a relationship). 13.3% of Ryan’s Friendster network is from Philippines. Anyhow, check out the numbers. Fun fun.
Steven Johnson just wrote an interesting article in the NYTimes that is quite relevant to my latest commentary on Vannevar Bush, the Memex and trails.
Here’s a fun little NYTimes commentary on the emergence of social networks as a hot topic.
I spent a lovely weekend offline. While i was ecstatic to take a genuine break from my email disaster, i was quite humored to listen to friends who were less than thrilled to be offline – the twitches started early on. No wifi, no high speed, no cell phone coverage…
Then, upon going back to my email disaster, another group of friends told me about WiFi-SM. It’s a device that sends electric impulses every time the news reports on violence and anger around the world. Little reminders to make you feel the global pain.
Somehow, i suspect that my friends who twitch from being offline would love these little connections to their blog world… This would definitely be the way to create a group of SM boys…. ::giggle::
Thanks to Chris, i just found this UCLA study on how friendships between women are special. Hmm… given the state of my current stress, maybe i should go out and hang out instead of locking myself in my room.
Here’s a neat (older) article by Stowe Boyd on a few social issues that complicate the social networking software space.
As i swooned earlier, Amazon’s decision to allow text-based search was brilliant. Unfortunately, not all publishers have agreed.
Currently, i am sitting amidst 15 (yes, i counted) anthropology, rhetoric and philosophy books. I own these books; i have read large chunks of these books, underlining points that were relevant then. But here i am, trying to construct a meaningful response to whether or not culture is an ensemble of texts (recursively), frustrated. Why am i frustrated? I am frustrated because i _know_ that the tool to find the various quotes floating in my head to support my argument exists, but that publishers have prohibited it. (A moment of silence for ignorance is bliss.)
Here’s what i propose.
Amazon, you know what books i’ve bought, or at least a large chunk of them. You currently use this to successfully incite me to buy more books. Why not let me search _my_ books, regardless of the publisher’s opinion?
One might ask why Amazon would want to do this. Silly, silly. This would motivate me to buy ALL of my books from Amazon, particularly those dense theoretical texts that are dreadfully indexed.
One might ask why publishers would want to do this. Why? Because i’m now keeping tabs of which publishers are cruel and am far more incented to buy books when i know that i can search them. This actually affected my decision between two anthologies last week.
The biggest uproar over Amazon’s decision is one of copyright fear. Fine. I understand if a publisher is worried that the searchability of certain types of texts might discourage someone from buying the book, but in the purchasing of my books, i already have permission to the copyright. Now, i simply want easier access. Trust me, folks, if you can give me ‘grep’ on my books, i’ll never switch to a digital format. The smell of paper is just too enticing.
::sigh:: Because of Basic Books and The University of Chicago Press, i’m back to screaming ‘grep’ at Geertz and Levi-Strauss. This could be a lot easier…
First, i am *not* thrilled that 80s fashion is coming back. I don’t want to wear scrunchy socks, deal with shirts that snap at the crotch or ever see those horrid tight jeans with their roll-up ever again. And furthermore, scrunchy leather boots with heals is not attractive.
That said, most people know that i’ve been wearing jelly bracelets around my wrists for 3 years. This wasn’t a return to the 80s. It was because i don’t like seeing my neck or wrists without adornments and jelly bracelets were the first things that i could wear that didn’t impede my typing – i could just push them back.
Well, apparently the press is hyping the idea that these jelly bracelets are sex bracelets and that if you break them, the person has to give you a sexual favor in return. Hmm.
‘We can implant entirely false memories’ is an intriguing review of the research of Elizabeth Loftus. Ideas about memory have always intrigued me.
I’ve been thinking about memory lately because i’m adamently opposed to the concept of trails put forward by Vannevar Bush in “As We May Think.” I know that the construction of our past is not always the same as the actual reality, but i prefer it to the realistic portrayal of experience. Personally, i’m quite happy to not have easy access to the replay of mistakes made. I realize that the memories that i hold are not only the actual events, but the embellishment of the good and the dismissal of the bad. I have a tendency to store all of these details and emotions around joyful activities, while i conveniently forget much beyond the facts of negative ones. I tend to consider this a good thing, although it can cause problems when i cannot stay mad at someone, even when i should for my own sake. But, it always pains me to interact with people who only hold on to the bad.
This research makes me think crazy thoughts. If you can implant a memory, can you also eliminate memories? For example, what would it mean if someone conveniently forgot that they were abused. Would this be a relief? In what ways are memories a protective force vs. a limiting force?
Sadly, this all comes down to a philosophical debate about what is best for an individual and society. Do we believe in constructing ‘happiness’ or ‘truth’? And what on earth does either one mean?
In an attempt to spend the day writing, i turned off both phones and IM (and tried to avoid email, sorta). Yet, i did not expect the number of door visitors i would get today. Not only did the UPS delivery man ask me if i had voted, but i received visits from five Gonzalez supporters asking me if i had voted (one covered in Gonzalez stickers from head to toe).
I really wonder what this turn out will look like. Normally, rainy days for a non-Presidential election are a disaster at the polls. But the whole city is abuzz with election fever. Normally, when i go to the polls, there are very few people voting. Sadly, most of my neighborhood is ineligible to vote (or doesn’t speak English so very well). Thus, i was pleasantly pleased to go to the polls this afternoon and find it !full! of voters (rare at 2PM). One cluster pleased me the most. The older ones didn’t speak English but the younger ones were helping explain the process to them. This totally made my day.
One thing will be interesting… right after the first round of the mayor election, many Gonzalez supporters invaded my neighborhood to get people to register to vote. (Everyone in my neighborhood despises anyone situated in the Marina.) I’m guessing that most of those registered didn’t speak English, and most of the discussions i overheard were in Spanish. I wonder how many of my neighbors were eligible and came out today for the first time.