Fourth of July - Independence Day Happy 250

 Today is the day America's 250th birthday. The day that our founding fathers drafted, published and signed the Declaration of Independence. I'm glad that we're celebrating this milestone properly this year.

Credit: The White House fb

I just barely missed the Bicentennial (200th Birthday of America), but I'm glad to be here for the Semiquincentennial the (250th Birthday of America).

Two pieces of news from the world of big tech

 Let me start off with this.

Meta plans to introduce paid verification subscription service

If you remember last year Elon Musk bought twitter and then allowed subscribers to Twitter Blue to become verified. Of course it lead to somewhat interesting consequences.

Regardless I feel as if to pay to be verified isn't too unreasonable although on Twitter there are some legacy verified accounts under different criteria. I'm sure those consequences that I alluded to led to some better criteria specifically for those accounts masquerading as real people or real entities.

So I do hope that Meta rolls this out soon for users of FB and IG and I already have an idea for that. Perhaps Meta can avoid the bellyaching at Twitter.

YouTube CEO steps down.

YouTube has a CEO? Susan Wojcicki has lead the company for about nine years and is stepping down. As you know YouTube is part of Alphabet which owns Google.

One of my current goals is to get that silver play button, since my own YouTube channel now has over 100 subscribers finally. If I ever did get that play button there would be a letter attached to it and Wojcicki's signature would be on it. Looks like now her successor Neal Mohan will be doing those honors.

With that said YouTube is among those sites (which also includes IG, FB, and Twitter) that in the last few years have been hit with charges of censorship. Especially with regards to politics or even information with regards to the pandemic. I can't entirely blame Wojcicki because I have no real idea if she was spearheading these efforts she was still an important person at YouTube. It happened on her watch.

Of course being part of a Big Tech corporation that's probably not something she can be in full control of anyway. Of course Mark Zuckerberg controls Meta and thus FB and IG and now Musk owns Twitter. Different story there although under the ownership of Musk Twitter has set a new course as far as freedom of speech on the platform.

So what will Mohan bring to the table as the CEO of YouTube?

January 9, 2021 - opinionated blog post

 A crazy few days since January 6, 2021.

To start President Trump had his posts deleted under the guise of "inciting violence" and not only that his personal Twitter account @realDonaldTrump has been permanently suspended. He tweeted that he will not be going to the inauguration on January 20th and considering what happened on January 6th, probably a smart move. However, it was one of the tweets Twitter had cited to delete his account.

There's reputedly an ongoing surge going on of anyone who may have attended the January 6th rally or indeed who was in anyway involved with the "riot" that took place on Capitol Hill. And allow me to state for the record that we had loss of life in that incident, and let me say the Air Force veteran who died after being shot inside the US Capitol was tragic. What I would also say with regards to that is entering into a governmental building is definitely a very dangerous thing to do.

I'm not happy about what happened and if there was any chance to successfully challenge the 2020 elections it evaporated. Certainly understandable in light of these events, there was already a chance that the objections weren't going to lead to anything substantial. Once this reprehensible event took place, it definitely hadn't lead to anything substantial.

What I think happened on that day is that some people got caught up, the mob went nuts. I'm distinguishing the mob from those who were there to show their support for President Trump. And who knows there is a plausible possibility that there was an element there looking to cause trouble. They were successful unfortunately and the Democrats - or collectively progressive liberals - can turn around and become the faction of "law & order" although they want to defund police.

It's galling to see Joe Biden and Kamala Harris compare the chaos on Capitol Hill with the chaos in many American cities over the past summer. In my opinion, if they want to allege Trump supporters were handled with kids gloves while BLM was treated far more aggressively, in my opinion BLM was treated with kid gloves. What's the difference between the riots, looting, and unrest of last summer - it went beyond George Floyd - and what happened at Capitol Hill? NOT A DAMNED THING!

They're the same, people got out of control. There is a segment of the population who think it's OK to riot over racial issues, it's not Dr. Martin Luther King said so himself even if he did say rioting is the voice of the unheard. Rioting is not OK regardless and I've heard the argument that we're upset over property but not as upset over the loss of human life. I don't think theft and destruction to protest a loss of life is a very good equivocation.

BTW, I was hoping this morning to share with you a video of about 30 minutes featuring Rudy Giuliani who was involved with Trump's electoral legal efforts and the former mayor NYC and a former federal prosecutor. When I got home last nite, I saw that his video was deleted and only had the opportunity to view at least the first 5 to 10 minutes of the video.

Now since Trump has been banned from Twitter and Facebook we might see a purge on Google owned YouTube and while Giuliani still has his channel he had a video deleted sharing his own observations of what happened on Capitol Hill. He believes that this unrest there was planned with people bringing specialized equipment to break glass and rope. Whether or not Trump had a rally on January 6 - which was heavily publicized through the President's social media - something like this was likely to happen. And it was deleted, why?

We need the facts and the truth and unfortunately it's going to get suppressed. The media other than FOX News and others - well the upstarts anyway even if FOX is allegedly going more liberal. Anything that turns this narrative away from this being a pro-Trump riot is a problem. Let me state this again, I don't care who was involved or their political leanings it's a problem when a gov't building is assaulted.

So either way I will stop here. Hopefully I'll share something with you at the same bat time which is at 11:30 PM on this bat channel.

I fear we will have more trouble ahead, I see there is a yet another "right-wing" rally planned for Joe Biden's inaugural. Hopefully it won't be as unruly, though it will be a very turbulent start for a presidency.

Morehouse alum Herman Cain dies of coronavirus

This news really broke this morning, however, I had already published another post by the time it broke.

JUST IN: Herman Cain, a prominent Black Republican who sought the presidential nomination in 2012, has died from the coronavirus at age 74.

— NPR Politics (@nprpolitics) July 30, 2020

I learned later that Mr. Cain had been diagnosed with colon cancer back in 2006 and was reportedly in remission however he attended that Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma last month. At this rally it was also reported that the current Governor of OK Kevin Stitt had also tested positive for coronavirus.

I saw Mr. Cain - my Morehouse brother - speak on campus while at school it had to have been during the time he ran for the US Senate seat then held by Democrat Zell Miller in his native Georgia where he lost in the GOP primary to the man who got elected to that seat Johnny Isakson. A main part of his speech to us during a Crown Forum was success as I do remember him using that word many times. I do not recall if he said anything overtly political at the time. It was probably a non-political speech to the men of Morehouse at the time.

This virus is nasty and persistent and it brings home that we're not out of the woods of it yet. I had hoped we would be. As always take your precautions wash your hands, when necessary wear a mask, and maintain social distancing.

While this nation is undergoing unrest - especially Portland - we still got to contend with this very infectious pathogen that we're still trying to get control over.

Via Morehouse College fb

I share this photo because in 2012, Mr. Cain took the reigns of former nationally syndicated radio talk host Neal Boortz' program. This photo was posted to the Morehouse College facebook page at the time and unfortunately saw a number of negative comments directed towards Cain. Whoever administers the Morehouse fb page made such a magnanimous statement with regards to Cain's views:

Our graduates go out and make their marks in the world in business, athletics, finance, the liberal arts, media and politics. Our graduates' political stances or persuasions, whatever they may be, are their own personal decisions and/or beliefs. We are proud of the work that all Morehouse Men do in changing and influencing the world they live in. That is what makes a Morehouse Man a Morehouse Man.

Yes, Morehouse should be proud of his accomplishment regardless of his views.

Rest in power! 

Evolution of internet platforms

I've been part of the internet for many years. When I first logged on most of the homes that were online connected through a dial-up connection on a telephone landline. The designs of most websites were pretty basic as opposed to now (to understand what I'm saying look up Greyhound.com and go back as far as you can over at archive.org). What a vastly different place it is today.

You don't really hear about webpages anymore. Basically a website is a collection of webpages though virtually every website has a webpage. Even this blog could be seen as a series of webpages and it gets updated semi-frequently which constantly expands like a book.

I always imagined having a website even though ISP's once commonly offered free webspace to customers it's something that has become obsolete these days. As stated before there are so many free tools these days that allow anyone an online platform. In the late 1990s through early 2000s you had to create that platform. There was no social media, and the service I currently use Blogger didn't exist until at least 1998.

When I first created a website it was through Geocities - which had been owned by Yahoo!. Of course I never realized that if you want people to visit you had to have a draw to it. I bought a photo scanner to post some pics and used the rudimentary photo editing software. I also shared some of my favorite Star Trek pics that I found online at the time. And this was during the time I was at Morehouse College. Of course it wasn't until 2005 that I started blogging which makes updating a website far easier.

And yet the internet evolved some more with Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, or Instagram. Now most people access the internet on their smartphones. I myself now own an iPhone which is a multifaceted tool that allows me to make phone calls, text, email, shoot photos, shoot video, etc. And with an iPhone and these other smartphones you can also update social media, and upload photos & video on the go!

Now it causes me to wonder where I could've taken this internet thing if I had discovered Blogger in the late 90s to early 2000s. The tech available at the time that I just simply had no idea about beyond what I had already learned about back in the day. Though thankfully it doesn't take long to find out about what's available these days online. Not only that there is an app on a mobile device also!

Chicago political history...

Before I went to bed last night, I sort of went backwards a bit in time noting the death of a former Republican Cook County state's attorney in Bernard Carey. He was in that office until defeated by a future Mayor of Chicago in Richard M. Daley - who just so happen to be the son of Richard J. Daley who held that office for over 20 years.

Today I found another column and while Mr. Carey wasn't mentioned it talked about the rise of Richard M. Daley. Of course this article is passe now since the current mayor is none other than the seemingly unpopular Rahm Emanuel. Another reason this article is passe is that it was written by the late Chicago columnist Mike Royko who died in 1997.

It's interesting to see how he draws parallels between 1955 when Richard J. Daley was elected mayor and then presumably 1989 when his son first got elected mayor (BTW, this article had a publishing date of April 14, 2017 so perhaps it ran in the Chicago Tribune a year ago). Both men knew how to get along with the various factions of Chicago politics, especially within their own Democrat circles. Rivalries between the north and south sides of Chicago or more recent the battles between the various ethnic and racial groups politically. Then of course the battle between the machine and those pesky reformers. Seems like a never ending struggle and both Daleys navigated them to become long-term mayors.

Having read a biography of the first Mayor Daley, which I'm just giving you a simple title of American Pharoah, it showed how he rose in local politics. It also illustrated how he seemed to have been able to remain a force locally and nationally. Richard J. Daley was a smart man who knew how to play the game. And yes, he did play the racial game as he did nothing about segregation in Chicago though only to preserve his base among the various white ethnic groups of Chicago. Another interesting thing about the book is the pecking order among the ethnic groups of Chicago between say the Polish, the Jewish, the Irish, the Italians etc. Perhaps by the time he became mayor now we're including the Blacks.

Either way we have a Mayor Emanuel, the Blacks of Chicago well we could say they may not be the force they used to be in city politics as well the population of Blacks are beginning to diminish in Chicago though slowly, the Hispanics and Asians are rising population wise in the city. It's safe to say in the almost 30 years since this column was written a lot of changes in the windy city with more changes to come!

BTW, Royko himself wrote a biography of Richard J. Daley titled Boss. I've yet to read that unfortunately so perhaps I'll add this to my reading list in the near future. If you don't understand this title just remember that the first Mayor Daley was often referred to as the last of the big city bosses. We can just say at the very least patronage had some strong play during his time in office from 1955 to 1976.

CBS Chicago: Are Users Fleeing Facebook? #DeleteFacebook

[VIDEO] I'm using hashtag or pound sign (#) to illustrate that there are some who don't like Facebook. If it's not any form of political bias, it's also distrust over handling of any personal information. Of course to delete fb there are some implications that could affect your career as employers may be looking for you online.

My advice, be aware of the information you choose to share on social media. Stay away from those quizzes that may ask you to take information from your fb profile. There are of course ways to minimize to the extent possible any concerns of any potential data breaches.

Where is Tim Cunningham? #ATL #Morehouse #Blackandmissing

Cunningham's alma mater (and of course mine) puts out the word about his disappearance. While Morehouse College's ig put this information out on Monday, I've seen this on Facebook at least for about a week.

Here's an article from an Atlanta, Georgia TV station Fox 5:

Timothy Cunningham reported to work on Monday, February 12, but told his supervisors he needed to leave early because he was feeling sick. Loved one said he left his cell phone, his wallet, and his SUV at home. Atlanta Police are holding on to his cell phone as part of their missing person’s investigation.

Loved ones hope someone will recognize Cunningham, perhaps even as a John Doe in a hospital.

"We just hope he will just come home safely. None of this makes sense. He wouldn't just evaporate like this and leave his dog alone and have our mother wondering and worrying like this. He wouldn't," said the missing man's brother.

Anyone with information on Cunningham's whereabouts is asked to call 911 or the Atlanta Police Department at 404-546-4235.

Yeah something odd happened here, though hopefully he's out there safe. Below is what Morehouse College posted to instagram.

My review of #TheCircle

[VIDEO] Lately when I go to the movies most of them are just forgettable entertainment. You go in and be entertained, however, later you simply forget about it. There's nothing really groundbreaking about the movie itself or laugh, feel the adrenaline, etc. and then you leave.

That wasn't the case with The Circle. Now with that said I've seen the reception on its Wiki page and saw that so far there aren't many that like the movie so far. I never pay attention to Rotten Tomatoes and see that this film isn't rated highly.

Why does The Circle touch a nerve with me? It shows the scary effects of social media. Our hero Mae starts to work at this tech company which appears to be a cross between Apple and fb. It offers these small cameras that can be placed anywhere and unseen to the eye. And then there appears to be a social network attached to it.

Mae herself becomes a major show on this social network and likely billions log on to see how she's doing. Unfortunately some sad consequences come of it. Her friend Mercer comes to an unfortunate end as the latest online sensation. It seems the friend - Annie -who brought her to that company doesn't want anything to do with her although they seem to have an uneasy relationship as Mae's star begins to rise.

Mercer's strikes an unfortunate nerve. As Mae begins broadcast her life for her company her fans find out about Mercer's past and refer to him as a deer killer although he defends himself by saying he doesn't kill deer. It becomes a point where he as Mae's friend had to cut ties with her because of her new celebrity.

Unfortunately, later the crowd clamors for Mae to find Mercer - after she herself used the Circle to find a wanted fugitive. They do so and of course a comment about him being a deer killer. After keeping a low-profile and he flees. Without giving away much this is the point in the movie where I take off my ballcap. I was truly disgusted with the movie at that point.

To start we see a form of online shaming in this film. Let's say you find one piece of information about someone - whether that person posted themselves or not - and then it goes viral. Then it literally becomes a form of bullying and outright nastiness. Perhaps it's truthful or perhaps not, however, either way someone believes it and spreads it and for a moment it's like wildflower. Scary thing is, it might be a while before you find out about it.

I like how Mae turned the tables on her bosses at the Circle - Eamon & Tom - who egged on the many activities that led to what happened with Mercer. She got connected with one of the founders of the circle - he has a low profile because we doesn't like what's going on at this company - who helped her turn the tables. And we go back to one thing that they never wanted to give up for themselves - privacy.

They didn't truly want to be transparent, but everyone else should be. Mae's life was saved because she took a kayak got thrown about in high waves and almost drowned. Perhaps there is no right to privacy in a public place but how transparent does one need to be in the world. Beside we all should be embarrassed by something.

It lets me know, now that we live in a world with cell phone video cameras and we can broadcast those images live on Periscope, fb, ig, etc. we have to be more careful. Perhaps we might behave better if we're being watched - and yes that's not always true. At the same time at what point have we gone too far with this activity?

BTW, I never realized that this film was based on a book and see a vastly different story here. I got to find that book now and give it a read. Perhaps it'll tell me more about the story and the issues in real life that are shown.

The American Dream

I honestly don't know whether or not this should be viewed as sad or otherwise...

A rare Chicago tornado

Found out Chicago had its last tornado in 2006. Why do I know about this now because on Tuesday with no rain or storms in the area a tornado touched down on Chicago's southwest side near Midway Airport. It stayed in one place and remained stationary according to reports but it's still what they call a landspout tornado.

WGN has some pictures from their camera at the Sears Willis Tower

This piece of trivia I found very fascinating and to recall I used to be terrified of tornadoes until I learned how rare these storms are especially in our city. Not sure I'd want to experience this in the sticks. All the same I'm sure there are media reports of this 2006 tornado.

I could still look but then I found this 2006 video of a tornado near Loyola University Chicago. So when this video was uploaded to YouTube I had been at Morehouse for a month already.

Is blogging dead?

I've been beginning to wonder. Years ago people in the mainstream media were talking about blogs, now it's about YouTube, Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram or even Facebook.

To be sure as much as I've taken to writing 140 characters, nothing will beat good writing. You can't do that in 140 and at that it has to be very interesting.

No one pays attention to a YouTube channel that doesn't have interesting content. I began to realize that there is a science to being a viral YouTube sensation. It's either intentional or unintentional and for the most part something viral just happens can't script it nor plan it.

Although I just recently started a FB account to attach to this blog, there's a lot of FB status I wouldn't want to share and hadn't for a long time. It's also cool to share photo albums and such from FB. But who would want to read a long status.

Remember TL;DR? LOL

Anyway, perhaps it's good that blogging has had it's heyday. This just means that the ones with something to say and hopefully the truly good writers will get the attention it deserves. Everyone else can flood FB, Twitter, Instagram and these other sites that are out there.

Besides all these other social media sites can be utilized effectively especially if you do utilize a blog.

Facebook me!

FB.com

I've been debating whether or not my FB information should be included on this blog. So finally I've decided that FB should be utilized here. So my new account is here.

I shouldn't have waited this long to do it, but here's to a new a start. Feel free to add me if you wish, but hopefully there will be no trolling.

There is a badge in the sidebar.

EDIT: There's also the email address itsmymind @ gmail.com or you can also click Facebook Me!

Epiphany on social networking sites

facebook.com

I've reached something of an epiphany recently. Actually when you think about it, it seems there are epiphanies about anything with me. In any event, I've come to a conclusion about social networking.

Believe it or not, I've been using Facebook since it was brand new. So brand new in fact that when a user registered they must have a college-issued e-mail address. It wasn't as wide open as it is now.

Never would I have ever imagined that there would be other ways of distracting ourselves online - such as Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat - during the course of a given day. In fact now these sites have evolved beyond the PC which was the only was to access sites such as FB years ago. Now we can access these sites via cell phones or a tablet device.

So getting in touch with our friends and more random people via these various sites are easier than ever because now we can use cell phones and tablet devices. You don't have to wait until you get to a PC to utilize these sites.

Then it hits me, it's cool to be able to use these various platforms to communicate with a number of people. We could reconnect with childhood friends, classmates, family, or even make new friends. It's as useful as the many uses you can make of it however you choose.

At the same time there is a dark side to using such sites. Like any tool, if you use it the right way it will prove to be beneficial. At the same time if you use it the wrong way, then it probably will cause more harm than good. You can use such a site to project yourself as you are until you find someone who decides to mess with your reputation using online sources. And unfortunately it seems a lot of people put a lot of their lives online.

Then here comes my epiphany....there's got to be better ways to pass that time than on a PC or a mobile device. This should be time connecting with our friends and family offline and perhaps taking them to a movie or to a restaurant. That is being truly social with them in the real world.

While, I'm a long way from ever removing myself from these various sites perhaps it's time we consider how important our time is with the people we do care about. And anything else that happens online whether wanted or unwanted is at some point merely noise.

STUDY: Facebook like an infected virus could lose 80% percent of users

Facebook

There's a study by Princeton University that compares FB to a virus and at that makes the claim that FB could decline in popularity in the future.

Have you been infected with Facebook?

Don't worry, like a viral outbreak, Facebook use will explode before plummeting down to Myspace levels of obscurity, says a new study from Princeton University.

Using epidemiological models used to study the rapid spread of disease, the researchers found that Facebook has "already reached the peak of its popularity and has entered a decline phase."

How bad will it get? Facebook will lose "80 percent of its peak user base between 2015 and 2017," according to the researcers. To explain why social networks are like infectious diseases, the study pointed to similar research done with ideas.

This study hasn't been peer-reviewed and Facebook, which currently boasts 874 million users worldwide, would certainly object to being compared to a viral epidemic. But the company itself admitted in October to losing teen users. Later, a study by digital consultancy iStrategy Labs claimed that Facebook had 25 percent fewer teenage users in 2013 than it did in 2011. (Apparently, American teens are susceptible to a new virus called Snapchat).

 When you think about it, we went from having personal webpages (think GeoCities remember them?) to MySpace to FB to Twitter to Instagram in no time. Even worse than that still, there are always new ways to pass the time on the internet. Well times change I suppose.

Someone said this once in talking about all these social networking sites. Instagram is for those who can't read, and FB is for old people. That's probably how today's teens view FB.

I wonder if Mark Zuckerberg - FB's creator - may one day bring his baby back to its roots as a network for college students and alumni.

Thanks for liking this blog...

If you like my blog enough to share it on FB with the "like" button in the sidebar then feel free to introduce yourself. It's cool to know that there are at least 17 people who are willing to share this blog on their profiles. It's really flattering indeed, hopefully, this blog really is worth your time and those who you share it with!

Facebook set to reveal all about you, like it or not

This can only give some the excuse to never ever join Facebook. The ones who refuse to join in the first place definitely won't if they get wind of this story:

Within days, all of Facebook's 800 million users' profile pages will change. And with it, every photo, status update, wall posting, since your Facebook birth will be much more easily visible.

Facebook claims Timeline will make profiles more comprehensive.

Consumer advocacy groups say it violates users privacy.

"We want people to decide if they want to post the old stuff on the wall, says Marc Rotenberg, of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "We want people to decide whether the stuff Facebook wants to post, is the stuff they want. It really should be up to the user, not Facebook."

But for now it'll be up to Facebook to decide, and users to try to hide the stuff they'd like to keep private.

I found this story via Instapundit who noted:

FACEBOOK IS DOOMED BECAUSE OF TIMELINE. Not due to privacy concerns, but because the new Timelined pages look like nothing so much as old MySpace pages.

There is a reason why I and many other never use MySpace anymore. I've always liked FB better, but if MySpace could just become a place for bands to promote themselves then who knows what FB will be. That being said FB could be just another dead social network. There are many online too, for example I used to be on BlackPlanet and sadly I haven't thought about that place in years.

BTW, so that I don't contribute over any hyperventilation FB is doing what it can to inform people about the new timelines. There are some things I would like to keep private although I don't plan to go back and delete every single item that I never want to see the light of day again. Just have to cross the bridge when that time comes.

If Historical Events Had Facebook Statuses

Courtesy of Cool Material. I cropped what I thought was the funniest statuses I could find. This just had to be it. LBJ signs the 1964 Civil Rights Act with Dr. King liking the status, however, some of the Southern states weren't too happy. Almost a reminder of when people were complaining that there wasn't a dislike function. LOL!

Via Instapundit!