For once I have to say Facebook has done something right. The big pharmaceuticals are afraid of the truth. Most of their drugs poison people. They harm countless patients. They do not want to hear that many of the illnesses their medications supposedly control or cure can be controlled by acupuncture and/or herbs. Traditional Chinese Medicine has thousands of years of experience and success that challenges the poor record of the drug companies. If the truth came out, the big pharmas would lose billions in profits. They are frightened of TCM and continue to try to prevent this news from becoming mainstream while attempting to get their bedfellow, the FDA, to make it more difficult for practitioners to use herbs that have proven to work over and over. Of course the drug companies would close down their Facebook comment feature. "They can't handle the truth." Kudos to Facebook.
16 August 2011
Facebook stops drugmakers' comment feature
14 June 2011
Spring Cleaning
15 May 2011
Still On facebook?
If so, you may want to read the June 2011 issue of Consumer Reports. You may be looking for an alternative social site after reading the article about facebook. "...you share the details of your life on Facebook, assuming that you and other users are its main customers and that it's accountable to you. But Bruce Schneier, cheif technology officer at security firm BT Global Service, says you're not Facebook's customer. 'You are Facebook's product that they sell to their customers,' he says, refering to the network's advertisers." You have to ask yourself who is using whom? Stand up, be brave and seek out a better alternative. Invite your friends to follow you. True privacy is lost on the Internet but you can do a better job of protecting your personal information than on facebook. Does billionaire Mr. Mark really need you to help line his already bulging pockets? Check out other social sites. You may find a less offensive organization that may fill your needs. Twitter may be all you need. Or Blogger? Tumblr? WordPress? Posterous? You may also want to avoid friendfeed which is owned by facebook. Remember, The Beatles were warning us of the Blue Meanies so long ago. I left facebook and am glad I did.
09 March 2011
Average American*?
I always thought that my wife and I were average Americans*. Recently I began looking at "America" and how most of the citizens live their lives. I have had to reconsider our status as "average" Americans. We do not eat fast food, conusme soft drinks, like tall food, shop at Costco and Walmart. We do not Facebook. We drive a Prius. We eat organic foods when possible. Given we do not follow the average American eating and buying demographics, I have come to the conclusion that we are not "average" Americans. We are AB normal Americans. Actually, we are AB normal USers**.
*I loosely use the term "American" to represent those individuals that reside in the nation we call the United States of America.
**The term "USer" has yet to gain popularity in the general media. Since all people residing in North, Central and South America are Americans, the term "USer" would be more appropriate in labeling those who live in the United States of America. (Also given that we USers consume more per capita than other countries the label is even more relevant.)
08 December 2010
The Zuckerberg Revolution (or The Anti-Gutenburg Revolution)

"Gutenberg's Revolution left us with a world that was intellectually rich. Zuckerberg's portends one that is all thumbs and no brains." If Mr. Mark is our country's fav "genius?", we are in deep sh**.
22 November 2010
The insidious blue eff(ing) "Like" button has now invaded #MySpace.
09 November 2010
Facebook Finds A New Way To Liberate Your Gmail Contact Data (Facebook Is A Dangerous Black Hole)
That huge sucking sound you hear is Facebook, piling data from third parties into its mouth as fast as it can while it remains stubbornly greedy about releasing its own data to anyone it doesn’t like. Which is mostly Google these days, since Yahoo and AOL completely surrendered and Microsoft actually owns part of them.
Google shut them down last week, restricting API access and effectively blocking contacts exports to Facebook in any automated way. This is, I wrote, the true beginning of data protectionism.
Now Facebook has found a way around that restriction. They’re leveraging a Google feature that lets users download their own data for their own use – part of Google’s golf-clap worthy data liberation effort. They’ve hacked a solution around the block by giving users a direct deep link to the download feature. And then users can upload that file directly to Facebook.
Can Google block this? One engineer I spoke with says yes, but it will be difficult: “If Google wanted to, they could block it immediately. it’s pretty simple. just put a CSRF token on the url to block deep linking but that might fuck up other CSV flows. Maybe they have an outlook importer or something. facebook really went aggressive here.”
It’s also a big middle finger to Google.
Update: Google’s response here.
Website: google.com Location: Mountain View, California, United States Founded: September 7, 1998 IPO: August 19, 2004 Google provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world’s information. In addition to its dominant search engine, it offers a plethora of online tools and platforms including:… Learn More
Website: facebook.com Location: Palo Alto, California, United States Founded: February 1, 2004 Funding: $836M Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with over 500 million users.
Facebook was founded by… Learn More
Information provided by CrunchBase
Another reason why I call Facebook a black hole. Everything goes in but nothing comes out. Facebook is a dangerous online community. It is getting freaky. I would rather trust my online info to the all-powerful Wizard of Oz. Thanks Toto.
Sendible Attack May Have Uncovered A Big Facebook Security Flaw. Huge Pages Compromised.
We’ve just received about a half dozen rapid fire tips all showing the same thing: the Facebook app Sendible compromised in a major way.
It appears that several of the largest Facebook Pages including Google, Coca-Cola, YouTube, South Park, The Daily Show, Team Coco and others are now sending out a malicious link to all of their followers that reads “Change Your Facebook Background Here!” Obviously, don’t click on it.
A few people who did click on the link reported that it took you to a page outside of Facebook that asks you for some information about you. The bottom of the page reads “Powered By AWeber Email Marketing”.
The weirdest part is just how many other Facebook users are “liking” these links.
We’ve contacted Facebook about the issue and will update when we hear back from them. But these accounts compromised seem to suggest that this link is showing up in tens of millions of feeds right now.
Update: And it looks like most of the malicious links have now been taken down. But more tips are coming in that the attack is ongoing and other links keep popping up. Still no word yet from Facebook on the incident.
Update 2: From Mazy Kazerooni:
The Sendible hack hit Lil Wayne’s Facebook page (15 MM fans). I’m an admin, blocked the app. They tried to post multiple times
Update 3: And now Sendible is saying it wasn’t them that was hacked, instead this may be a Facebook security exploit:
Just to clarify, Sendible was not hacked. One of our users has discovered a major flaw in Facebook’s security.
Just to clarify, Sendible was not hacked. One of our users has discovered a major flaw in Facebook's security.about 2 hours ago via webRetweet
Update 4: Says Facebook:
We’re looking into this now and will let you know as soon as we hear something.
[image via moyajaya]
Website: facebook.com Location: Palo Alto, California, United States Founded: February 1, 2004 Funding: $836M Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with over 500 million users.
Facebook was founded by… Learn More
Information provided by CrunchBase
One reason I am glad I closed my Facebook account.
23 October 2010
To be, or not to be sociable on Facebook - that is the question:
To be, or not to be sociable on Facebook - that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer with
The slings and arrows of its outrageous incompetence and ever growing influence
Or remove myself from a sea of troubles...
(Apologies to Mr. Shakespeare.)
I am a contrarian and always have been. With Skype and Microsoft joining Facebook and now with FB's latest security breech through their games, I'm not comfortable with their policies nor their business model. Their improvements do not make it easier to use their product. Their new "easier" method of uploading photos actually makes it more difficult for me. Facebook is a monolith and growing ever larger and careless. Like Monsanto, which controls much of our food industry and is destroying our environment, let alone our health, Facebook is doing the same with the Internet. Now we learn that they filter which of our posts are seen and by whom. I do not post just to see my thoughts in print. I care that my friends see what I have to say and my interests. It is up to them if they want to read my drivel and rants or not, not Mr. Zuckerberg. Talk about Big Brother.
I have made many great new friends and reconnected with old friends. I have had fun. I will miss the relationships we have made. Many of them started on Twitter and my blog. It's not you, it's Facebook. If you wish to follow me at my other sites, wonderful. I certainly understand if you do not. It may be seen as a selfish decision but I must make it. I have to take a stand against the machine. After talking the talk, it is now time for me to walk the walk.
11 October 2010
Beautiful Commercial From Thailand: Disconnect to connect. [VIDEO]
This short video should change your mind about the time you spend on social networks. Have been rethinking my Facebook and Twitter accounts for several reasons. This adds fuel to the fire of decision.
10 September 2010
02 September 2010
What I gleaned from the premise of the book "The Spider and the Starfish". The Tea Party and al Qaeda are similarly organized.
31 August 2010
BBC News - Facebook alternative Diaspora eyes launch date YES!!

Can't wait. Will certainly try it out. Interested in their privacy policy. Facebook is too big and too much into itself. If it looks good will be difficult to leave Facebook and so many new and old friends. That's the problem.
27 August 2010
Facebook sues Teachbook over name similarity (Telegraph) Close to sayonara, Mark. I'm getting fed up.

Mark, book IS generic. I've about had it with you. One more straw and I'm out of here.