I made some brownies and they were pretty good

At various times on this site, I've spent time shooting down three cliches about social media:

1. Bloggers are unemployed losers who spend their time writing in the basement wearing only their underwear.
2. Twitter is a place for people to share what they ate for lunch.
3. Foursquare is a venue to avoid, lest your house get robbed.

Paul Schwartzman's article in today's Washington Post brings to mind the second item on this list, as he writes: "I don't tweet. I don't read tweets. I don't read blogs. I feel no need to share that I just ate a hamburger."

If he doesn't read tweets, why does he think Twitter is a site to record past meals? It's hard to shake a misconception, I suppose.

Clearly, this is how people who have never used Twitter envision the site.<sup>1



1</sup>Thank you to Josh R. for sharing that graphic.

Voluntary buyout or despicable firing?

This is filed away under things that are of interest only to local readers. (If they are of interest at all.)

For 29 years, Tony Kornheiser was a writer for the Washington Post. By the end, he didn't seem to write much — he spent his time putting together daily "Talking Points" online videos, which amounted to low-fi versions of PTI. In 2008, he broke the news on his radio show that he had accepted a voluntary buyout from the newspaper.

And that was that. Until last week, when he used his radio show (around the 6:15 mark) to mention that he was fired from the Washington Post in a "despicable" way.

Tony Kornheiser: I like the jobs I have. I don't want them to end. But when they end, I hope that what I say publicly is "It was great. It was fun."
John Feinstein: Yeah, you've certainly never taken a shot at the Washington Post.
Tony Kornheiser: Well they fired me in a despicable way.
John Feinstein: Here's where we're going to disagree. Because I think you should still be writing for the Post because you're a great writer. But you didn't want to write anymore.
Tony Kornheiser: No. I want to talk.
John Feinstein: It is in fact a newspaper, alright?
Tony Kornheiser: Well they have a website where people talk.
John Feinstein: They wanted you to write. I don't think that was a totally unreasonable position for them to take.

Shiny gold wrappers and shiny gold rappers

The top story in town today, according to the Washington Examiner, is that the city's high schoolers dislike Durex condoms because they're "too small" and instead prefer the Trojan brand due to its larger Magnum size offering.

The Washington Post, which broke this story, hints that the preference for Trojans isn't actually due to the size — Durex offers large sizes too, after all — but students seem to prefer Trojans due to its shiny gold wrappers and celebrity endorsers such as Ludacris. That is, shiny gold wrappers and shiny gold rappers.

Digital divide

President Obama doesn’t know how to work an iPod, but there’s no doubt he appreciates the iconic device as an example of American ingenuity at its best. After all, Apple has sold more than 260 million iPods worldwide, and the U.S. president himself proudly gave one as a gift from the American people to England’s Queen Elizabeth.¹

Although our country has lost manufacturing jobs to foreign countries, the vision and innovation behind American products (for the most part) originates in the United States. For example, iPods are assembled abroad by non-American workers, but the back of every iPod boasts: “Designed by Apple in California.”

Could our standing as technological innovation leaders erode? Of course — especially when it comes to the Internet.

Internet connection speeds in the United States are about four times as slow as the world’s leaders.² It won't be long before we simply don't have the bandwidth to do functions the rest of the developed world does everyday.

In addition, we’ve fallen in global rankings from 1st to 15th in “broadband penetration,” with only about 65 percent of Americans having coverage, compared to more than 90 percent in parts of Asia and Europe.

These are two distinct problems:

1. A third of Americans don't have broadband.
2. The broadband that’s available to us sucks.³

Part of the explanation is due to a lack of competition. In the United States, nearly all households are served by only one or two Internet providers. Also, the countries that are out Interneting us are providing massive government subsidies to make it happen.

The U.S. does not require broadband providers to share the cables that carry Internet signals into people's homes. For new companies to enter the market, they’d have to dig up every road or somehow re-wire every home — a prohibitive cost.

I don't know what the Internet will look like in 5 years or in 50 years. But it's clear the next major Internet innovation will take place abroad. In the process, we'll lose much more than simply bragging rights — we'll lose good jobs.


¹As it happened, the queen already had one. Ooops.
²And for nearly twice the price, according to Slate.
³Okay, fine. It doesn't suck. But in the developed world, we're far behind the pack.

iBama

During his Hampton University commencement address yesterday, President Obama told the crowd: "With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation."

I'm not going to dwell, as the news coverage has, on the words "distraction" and "diversion." Instead, I'm focused on the fact that our president said he doesn't know how to use an iPod.

Why would Obama deny knowing how to work the ultimate cultural icon of the last decade?

• He made a big deal during the 2008 presidential campaign of telling everyone what music he listened to on his iPod.
• While visiting Buckingham Palace, he gave an iPod to the Queen of England.
• After Michael Jackson died, he told reporters: "I still have all his stuff on my iPod."

It seems unlikely that he listens to music on an iPod and gives them as gifts but doesn't know how to use them. Does he have an assistant press the play button for him?

European freedom

(Photo by Neuro74.)

Let's take a look at the news from Europe.

• Belgium: Lawmakers have unanimously passed a nationwide ban prohibiting women from wearing Islamic veils in public places.
• Denmark: The government has made it legal for schools, public authorities and companies to impose bans on burqas.
• France: The parliament is considering a ban on burqas, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy saying last week: "The burqa has no place in France."
• Germany: Four states have imposed a ban on teachers wearing Islamic scarfs. In one of the states, Heese, the ban applies to all civil servants.
• Italy: The parliament is considering a ban on burqas.
• The Netherlands: The parliament is considering a ban on burqas.
• Switzerland: Voters approved a referendum barring Muslims from building minarets, the architectural feature of Islamic mosques.

Which is the bigger invasion of liberty? The burqa? Or the ban on the burqa?