Monthly Archives: November 2009

Thanksgiving Tweets, 2009 (#I AmThankfulFor)

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So many people asked for these, it was easier to just post them here. They are in reverse chronological order. Best read from the bottom up.

 

Ok, #iamthankfulfor is now bring out the saps and slop artists. Time to close that tweet deck column until next year.

Dear #IAmThankfulFor: By the time a tag like this trends, it jumped the shark 6 hours ago. Start then. You'll enjoy it more :)     

#iAmThankfulFor having worked this poetic tag for hours before it soared over the fucking shark on a jet ski.       

#iAmThankfulFor for douchebags who know they are douchebags and spare me the unpleasantness of pointing it out to them.      

#iAmThankfulFor for everyone who ever lived that consciously sought to leave something good for future generations.       

#iAmThankfulFor for people who tell me my words strike a cord with them. Twitter makes me feel like a writer, sometimes.       

#iAmThankfulFor people who believe justice isn't always fair & fairness isn't always just, but caring about both is always right.       

#iAmThankfulFor for our socialistic ancestors who left us National parks to enjoy       

#iAmThankfulFor for having had a father who taught me that smart wasn't about what you know, but what you do with what you know.      

#iAmThankfulFor for people who prove every day that ethics and good character can be as natural as sunlight.       

#iAmThankfulFor some Conservative dingleberry that was too culturally clueless to know what "teabagging" meant.       

#iAmThankfulFor for living twice as long as I had even known my father, but still learning from him every day.        

#iAmThankfulFor for people who see a void in the world, or someone's life, and make an effort to fill it with something good.       

#iAmThankfulFor people who are on Twitter without any financial motive to be here.       

#iAmThankfulFor Educators, scientists, physicians & others who find reward in achievements not measured by net worth.       

#iAmThankfulFor for people who can be thankful for things that do not directly affect them.       

#iAmThankfulFor people who fearlessly welcome a chance to learn about life and experience outside of their own.       

#iAmThankfulFor Early & mid-twentieth century Americans who worked hard to give us advantages we're taking for granted.       

#iAmThankfulFor for those writers, artists, musicians and poets who make life richer with work they're rarely paid to produce.       

#iAmThankfulFor cats who let us to be selfless servants without any expectation of getting something back–ever.      

#iamthankfulfor learning in 9th grade that John Galt was not a real person, and that, unfortunately, Ayn Rand was.       

#iamthankfulfor not being one of those inspid "thankful" tweeters who could make even a Hallmark card writer yak on himself.     

#iamThankFulFor for Twitter, which has brought me a world of new friends I might never have known without it.      

#iamThankFulFor for a mother who taught me that some arts could reveal truth as well as some sciences.

#iamThankFulFor having had a war hero dad who fought for his country w/o needing to validate himself talking about it.   

Religion’s Ongoing War On Civilization

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The rise of Christian fundamentalism in the U.S., and it's rejection of evolution and most things modern is both a resurgence of Protestant Reformationism, as well as an apparent affirmation of another trendline in history.  It's been bothering me for awhile now, so I finally dug something up that not disturbs me as profoundly.  Thought I'd share it.

The historians, Will and Ariel Durant saw the decline of a civilization as a result of ongoing strife between religion and secular intellectualism, which ultimately topples the shaky institutions of convention and morality:

"Hence a certain tension between religion and society marks the higher stages of every civilization. Religion begins by offering magical aid to harassed and bewildered men; it culminates by giving to a people that unity of morals and belief which seems so favorable to statesmanship and art; it ends by fighting suicidally in the lost cause of the past. For as knowledge grows or alters continually, it clashes with mythology and theology, which change with geological leisureliness. Priestly control of arts and letters is then felt as a galling shackle or hateful barrier, and intellectual history takes on the character of a "conflict between science and religion." Institutions which were at first in the hands of the clergy, like law and punishment, education and morals, marriage and divorce, tend to escape from ecclesiastical control, and become secular, perhaps profane. The intellectual classes abandon the ancient theology and-after some hesitation- the moral code allied with it; literature and philosophy become anticlerical. The movement of liberation rises to an exuberant worship of reason, and falls to a paralyzing disillusionment with every dogma and every idea. Conduct, deprived of its religious supports, deteriorates into epicurean chaos; and life itself, shorn of consoling faith, becomes a burden alike to conscious poverty and to weary wealth. In the end a society and its religion tend to fall together, like body and soul, in a harmonious death. Meanwhile among the oppressed another myth arises, gives new form to human hope, new courage to human effort, and after centuries of chaos builds another civilization."

From: The Story of Civilization, V.1., 71

"A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within." Will Durant

"The political machine triumphs because it is a united minority acting against a divided majority." Will Durant

If is just not hard to see this very same trend happening again, here in America. It may not be noticeable yet to most people, but we have only seen the first wave of "born again" Christian Presidents. Bush was the first. We are going to see far worse, and probably soon. Be afraid.

When Your Twitter Account Gets Hacked

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If you account was truly hacked, you probably can't even get into it because someone changed the password and the email associated with it.  But if your Twitter name is suddenly tweeting spam or sending DM messages to people you follow with links and messages like "Someone is talking smack about  you.. [link]," then your account has been compromised by some rogue Twitter application that was activated while you were surfing the web somewhere.  The app is allowed to connect to your account via Twitter's authorization system  and we have to fix it. Fast.

Here's the fix

  1. Go to Twitter.com > Settings > Applications 
    If you recognize something you've authorized only recently, and it's some minor app, this is probably your culprit. Just click "Revoke Access" next to it.   But if you have any doubts, revoke access to everything and anything you don't recognize or absolutely need.  It's easy enough to reauthorize each app as you need them.  Popular  applications like Tweetdeck will be safe so you can skip those. 
  2. Change your password immediately 
    In theory, Apps don't use your password, but since a rogue App is dishonest anyway, you have to assume it could have gotten your password somehow.
    Remember, good strong passwords are at least 8 characters with a mixture of characters, capitalization, numbers, and/or some symbols.  Don't use real, properly spelled words if you can help it.   Example:  HOrz-8a8-Fthrz.  Using a product like LastPass can keep your passwords for you in a safe manner. Google it. 

Prevention

Don't be too quick to authorize an App. Ask yourself, "is this thingie-doodle really worthwhile, or just some stupid game or gimmick that really isn't worth the hassle if it's actually malware?"

But don't be too paranoid, either. Many Apps are fun and useful, and most of the time the compromising is just a mild annoyance, but not harmful enough to really worry about. Having someone receive DM spam is not like someone hacking your bank account.