Friday, December 21, 2012

Update: A billion views.



Well, it happened. Since becoming the most viewed video ever over Thanksgiving, Gangnam Style gathered 200 million views in under a month to become the first Youtube video ever with more than a billion views. Man. Remember when a million views was a lot?

Oh, and the bonus is that a couple weeks ago, some people started passing around a supposed Nostradamus prediction that could be interpreted as saying the world will end when Gangnam Style gets a billion views. The prophesy included hints at Korea, the horse dance, and the nine zeros in 1 billion. And when I saw that, I realized that the video was on track to a billion views right around Dec 21st, which was only too perfect. And now it did happen on the 21st! Right at noon. Extra bonus Apocalypse points.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Fake Morgan Freeman turns out to have the sanest comment on the shooting

This has been making the rounds on Facebook, misattributed to Morgan Freeman (because nothing on Facebook can occur without some misinformation propagated by the gullible). Turns out it comes from some Facebook user named Mark, but it's just as sensible a comment on this whole circus.

"You want to know why. This may sound cynical, but here's why.
It's because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single victim of Columbine? Disturbed people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and want to top it by doing something worse, and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he'll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody.
CNN's article says that if the body count "holds up", this will rank as the second deadliest shooting behind Virginia Tech, as if statistics somehow make one shooting worse than another. Then they post a video interview of third-graders for all the details of what they saw and heard while the shootings were happening. Fox News has plastered the killer's face on all their reports for hours. Any articles or news stories yet that focus on the victims and ignore the killer's identity? None that I've seen yet. Because they don't sell. So congratulations, sensationalist media, you've just lit the fire for someone to top this and knock off a day care center or a maternity ward next.
You can help by forgetting you ever read this man's name, and remembering the name of at least one victim. You can help by donating to mental health research instead of pointing to gun control as the problem. You can help by turning off the news."

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Best argument for Google ever



You can guess which one's Google.