UK Gov: ‘Go forth and tweet’

The UK government has published internal guidelines for tweeting, 20 pages worth. They have instructed their civil servants to tweet and tweet well. The government wants their tweets to be ‘human and credible’ and to be in plain and simple, ‘informal English’. Tweeting for the commoners!

The guidelines also specify that government tweets should be in line with government objectives, but can also be fun. Further, each department should aim to tweet 2-10 times a day, while avoiding flooding their followers.

In other news, the White House has announced that Twitter is currently blocked from their computers (White House lawyers and information officers are working to relax the restrictions). The White House will however be utilizing LinkedIn for a healthcare focus group.

Follow theSkittzo on twitter – @theSkittzo

Argh! Put yourself in pirate shoes

Wired.com presents, Cutthroat Capitalism: The Game:

You are a pirate commander staked with $50,000 from local tribal leaders and other investors. Your job is to guide your pirate crew through raids in and around the Gulf of Aden, attack and capture a ship, and successfully negotiate a ransom.

After you have played the game for hours on end — it can be addicting — be sure to check out Wired’s feature article on Somali piracy: An Economic Analysis of the Somali Pirate Business Model.

Tweet your prayers all the way to Jerusalem

There is a new Twitter service out there allowing you to do just that. Tweet Your Prayers allows you to send a message or an @reply to @TheKotel, where the twitter account creator will print off your prayers and take them to the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

The idea was first created as a hobby, but Alon Nil, who now gets up to 1,000 new prayers tweeted to him daily says it has become much more.

I’m swamped. I can’t keep up with all the tweets. [...] But I’m determined to not lose even one prayer.

Alon Nil is currently seeking sponsorship so he can pay someone to help maintain the service.

Facebook whoring out your photos

So, Facebook can use me and my photos to sell things to my friends.. wait, that’s not ok!

Facebook’s settings state:

Facebook occasionally pairs advertisements with relevant social actions from a user’s friends to create Facebook Ads. Facebook Ads make advertisements more interesting and more tailored to you and your friends. These respect all privacy rules.

Facebook is using their ‘Social Ads’ to pair your pictures with certain ads that are displayed to your friends. Your face may appear with ads based on applications you are using or items you have become a fan of.

To protect your pics simply adjust your Facebook settings by clicking on ‘Settings’ up at the top bar, next to the log out link. Select ‘Privacy’. Then select ‘Newsfeeds and Wall’. Than select the tab that reads ‘Facebook Ads’. In the drop-down box, choose ‘No One’. Be sure to save your changes.

Please note: This is not the same as the rumor swimming in the internet sea that says Facebook is allowing third parties to use your images. This post is merely regarding internal Facebook ads, aka ‘Social Ads’.

Jon Stewart — America’s Most Trusted Newscaster?

In a recent TIME online poll Jon Stewart was named the most trusted newscaster in America. With a hefty 44% of the vote, Stewart beat out Brian Williams (29%), Charlie Gibson (19%) and Katie Couric (7%).

The poll was launched following the death of Walter Cronkite with the goal of discovering who America most trusts in news today. Apparently, America most trusts a comedian who broadcasts a prime time comedy/commentary news show on the Comedy Central cable network.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the laughter and good times watching The Daily Show, but I fear this could be a troublesome trend. Will other media bodies try and play-up the entertainment factor to increase their ratings at a cost to their content and analysis (more so than they already have)?

What does this mean for the future of the news business?

Facebook illegal in Canada, eh?!

A report by Canada’s privacy commission has deemed the actions of the social networking site to be illegal. This is because the site illegally holds on to user information indefinitely and provides ‘confusing or incomplete’ information it its users.

The Canadian law specifies that companies may only hold onto private information for as long as is technically necessary. The report also criticized Facebook for “failing to adequately restrict access of users’ personal details to some of the 950,000 developers in 180 countries who provide applications.”

Facebook spokesperson’s response:

Overall, we are looking for practical solutions that operate at scale and respect the fact that people come to share and not to hide. We continue our dialogue and have every confidence that we will come to acceptable conclusions. I think the concerns are fully resolvable.

Under Canadian law, if action is not taken by Facebook the privacy commission can take them to court and force the required changes.

About 12 million of the 200 million or so users on Facebook live in Canada.

Space Tourism Race – Island Style

A new law in Hawaii sets aside $500,000 to begin the process of conducting an environmental assessment to apply for a commercial spaceport license from the FAA. The State’s hope is to “carve a niche” in the space tourism industry for the islands.

Hawaii Lt. Governor Aiona states:

A space tourism industry could generate up to $200 million in annual revenues for our state, and provide new training and employment opportunities for our workforce. There will be a growing demand for aerospace engineers and technicians to service this rapidly emerging industry, and several aerospace companies have already expressed interest in operating out of Hawai‘i.

Hawaii’s economy is heavily dependent on traditional tourism, an industry that has been heavily impacted by the recent economic recession. Tourist from the US and abroad are traveling less and there have been substantial cutbacks in jobs and investment by the tourism industry in Hawaii. When the corner stone of your state is impacted, each industry in impacted. It is no surprise that Hawaii is looking to each and every option to diversity.

While space tourism will bring money and jobs to the islands, it is not going to be their salvation. Greater diversification and decentralization of Hawaii’s economy is essential. Increased private investment in green energy, computer technologies, and agriculture are needed. As are changes to flawed trade laws and the backwards tax system are restrictions that hinder island businesses. Changes must take place in order to encourage such industries to take root in the islands and to make it easier for other industries to remain and be successful. Hawaii must be competitive if it hopes to bring in the investment, otherwise the money will go elsewhere.

On a side note, I am looking forward to the day I can be on vacation, hit up Lani Kai beach one afternoon and catch a space flight the next morning!

WSJ Names Top 25 Economics Blogs

The Wall Street Journal’s economics bureau sifted through the sea of economics blogs and determined the top 25, with five honorable mentions.

Check them out.

The Pope is down with Potter

The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano gives the latest Harry Potter movie two-thumps up for its epic ‘good triumphs over evil’ message. The author also enjoyed the ‘balanced’ portrayal of young love and proclaims the Half-Blood Prince the best film adaptation of the book series yet.

In the past The Vatican had been careful to give no official stance on the movies and this recent praise follows harsh criticism of the series by a conservative clergy member in Austria, who referred to the books as “Satanism”.

Sexed up bubble gum?

AFP is reporting that Hamas is accusing Israeli forces of deliberately ‘corrupting the young’ by passing out gum. That’s right, good old fashion chewing gum! The accusations claim that Israeli forces are distributing a special aphrodisiac laced gum at border crossings in the Gaza strip that are designed to ramp-up an individual’s sex drive.

According to Islam Shahwan, a Hamas spokesperson:

We [Hamas] have discovered two types of stimulants that were introduced into the Gaza Strip from Israeli border crossings. The first type is presented in the form of chewing gum and the second in the form of drops.

Apparently, the ‘plot’ to make the young in Gaza hit overdrive was discovered when a father complained his daughter had experienced “dubious side effects” following the use of chewing gum. Which of course is only furthering the belief in Gaza that the Israeli intelligence service is out to corrupt young Palestinians.

Hamas claims to have detained gang members with ties to Israeli intelligence who are responsible for this covert black-ops sex-drive-boosting smuggling operation.

Israel gave no official response, but did note that the accusations were — “absurd”.

Illegal immigration makes for safer cities

That’s the rather convincing argument presented by Radley Balko in a recent Reason Magazine article.

By conventional wisdom, El Paso, Texas should be one of the scariest cities in America. In 2007, the city’s poverty rate was a shade over 27 percent, more than twice the national average. Median household income was $35,600, well below the national average of $48,000. El Paso is three-quarters Hispanic, and more than a quarter of its residents are foreign-born. Given that it’s nearly impossible for low-skilled immigrants to work in the United States legitimately, it’s safe to say that a significant percentage of El Paso’s foreign-born population is living here illegally.

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El Paso is among the safest big cities in America. For the better part of the last decade, only Honolulu has had a lower violent crime rate (El Paso slipped to third last year, behind New York). Men’s Health magazine recently ranked El Paso the second “happiest” city in America, right after Laredo, Texas—another border town, where the Hispanic population is approaching 95 percent.

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“If you want to find a safe city, first determine the size of the immigrant population,” says Jack Levin, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Massachusetts. “If the immigrant community represents a large proportion of the population, you’re likely in one of the country’s safer cities. San Diego, Laredo, El Paso—these cities are teeming with immigrants, and they’re some of the safest places in the country.”

Be sure to check out the full article.

Spider-Man or the Green Lantern? You Decide!

Actually they are but two of your heroic options when casting your vote for DC mayor. Spider-Man, the Green Lantern and many of their fellow masked crime fighting friends have entered the realm of politics! So, if web slinging or a cosmic power source held in a ring don’t push your political buttons there are plenty of other candidates to choose from.

For example, are you into science? If so, The Atom is your man! For there is no problem too small that The Atom cannot solve. He is the candidate with the power to bond us together as one!

But hey… maybe science isn’t your thing. In that case,  you are probably looking for a candidate of action. Batgirl is your gal! She came from the underground and can clean up the city, after all — “actions speak louder than words”. Now you might be a little worried, she is young after all. Well never fear, Batwoman is here! She’s everything Batgirl is, and more. She brings the punch with solid experience to back it up.

Still undecided? Don’t fret citizens, for there is another option — a strong, dedicated and passionate leader. He helped us through the Great Depression and fought the Nazis in WWII. He’s faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, he’s Superman!

If by now you haven’t picked a candidate remember that there is always the underdog no one ever knows about. I overheard in the hustle and bustle of the news room at the Daily Planet that Cyborg has tossed his mask in the ring too.