What Does Each Say About Us?

Three important lists were released just recently.  One being the most talked about events on Twitter throughout the world another being the fastest rising search queries on Google, and finally of course the third one was Facebook with the top status trends of 2010.

You can explore them in their detail by following the links above but for a quick over view:

Twitter

1. Gulf Oil Spill
2. FIFA World Cup
3. Inception
4. Haiti Earthquake
5. Vuvuzela
6. Apple iPad
7. Google Android
8. Justin Bieber
9. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows
10. Pulpo Paul

Google

1. chatroulette
2. ipad
3. justin bieber
4. nicki minaj
5. friv
6. myxer
7. katy perry
8. twitter
9. gamezer
10. facebook
• Facebook

1. HMU - Hit Me Up
2. World Cup
3. Movies
4. iPad & iPhone
5. Haiti
6. Justin Bieber
7. Games on Facebook
8. Mineros / Miners
9. Airplanes
10. 2011

• I dont have anything to add really, just encourage you to explore further through the links above, it's very interesting !

A Fly on the Wall & Just Imagine

It's been very interesting to watch.  I didn't catch wind of it until it was a bit late (I don't always scroll back to catch up on old tweets). But like I said, it's been very interesting to watch this Secret Santa #nztwittersecretsanta play out in its entirety.  It seems to have originated from here. Twitter in a way seems to bring togther a whole collection of random strangers & create localised communities like nothings been able to do since IRC days.  It's very reminiscent for me, I spent a lot of time on IRC 10+ years ago, so I don't often participate in Twitter activities but it's fun to watch it evolve.  And it's a great way to get news & information fast.  Does anybody remember pIRCh?

It's been 30years now since Lennon was shot dead as he returned home to his apartment one night.  I never had the chance to be around while he was in the world, but from what I've heard and read he sounds passionate about all things peace & humanity.  There needs to be more people like this willing to stand up & say, we just accept you, we of all nationalities, genders, wealth etc are able to just get along together in this world.  There was someone else like this though, Bob Marley, who once said,


Me only have one ambition, y'know. I only have one thing I really like to see happen. I like to see mankind live together - black, white, Chinese, everyone - that's all.

Assange Easier to Catch Than Bin Laden & Chrome OS

Turns out the Wikileaks founder was probably the most easy person to arrest off of an Interpol Most Wanted list than anyone ever before. He wrote this just before his arrest which is a very interesting read.  Why him ? The newspapers are just as culpable surely?  And as for the charges themselves, this is the most in depth I've found to come to my own conclusions that they're rubbish. I'll be following this one closely..

On an entirely different note, I'm sold.  Chrome OS I'm talking about, it just seems perfect to me for the form factor it seems to be aimed at. I've wanted a laptop / notebook / netbook (one of the above) for a while but have been put off by the amount of time it takes to become usable, i.e. boot time.  Also, I've become to realise as soon as I sit in front of a computer I open the browser & find I spend at least 95% of my time there.  I'd love to be able to take that environment out and about & be able to compute from anywhere, have all my settings & installed apps / extensions come with me etc.  Only time will tell if the general population will understand & "get" it, but I sure hope they do as I'm very keen!

 

Facebook Will Never "Be Finished" & Music Videos 2.0

As some, if not, most of you will probably know by now another major development to Facebooks profile pages has been launched. Zuckerberg decided to do this in conjunction with a 60mins piece in the States.  You can enable the new look profile here if you like.  You'll be asked to fill in a few blanks (it surprised me I didn't have anything entered for spoken languages) & then you can opt to be shown a tour of the new layout or dismiss it and get on with your day.  Aside from the messy summary at the top of the page directly under your name, I think its very nice - although I must admit it's purely a first impression, I haven't spent any time with the new layout to see how functional it is.  If early polling is anything to go by though most people either "Love it" or "Don't care"

This definitely caught my attention!  I've seen some crazy Russian (or at least I think it is) Facebook laden music videos before but not one in English.  Is this the future of club anthem music lyrics & videos? Either way, its fun and fantastic!

A Chili Pepper 540x the Strength of a Jalapeño & Doggehs Instead of Kittehs

I don't normally support Fox News but I couldn't find anyone else reporting this so will have to point there for this one.  A Chili Pepper grown in a snow covered greenhouse in North Western England of all places as been recognised as the hottest chili pepper in the world.  The "Nagar Viper", as it's known, is said to be hot enough to strip paint.  It's also so hot experts are considering using it in "spice bombs" to incapacitate enemy soldiers in battle.

The internet goes crazy over Kitteh videos and pics, just look at the runaway success LOLcats has been on the world.  Well i've never understood it because i'm much more a Dog person.. so I bring you cute Doggehs for people like me.. I've embedded the most "awww" worthy one below!

A Very Googly Operating System & Alien Life Forms

You may or may not have been following the rumours for a while now, that Googles been hard at work on yet another operating system (over and above the highly successful Android platform for mobile phones) called Chrome OS.  Yes like it says, will basically just be the Chrome browser on steroids.  Lets face it, 95% of us spend 95% of our time on a computer inside the browser so why not add some operating system functionality in there and be done with it! If they can pull this off, and have it boot in under 5sec (I understand they are aiming for boot speeds of as low as 2-3sec) then it'll definitely be worth looking at!

Not to get into too much detail but NASA just found life forms based on chemical compounds not thought possible before.  This life form apparently substitutes one of the "building blocks" of life for Arsenic when or if needed.  Put simply, it gives them many many more places to look or even consider in the universe that could support life as we know it.  Intense stuff..

Mapping Trends Worldwide & "Houston, We've Had a Problem"

Sometimes because of the vast nature of worldwide social media there isn't always one or two particular topics of discussion that stand out at any given time.  So my hunt for topics today led me to an amazing site that collates all the tending topics from around the world & maps them based on location information embedded in the tweets themselves.  From this one map of the world you can zoom into any country / city, click on trending words & get tweets based on that word in realtime.

Everyone knows the line, whether its remembered as "Houston, We Have a Problem" or "Houston, We've Had a Problem" is neither here nor there much like how everyone thought the famous line from Casablanca was "Play it again, Sam"  But this new website (spacelog.org) plans to at least solve the argument over famous words uttered in space by NASA astronauts.  Fully indexed transcripts of radio transmissions between astronauts in space & NASA ground control will be available for all to read.  They already have the famous Apollo 13 mission online and by the looks of things will soon have Apollo 8 (first human space flight to leave earth) & Apollo 11 (first manned moon landing) online also.  Look forward to those indeed!