Twitter? Let's see

SEMTEX TV - ?UESTLOVE BREAKS DOWN THE HOTTEST MC'S FOR 09'.

Social Networking is nothing new to the internet but ever since the sale of Facebook and Myspace for more money than I would EVER know what to do with, next to buy a country, everyone wants some of that pie.

I've been hearing about Twitter for a while now but never though much of it (as if a facebook and myspace weren't enough). Then, while listening to Talk of the Nation: Science Friday on NPR, they were talking about how they were twittering and people were asking questions via twitter. This made me a bit more curious, but not enough to join. Then a couple weeks back I was watching the video above and when asked what 2009's big blog will be, ?uestlove responded with Twitter is THE blog for 2009 because of the ADD society and people needing everything quick and right now.

Then just this last weekend I'm at my homegirl's house and notice she has twitter so I open it up to take a look and basically it is facebook updates....THAT'S IT. You can post no more than 140 characters, no pictures, no embedding, no hyperlinks, no bells and whistles, it's just news feeds from whoever you choose to follow. Depending upon who you follow you can get anything from the news (NPR shows are on there), to a link to a funny video to "I just worked out" (from one of your friends).

On top of that. Twitter can be done from your mobile phone. Twitter was actually the first source to know that the roots tour bus got in a wreck a while back (?uest twittered from the ambulance). So I figure, what the hell, let me see what this is all about, if it's whack I can drop it. So if you care to join in, create and account, find me, and let's see what's up!



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Wait Wait Don't Tell Me-An NPR Reality Check

Wait Wait Don't Tell Me is probably the best radio show on the weekend (at least in San Diego). For those of you who don't know what it is, think of it as The Daily Show meets Jeopardy meets Real Time with Bill Maher. You have got the quiz show of Jeopardy, the humor, wit, and sarcasm of The Daily Show and an intelligent, humorous panel of people like in Real Time.

By listening to the Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, you can learn a good amount of what went on in the world over the past week (some of it you probably didn't want or need to know, but it's funny none the less) while laughing almost the entire hour some shows. Besides providing an hour of infotainment, this show (and the other shows like it) provides an important service to it's listeners, SARCASM.

I might be a little biased (I got a crash course early on in Sarcasm and the like due to my mom being Australian and my dad being the King of BS) but I believe Sarcasm is an important tool for someone to posses. While it can provide entertainment at someone else's expense, possessing it also creates small voice of doubt in our heads, a useful doubt. This doubt causes us to question anything that doesn't sound plausible, or anything that might be too good to be true.



It used to be that on April fool's day, newspapers would go to great lengths to publish satirical stories of aliens landing and the like (think terrible tabloids but more believable) that would be sprinkled in with the rest of their news. As time has progressed, this tradition has become less prominent as people have become more and more dependent on being fed information without question. We, as a general public, tend to take the information that is fed to us without question, especially if we decide a source is trusted. Even growing up in the intelligent, sarcastic household I did, I find myself guilty of this more often than I would like to admit. This belief and following of information closely mirrors the partisan politics we have witnessed in recent history, and our overall rejection of the unfamiliar and outright acceptance of the comfortable can be dangerous.

The ability to question ourselves and others is an important ability to have in life and it is shows like Wait, Wait, Don't Tell me that help to not only lighten the mood of the news and world around us, but help put into perspective the information that we receive on a daily basis.




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Texting and the Death of Language

The older generations speak of the dumbing down of our generation (the Millennials) and how we are getting lazy. There are books published about the subject and how we are hopeless as a whole generation. Often it is pointed out that our reliance on technology is more of a hindrance than a positive tool.

As linguists claim that we have a poor grasp of the English language due to growing up with IM and text messaging, Geoff Nunberg (a teacher at CAL and linguist on Fresh Air) has a different opinion.

Take 5 minutes out of your day and listen to his essay "Teens, Tech, and Language: A Tired Old Tale Retold" where he parallels the introduction of the new communication technologies with the introduction of the telegraph. His insightful opinion and historical context might have people on both sides of the argument looking at the (non)issue in a new light as he not only defends our generation, but the English language as well.


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What's in a Name? Only the Death of my Dreams...

I like science and technology, I like learning, and I like NPR. I think it will come as no surprise that a science correspondent for public radio would definitely be up there on my list of dream jobs. There's one major problem...I have a horrible name. Now don't get me wrong, I have come to appreciate my name in it's entirety over the years but it just doesn't translate to radio. I'm talking 8 syllables and a last name that i swear I trip up on occasionally.

It'd be one thing if I wanted to work for clear channel, I could put some stupid adjective before my first name or find some terrible nickname (that lasted for 3 days, 14 hours, and 32 minutes in the 3rd grade) to use but at National Public Radio, this just won't do.

If you want to make a start, you need a name that is easy to pronounce, you don't want the hot shots at the top struggling with your name, you just won't last long. Guy Raz is a really good name, it's 2 syllables, easy to pronounce, easy to remember. If your name isn't going to be very short and memorable, the safest bet is an alliteration. Vikki Valentine and Ron Rapoport are perfect names for radio, they roll off the tongue and are memorable. When you name your child a name like that, it's like they're destined to have their names read to people all over, every day.

The next type of radio name that works is a long name, either using a middle name or a hyphenated last name. Karen Grigsby Bates is a nice strong radio name. She uses three names, all with a strong consonants at the start, creating a kind of pause and set up for each name. Lourdes Garcia-Navarro works equally as well but hers works because of how well it flows together. With a name as smoothly as delivered as that, what's NOT to like?

At the top tier of NPR's most memorable are names like Don Gonyea, Ina Jaffe, and Neda Ulaby. If you notice, these people always have the best jobs, foreign correspondents, white house correspondents, bureau chiefs, etc. If you have a good enough name, and the knowledge and knowhow, you end up with regular shows like Brian Unger, or Robert Krulwich (two of my favorite commentators). But of all the names on NPR, my favorites have to be Lakshmi Singh, Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, Sylvia Poggioli, and Ofeibea Quist-Arcton. Not only do these 4 ladies have possibly the best names on radio, they also happen to provide excellent coverage from abroad so that I might have a small idea of what is happening in the rest of the world.

I don't doubt the credentials of any of the people working at NPR, all I'm saying is that with 8 syllables, a tough last name, and every name starting with a soft sound, while I might be destined for a great many things, public radio I am not.




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This American Life LIVE

Imma just come out and say it, I love This American Life, Mike would probably say I'm "gay for Ira Glass," but whatever. Radio is a great format for learning and entertainment and TAL is one of my all time favorite shows. I listen to past shows when I am at work and have now listened to every episode archived on their website. I think the reason I like the show so much, besides their ability to find really interesting stories and tell them very well, is because the show makes you feel "normal," or about as normal as one can feel in the diverse surroundings we live in. They tell stories about people down on their luck, people on the top of their game, historical accounts of the founding of our nation, fictional stories from such great authors as David Sedaris, and much more. They have a way of bringing you into the story no matter who you are and where you are.

TAL started doing a TV show on Showtime last year. On May 1st, they did something new for the show where they did a live broadcast to theaters all over the US (as explained in the video above). They showed clips from the upcoming season as well as never before seen footage and answered peoples questions. The whole show was 2 hours long and it definitely kept me entertained the whole show.

The most interesting and entertaining segment of the whole show to me was the "Talk with an Iraqi" segment. In it, an Iraqi, who goes to school in the United States but was in Baghdad during the invasion, goes and sets up a booth in different cities and towns in the south and talks with people about the Iraq War. It was a very candid and sincere look into the Iraqi war through the eyes of many American people. The commentary by the Iraqi was very insightful and put many of the comments made into a different perspective. They posted one of the more interesting clips of it on their website.

I bought the Season 1 DVD the next day and from what I have watched so far, the TV show is proving to be as thought provoking, intelligent, respectful, funny, and humbling as the radio show. If you haven't checked out the radio or TV show, you should definitely do so, you can podcast it for free. Enjoi!

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