This is kind of scary. I didn't actually think my bullshit twitter thoughts would ever be relevant. I don't think twitter is causing the passivity, for the record, it's a general diffusion of responsibility/bystander effect thing, I guess? And I think the twittering is in some part just people falling back to a familiar action when they're not sure what else to do, bounded rationality and all that. But it LOOKS really heartless. Holy shit, just taking pictures of that guy dying, wtf. Without twitter and other social media technology/platforms (camera phone/youtube) there wouldn't be this immediate need to record and package shit for others. I think everyone has this instinct, but it's just totally enabled now. It's how I am with lj and before that, xanga. Without the immediacy or whatever of the platform, I wouldn't think of certain things in terms of blog entries or more generally in anticipation of how to say it to others, because there wouldn't even be a ~cognitive~ option that it could be said to others. Just for myself, I know a majority of the stuff I say on lj would never have even have been a formed thought if it I couldn't ramble it out through blogging. That shit right there, for example. Hella reflexive.

I don't know how bad this inherently is. Actually I guess it is intensifying complacency/passivity or... distance in people. When you're writing or texting or recording something you're already separated from the situation. Your mind is not there anymore, you're not an active agent. And you're kind of co-opting the experience? It becomes you reporting on the thing, not the thing itself? I don't really know. Anyway it's pretty fucking terrible.

Also, I like Bill Nye. He seems like good people.

"Who do you think won the VP debate?" HOW IS THIS EVEN A QUESTION?? Actually I can see where people might get confused, since Palin was doing a completely different event than Biden was. Biden was at a debate, answering questions, being informative, and trying to prove his qualifications to be vice president of the fucking country. Palin was at a PR meeting, trying not to fuck up, repeating catch-phrases, and bein' folksy. "Oh Palin won, because she showed so much personality and was so charming and she didn't choke!" IS THAT THE CRITERIA FOR WINNING A FUCKING DEBATE??? SERIOUSLY. Okay, if you actually LISTENED to what she said, not how she looked while saying it, not how she said it, she is a fucking joke. It's so insulting. It's like George Bush all over again, only with bangs and more smiley. Smiley bang'd George Bush and an old man. THIS IS THE WORST EVER. Every time she said "in a McCain-Palin administration" I got scared. I will die if the terms President McCain and Vice President Palin get introduced into history. I won't be surprised at such a death (lol America, like we aren't going to fuck this up) but I will die nonetheless. UGH REPUBLICANS.

Teacher OK after crashing into bear on a bicycle

( saving so i will still have it after yahoo bahleets it from archives )

YOU'RE WELCOME!

(forward all street cred to out_of_ctrl )

Oh no! There's a fire at Griffith Park. Right near the observatory! :OOO ;_;