Tag: Popular Culture

Would It Kill You to Like Us on Facebook?

Trish

We are THIS CLOSE to a milestone: 200 “Like-ers” on Facebook! How exciting would it be to leap from our current 199 “Like-ing” people to 200? Pretty, pretty, pretty, durn exciting!

So help us out. If you don’t already like us on Facebook, would it KILL you to hit that stupid blue thumbs-up icon? We didn’t think so.

And here’s the thing. We do share some different stuff there than we do here. More quickies, more funny stuff, more of the best of other great, like-minded sites, etc. And “etc.” is not a term we use lightly.

Oh, and here’s something else: we’re on a first-name basis with people on Facebook. That’s right, there you can just call us, “Pensito.”

We’ll talk to you about following us on Twitter another time. For now, please like us on Facebook. Thanks.

Update: You “Like” us, you really “Like” us! As of now we are all the way up to 202 “Likes!” Thanks guys! We “Like” you too!

Here’s the Clip from the John Oliver Show That Crashed the FCC’s Public Comment Site

Trish

O.K., so Sen. Al Franken’s call to action to stop cable and internet providers from creating two tiers of internet access (premium and crappy) might have been the poster child for dull and boring explanations.

But Last Week Tonight host John Oliver explained the issue in such gripping terms that viewer response crashed the Federal Communications Commission’s public comment site.

Watch it yourself and then make your own contribution to slowing down internet access to the FCC…kind of like what will happen on all but the highest-dollar sites if the FCC lets the cable companies have their way.

Oh Vanna! Response to Pat Sajak from a Science Blogger

Trish

If you’re behind on your Pat Sajak news (and who, besides your grandmother, isn’t?), the Wheel of Fortune host recently tweeted the following:

I now believe global warming alarmists are unpatriotic racists knowingly misleading for their own ends. Good night.

What those ends are is never explained but climate change deniers often hint at a conspiracy on the part of scientists to get people to pollute less, conserve resources, and achieve a healthier planet. Jack-booted thugs!

Greg Gladen, who posts at Science Blogs, provided the perfect image for a tweet back to Sajak, which said, “Suggestion for Wheel of Fortune puzzle!” You see it here.

Franken: This is the Free Speech Issue of Our Time

Trish

It’s time to stop tuning out the issue of net neutrality, which very simply means that everything you access online has an equal chance of — and speed in — reaching you. The very fact that corporations like Comcast want to change the rules of access to the wonders of the internet is enough to show that there is much at stake. It boils down to huge profit for them, and the loss of the internet as we know it for us.

We already pay the Comcasts of the world for internet access. So do those who provide content online (like Pensito Review). So they are already being paid twice but at least once their basic price is met, there is equal access by you, the reader, to sites, and by sites to you. If they get the changes they want, sites like PR will be cast into the slow lane, while Netflix and whoever pays the “premium” (i.e., extortion money) is catapulted into the fast lane.

Everyone has a favorite little site they like, even if they do spend a lot of time on Buzzfeed or HuffPo or Facebook. If you don’t want Comcast and other providers deciding what your online experience will be like, and how difficult it will be to get to your favorite little site, support net neutrality at NoSlowLane.com.

Earth Rights Itself on Its Axis as Cracker Barrel Reinstates Duck Dynasty Merch

Trish
Come home, Cracker Barrel, all's forgiven. And as Cracker Barrel's Twitter team seems to be telegraphing with its images, 'This move does not imply that Cracker Barrel is homophobic (note gay married couple playing checkers with their son) or racist (note young black child learning to fire bubble gun in preparation for the inevitable real thing someday). Whoops, obviously we didn't mean that in a racist way.'

If you have not had the misfortune to dine on the meaty, greasy, and yet somehow completely flavorless fare at a Cracker Barrel, you will not know that in order to get to the chow, you must first bob and weave through the world’s most annoying gift shop. It’s filled with overpriced America-esque junk, from made in China pewter cross pendants to made in China sock monkeys.

If you’ve never been there, you will also not have been shocked when Cracker Barrel announced, after GQ published an interview with one Phil Robertson, of Duck Dynasty fame, quoting him thusly, that it was pulling DD merchandise from its stores.

[…]

AT&T Can’t Help Itself

Trish

Social media was awash in messages of remembrance of 9/11 on the 12th anniversary of one of the saddest days of loss in America. Many of the tributes were heartfelt but a bunch had a “just phoning it in” quality.* Condescending Corporate Brand Page, for example, found a horse groomer posting a picture of a horse with the New York skyline clipped into its coat.

But AT&T’s tweet of a man’s hand holding up a smart phone to take a picture of the beams of light that mark Ground Zero was the popular winner for Worst 9/11 Tie-In Tweet or Facebook Post. One Twitter user noted, “Not an occasion for product placement, AT&T.”

As is almost always the case, the original sin could have been forgiven; the ones that follow are harder to overlook. In this instance, that sin would be AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson’s apology tweet, which included this line:

I consider that date a solemn occasion each year, a time when I reach out to those I was with on that awful day, share a moment of reflection for the lives lost and express my love of country.

Really Randall? It’s a day you “reach out?” Like to maybe, “reach out and touch someone?” Oh wait, that was AT&T’s long-running advertising slogan. Doh!

We agree with marketing and technology consultant David Berkowitz when it comes to companies trying to “engage” with us in social media.

“Unless you’re bringing something of value, the easy thing is just to keep your mouth shut.”

* Pun intended.