3.5.11
Meet the man who live-tweeted bin Laden's demise.
It didn't take long for the news of Osama bin Laden's death to spread across the world, but before the special reports hit our TV screens and the front pages of the newspapers, the story broke on Twitter. What started as a simple observation of an unusual event turned into a live account of one of the biggest events in US history, as one Twitter user unwittingly live-blogged the raid in which Osama bin Laden was killed.
Sohaib Athar, aka @ReallyVirtual, lives in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the town where bin Laden was based. He first reported hearing a helicopter hovering above at 1am, citing it as "a rare event". Shortly afterwards he voiced his concerns about hearing a "huge, window shaking bang", adding that he hoped it wasn't "the start of something nasty".
In an interview with Reuters, Athar said, "I was awake, working on my computer when I heard a sound of helicopter. It was rare here. It hovered for about six minutes and then there was a big blast and power gone."
"I tweeted it because it was something unusual in the city," he added.
As Athar continued to tweet about what he could hear going on around him, he and his followers speculated about the reasons for the disturbance.
Seven hours after Athar's first tweet, President Barack Obama announced bin Laden's death in an operation by US forces, and that one helicopter had been lost.
"Uh oh, now I'm the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it," Athar said on Twitter a couple of hours after the announcement.
Since being recognised as the person who broke the news of the raid, the number of people following Athar on Twitter has jumped from several hundred to more than 70,000.
Initially, his replies to his followers were jovial, but Athar soon became exasperated after his email inbox, Skype and Twitter accounts were flooded by those trying to contact him.
He remains keen to play down his new-found fame:
"I am JUST a tweeter, awake at the time of the crash. Not many twitter users in Abbottabad, these guys are more into facebook. That's all."
In the United States, Keith Urbahn, is credited with being the first to break to news that bin Laden had been found and killed. Urbahn who describes himself as chief of staff for former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, on his Twitter profile tweeted this post more than an hour before Obama's speech.
"So I'm told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden. Hot damn."
http://digiknow.ninemsn.com.au/internet/internetfeatures/8243999/meet-the-man-who-live-tweeted-bin-ladens-demise
Sohaib Athar, aka @ReallyVirtual, lives in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the town where bin Laden was based. He first reported hearing a helicopter hovering above at 1am, citing it as "a rare event". Shortly afterwards he voiced his concerns about hearing a "huge, window shaking bang", adding that he hoped it wasn't "the start of something nasty".
In an interview with Reuters, Athar said, "I was awake, working on my computer when I heard a sound of helicopter. It was rare here. It hovered for about six minutes and then there was a big blast and power gone."
"I tweeted it because it was something unusual in the city," he added.
As Athar continued to tweet about what he could hear going on around him, he and his followers speculated about the reasons for the disturbance.
Seven hours after Athar's first tweet, President Barack Obama announced bin Laden's death in an operation by US forces, and that one helicopter had been lost.
"Uh oh, now I'm the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it," Athar said on Twitter a couple of hours after the announcement.
Since being recognised as the person who broke the news of the raid, the number of people following Athar on Twitter has jumped from several hundred to more than 70,000.
Initially, his replies to his followers were jovial, but Athar soon became exasperated after his email inbox, Skype and Twitter accounts were flooded by those trying to contact him.
He remains keen to play down his new-found fame:
"I am JUST a tweeter, awake at the time of the crash. Not many twitter users in Abbottabad, these guys are more into facebook. That's all."
In the United States, Keith Urbahn, is credited with being the first to break to news that bin Laden had been found and killed. Urbahn who describes himself as chief of staff for former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, on his Twitter profile tweeted this post more than an hour before Obama's speech.
"So I'm told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden. Hot damn."
http://digiknow.ninemsn.com.au/internet/internetfeatures/8243999/meet-the-man-who-live-tweeted-bin-ladens-demise
1.5.11
Tis the season to be sneezy.
Tried all the cold remedies and still snivelling? You’re not alone! Here in Australia the sneezing season is approaching. Although, colds aren’t colds because you get them when it’s warm too. However, now is their time, and they’re out to get us all.
Dry throat? Watery eyes? I get them too, when I see the price of so-called cold remedies. There are those who have faith in science and medicine. They’re called Pharmaceutical Corporations and they see our sniffles as money in the bank. We soldier on, pop pills and shove little nozzles up our nostrils every year to confirm what we’ve known since we learned that C is for Cat…there is no cure for the common cold. You can dry it, you can stop the headache, you can be non-drowsy, but you’ll still cough and sound as though you’re talking with a clothes peg on your nose.
We know that a cold running its course is as inevitable as the next set of bank fees. But there’s no reason you can’t string the kids along for a few more years. You need that hope when you’re young, you need to believe that your parents are almost god-like and can look after you through every one of life’s trials. Keeping this belief in them is almost as precious as their belief in Santa. No one wants to be the one to tell a kid that guys who go around in white beards and fur-trimmed red suits in 30C heat are really struggling actors. Don’t you be the one to tell them they’re going to have colds for the rest of their lives. They have to believe you can make them better. Of course, it’ll be another betrayal they’ll blame you for in their teens but, until then, you’re Mary Poppins, Merlin the Magician and the cast of E.R rolled into one.
Get out the mixing bowl and towel, and boil a kettle; it’s time to teach the young’ uns the joys of inhaling steaming-hot menthol and eucalyptus vapour. This is always a good one, because there’s instant relief for the kiddies – if not from the vapours, then from the moment you let them take the towel off their head and they can gasp in some cool air again.
It should clear their nostrils enough until you get them to bed. Then out comes the vapour rub. The pong when it’s first being rubbed on a chest is like smelling salts – it’d bring around a boxer who’s just been knocked out by Mike Tyson. And you’ve got to keep telling the little tackers that it’ll help them breathe better. The tooth fairy has nothing on you – you’re the magician who cures colds, the David Copperfield of catarrh.
Your kiddies also need to believe that you can give them something to stop their coughing. Our parents were geniuses at this, weren’t they? Anything hot and sweet to drink featuring honey, lemon or whatever was your favourite cordial. Just enough stuff to give it a weird taste so we knew it was medicine, but sweet enough to overcome our resistance to anything new. So as you hand them a cup of flavoured hot water, say in your most soothing voice: ‘This is what nanna used to give me, and it always made me feel better.’ Kids always think nanna knows even more than you do.
Today’s cough medicines might actually be better than the ones we had. I remember my favourite-tasting medicine actually used to make me cough more, but Mum convinced me that it had to do that before I got better. And sure enough, a week or two later I would be. But what about we adults? Who’s going to mop our fevered brows and tell us it’s all going to be all right? Don’t look at me!
I guess if you’re a one-person business you might have to soldier on, but the alarming thing about most jobs is that the company will survive for a couple of days without you. I know it sounds crazy – how could they possibly keep going without you at your desk? Trust me, they will. You can actually take something called a sick day to stay in bed and let your immune system work its magic. (This, incidentally, is what sick days are actually meant for, just in case you thought they were for Christmas shopping or hangover recovery time.)
You’ll also do your bit for office morale. We all know how distressing it can be to see previously attractive friends show up for work looking as though they’ve spent the morning peeling onions and sandpapering their noses. It’s enough to make you feel sick too, even before they sniffle into a used tissue for the umpteenth time.
If you don’t want to suffer at all, your best chance of avoiding a cold is to wear a surgical mask at all times. And do your best to avoid contact with all other humans. They may think you’re a bit weird, but hey, they said that about Howard Hughes. And to those of you who sneezed as you read this…bless you, everyone.
25.4.11
Harsh Punishment or Outstanding Parenting?
Sunday night while I was watching a current affairs program, I noticed a little story about 2 little boys who were getting some pretty harsh punishment from ruining the family bath tub. So I searched for the story and found it to be true and a little part of me...oh who am I kidding...all of me thought it was outstanding parenting.
I could tell you the story but I will let the obviously ropeable parent’s eBay commercial do the talking.
We are selling 8 Beyblades, 2 of them light up. As you can tell they are not happy about this! They have been using their bathtub as a “battle arena” and Beyblades + Bathtub = Destruction!!! With the metal ones they managed to scrape the enamel off the tub, take a chunk of tub out and break off the soap holder. SO if you “win” this auction DON’T play with in a bathtub!!! We have received a quote of $500.00 to replace the tub, some tiles, and soap holder + labour of course! They had approximately $125.67 in their piggy banks that will be going to toward the cost. We will use the profit from this auction towards the balance and then it is onto other toys!
Good Luck bidding!!
PayPal only.
Firstly, for those like me who have no idea what Bayblades are, they are like spinning tops made out of metal that fight each other, they are the atomic bomb of spinning tops and that bathtub was Hiroshima. Quite frankly they sound dangerous, what ever happened to Cowboys and Indians with water pistols in the backyard for boyhood war games....but I digress.
Now since the story aired on TV, the ad has been taken down. The last bid was for $10k, probably a fake but I suspect it was the world wide attention it received that caused the parents to remove it. Which compounds my belief that you don’t put anything on the internet until you have gone for a walk or slept on it - it was kind of stupid to put their kids’ photos up and humiliate them for the entire world to see. But now that it is out there, what do you think of the punishment? Me? Fabulous. It's tough love and it will teach those little boys that there are consequences to their actions.
You crash into another car, you pay for it. You borrow a friend's dress and stain it, you pay for it. You steal a girl’s husband...you get lumped with her left-overs and eventually you’ll be miserable too and paying for it....
Now for those who think it too harsh because of their age, take another look at the photo.
I’m not a parent but I think the crying one looks old enough to logically prevent destroying tiles and a soap holder and ripping a chunk out of the bathtub. In fact he even looks like he might be faking it...we’ve all been there in an effort to show our remorse to stop the wooden spoon or worse. But the stoic little one on the right, he has that terrified stare of a younger brother caught up in more trouble than he can possibly imagine. That or he’s thinking ‘Sell my Beyblades now-kill you in your sleep later.”
But I have to admit when I first saw the photo I laughed. Is that wrong? Have I turned into mean Miss Hannigan out of Orphan Annie delighting in children’s misery, or have I just remembered my own childhood punishments for similar incidents and realised that they will eventually get over it; they won’t be scarred for life and will most probably laugh about it when they are older.
However others are not sharing my view of teaching them a lesson they will never forget, I found this re-worked version of the same ad from an angry mother.
We are selling 8 Beyblades, 2 of them light up. As you can tell they are not happy about this, but I’m getting rather giggly at posting my crying children on the internet to show what a bad-ass parent I am. They have been using their bathtub as a “battle arena”, which I may have noticed if I paid any actual attention to what my kids did when the played in the bathroom, but I was too busy with my own awesomeness to know. Oh, and Beyblades + Bathtub = Destruction!!! With the metal ones they managed to scrape the enamel off the tub, take a chunk of tub out and break off the soap holder--which was a really expensive soap holder, it was made of crystalized kid tears. SO if you “win” this auction DON’T play with in a bathtub!!! Or at the very least, pay more attention to your kids than I obviously do! We have recieved a quote of $500.00 to replace the tub, some tiles, and soap holder + labor of course! No way could I go to a local hardware store and purchase a bathtub enamel repair kit and some grout and a new soap container for less than $100. No way. They had approxamently $125.67 in their piggy banks that will be going to toward the cost. We will use the profit from this auction towards the balance and then it is onto other toys! Other toys that had nothing to do with the destruction, but I can’t be bothered with details like that. Good Luck bidding!!! Paypal only. Now I’m off to kick a puppy.
Ok, so maybe after that I’ve revised my opinion a little...Maybe they should have just taken the toys off them and quietly given them to charity and then perhaps sprayed them clean daily with the hose in the backyard until the bath was fixed......WHAT???? Should I shut up now?
I could tell you the story but I will let the obviously ropeable parent’s eBay commercial do the talking.
We are selling 8 Beyblades, 2 of them light up. As you can tell they are not happy about this! They have been using their bathtub as a “battle arena” and Beyblades + Bathtub = Destruction!!! With the metal ones they managed to scrape the enamel off the tub, take a chunk of tub out and break off the soap holder. SO if you “win” this auction DON’T play with in a bathtub!!! We have received a quote of $500.00 to replace the tub, some tiles, and soap holder + labour of course! They had approximately $125.67 in their piggy banks that will be going to toward the cost. We will use the profit from this auction towards the balance and then it is onto other toys!
Good Luck bidding!!
PayPal only.
Firstly, for those like me who have no idea what Bayblades are, they are like spinning tops made out of metal that fight each other, they are the atomic bomb of spinning tops and that bathtub was Hiroshima. Quite frankly they sound dangerous, what ever happened to Cowboys and Indians with water pistols in the backyard for boyhood war games....but I digress.
Now since the story aired on TV, the ad has been taken down. The last bid was for $10k, probably a fake but I suspect it was the world wide attention it received that caused the parents to remove it. Which compounds my belief that you don’t put anything on the internet until you have gone for a walk or slept on it - it was kind of stupid to put their kids’ photos up and humiliate them for the entire world to see. But now that it is out there, what do you think of the punishment? Me? Fabulous. It's tough love and it will teach those little boys that there are consequences to their actions.
You crash into another car, you pay for it. You borrow a friend's dress and stain it, you pay for it. You steal a girl’s husband...you get lumped with her left-overs and eventually you’ll be miserable too and paying for it....
Now for those who think it too harsh because of their age, take another look at the photo.
I’m not a parent but I think the crying one looks old enough to logically prevent destroying tiles and a soap holder and ripping a chunk out of the bathtub. In fact he even looks like he might be faking it...we’ve all been there in an effort to show our remorse to stop the wooden spoon or worse. But the stoic little one on the right, he has that terrified stare of a younger brother caught up in more trouble than he can possibly imagine. That or he’s thinking ‘Sell my Beyblades now-kill you in your sleep later.”
But I have to admit when I first saw the photo I laughed. Is that wrong? Have I turned into mean Miss Hannigan out of Orphan Annie delighting in children’s misery, or have I just remembered my own childhood punishments for similar incidents and realised that they will eventually get over it; they won’t be scarred for life and will most probably laugh about it when they are older.
However others are not sharing my view of teaching them a lesson they will never forget, I found this re-worked version of the same ad from an angry mother.
We are selling 8 Beyblades, 2 of them light up. As you can tell they are not happy about this, but I’m getting rather giggly at posting my crying children on the internet to show what a bad-ass parent I am. They have been using their bathtub as a “battle arena”, which I may have noticed if I paid any actual attention to what my kids did when the played in the bathroom, but I was too busy with my own awesomeness to know. Oh, and Beyblades + Bathtub = Destruction!!! With the metal ones they managed to scrape the enamel off the tub, take a chunk of tub out and break off the soap holder--which was a really expensive soap holder, it was made of crystalized kid tears. SO if you “win” this auction DON’T play with in a bathtub!!! Or at the very least, pay more attention to your kids than I obviously do! We have recieved a quote of $500.00 to replace the tub, some tiles, and soap holder + labor of course! No way could I go to a local hardware store and purchase a bathtub enamel repair kit and some grout and a new soap container for less than $100. No way. They had approxamently $125.67 in their piggy banks that will be going to toward the cost. We will use the profit from this auction towards the balance and then it is onto other toys! Other toys that had nothing to do with the destruction, but I can’t be bothered with details like that. Good Luck bidding!!! Paypal only. Now I’m off to kick a puppy.
Ok, so maybe after that I’ve revised my opinion a little...Maybe they should have just taken the toys off them and quietly given them to charity and then perhaps sprayed them clean daily with the hose in the backyard until the bath was fixed......WHAT???? Should I shut up now?
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