Category Archives: internet

America: Death Before Discomfort

internet, politics, rhetoric, sex Leave a comment

Craigslist ditches personals ads following passage of sex-trafficking law (Miami Herald) Female homicide rate dropped after Craigslist launched its erotic services platform (thinkprogress.org) In 2011, when the nation was transfixed by the “Craigslist murders” in Ohio, I had a unique vantage point to what was going on. Not only was I living in Ohio, but I was going through a period of very low employment; I had some freelance writing work to help me pay my bills, but I wasn’t teaching, and I really needed…

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On Cloppers and Clopping

internet, politics, rhetoric, sex, television Leave a comment

The original Star Trek television series was the backdrop for a lot of the bonding I did with Mom when I was young. Back before we had cable, reruns of the original Star Trek were one of the few things my mother made a point of catching whenever they were on, because she’s always had a huge crush on William Shatner dating back to before he even appeared on The Twilight Zone. For my part, I identified a lot with Spock, if only because he was the closest…

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Exploration Versus Programming

internet, music Leave a comment

Google Play Music All Access: search giant launches rival to Spotify (guardian.co.uk) I’ve had three “Internet radio stations” since I launched the .org back in 2000. The first was from a very primitive service that I could never program right; no matter what I did, it just kept churning out classical music all the time, so I hardly ever used it. The second was programmed through Launchcast when it was still a part of Yahoo!, and that worked a lot better for me, even introducing…

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Women Deserve Better from Facebook

freespeech, internet, rhetoric Leave a comment

What Facebook Continues To Tell Us About Violence Against Women (Fem 2.0) Earlier this year, my Facebook timeline was flooded with my friends reposting an image of a breast cancer survivor’s chest tattoo that Facebook repeatedly deleted because the image of a woman’s naked chest technically violated their nudity policy. Facebook eventually relented, but it reminded me of an episode of that Comedy Central atrocity known as The Man Show, in which a man who’d gotten breast implants on a dare came on and showed off…

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An Open Letter to Lauren Faust

arts, business, internet, politics, television, writing Leave a comment

Dear Ms. Faust: My name is Sean Shannon. I’m an English teacher and aspiring author from Toledo, Ohio. More importantly, I’m a longtime fan of your work; I still carry around the same Powerpuff Girls purse I bought more than a decade ago during the height of the show’s popularity. and last year I finally found the time to watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and quickly became hooked. Few television shows have had as profound an effect on my life, and I have made…

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