Rubénerd!

7 Formerly Popular Sites that Are Dying: Indications are that Slashdot, Blogger, Digg and other sites are on their way out.

As too is Discovery's arithmetic: they listed eight bullet points. I guess it's to be expected, they're on the spurious "Twitter killed blogs" bandwagon.

UPDATE: According to the site, the "content" is "provided" by FoxNews.com. That makes even more sense.

In September 2007 I posted a photo I took of a Singaporean magazine where they had spelt Bill O'Reilly's name as Nill O'Reilly. I thought it was hilarious, and postulated that it was a Freudian Slip on the editor's part. I also commented on the irony of positioning him in the magazine next to a panel talking about global warming which I said I was sure he denied was happening. This didn't please someone who rudely told me to "Wise up" which I replied to. Whew!

Well the unintended saga continues! nicksmultiverse has posted another comment where he attacks my reply:

Leffy loon or no loon, you still tried to twist the actual point for this.

Bill believes in global warming.

Who gives a horse's a** about who "misspelled" anyone's name?

The fact is, GW is occurring at such speeds that are quite alarming. Enough about what/who caused it. Let's do something about it. Put aside partisan politics and change the world.

In retrospect this reply was far too long, but I figure I may as well give him another thing to complain about.

I posted this photo because I thought it was funny, that was the point of posting this image, which I have explained to you twice now.

I didn't want this image to degenerate into a tit-for-tat pedantic argument over wording (of all things), but if that's what you want, instead of linking to the articles (which curiously didn't satisfy your need for me to defend what I said) I'll quote the pertinent sections.

From Fair.org: For example, O'Reilly often touts himself as a staunch environmentalist to prove his ideological evenhandedness. But then he rails that "the greens have strangled the California economy" (5/10/01), environmentalists are "distorting and oversimplifying some very powerful issues" (5/1/01), and his stance on climate change (3/29/01) is so qualified as to be practically a non-position: "I believe there is global warming. I mean, I know that's controversial. For every scientist who says there is, there's one that says there isn't."

Too early in the decade for you? What about Media Matters in 2008: Responding to a viewer's email about whether the current global warming "scare" is "natural" or "man-made," Fox News' Bill O'Reilly asserted: "It's all guesswork." Contrary to O'Reilly's assertion, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded that the Earth is warming and human activity is very likely responsible for most of that warming.

Climate change is happening, and O'Reilly isn't helping. Could I have more precisely worded what I originally wrote better? If I were writing a masters thesis, perhaps (see reason for posting photo above). At this point though a non-position is just as destructive to our environment as denial, and it certainly isn't the "belief" which you claim it is.

If you're going to ask me who gives an arse about how a major publication misspelled a name, I'd ask you who gives an arse about the exact wording on a guy's lighthearted Flickr page. And if you're going to call me out on being partisan, drop the "leftie loon". You make yourself look like a hypocrite on both counts.

In the meantime, chill out and have a laugh! We're only on this planet for a limited amount of time, and negativity doesn't help anyone. If you didn't find the photo funny, just don't post, it's that simple mate.

I really hope that's the end of this, but I get the feeling it won't be. As I've said before, I try my best to assume good intentions online when it comes to comments, but if someone accuses me of doing something I haven't, I will defend myself. I get the feeling I'll need to learn to let some things slide though!

It seems I unwittingly irked a fan of Bill O'Reilly and Fox News on my Flickr profile earlier this year without realising it! It all started with this photo I uploaded in November 2007 along with the following caption.

Quote from the cable TV magazine:

"With his irreverent sensibilities, veteran journalist Nill O'Reilly breaks through the spin and rhetoric of news events to reach the crux of the matter."

They called him "NILL"! That can't possibly be a typo!

Also ironic that the article next to his is "The Sacred Balance" which details global warming, something which I'm sure Nillo denies is happening :)

I thought the addition of the smiley face at the end of the sentence and the general jovial tone of the comment was fairly obvious, but a fellow Flickr user by the name of nicksmultiverse had other ideas:

No actually see, your statement right there is wrong. They may have misspelled Bill's name, but you are a fool for "assuming" that he doesn't think Global Warming is happening.

Maybe if you lefty loons listened for a change, watched his show, instead of this "assuming" and believing by "word of mouth" you would get your facts straight. Bill DOES believe in Global Warming, but he's on the fence like most of us. (Us, the people who believe it is naturally occurring) Hence, the planets own heating and cooling and Human activity.

Wise up!

I tried to come up with a witty line to put here, but one isn't coming to me right now. Grilled cheese sandwiches.

You may be right sir, or you may be wrong, or you may be very wrong. The point though is that I think you misunderstood the tone of my comment; I'm willing to chalk up your response to this. You should also make sure you're not assuming anything about me ("lefty loon") or other people ("on the fence like most of us") when you're arguing against assumptions in the first place.

Bill O'Reilly has been caught out numerous times distorting facts and lying. You should attempt to "wise up" to this sir before you start crassly instructing others to do so. And please try to be less rude in your comments; when we keep discussion civil we can have far more fruitful conversations. Cheers :).

I finally caved and re-registered my Pro Flickr account. My experiment with Zooomr was fun, but Flickr is way more reliable and still easier to use. The smart sets feature in Zooomr which can create sets automatically based on tags is nice, but often backfired so I couldn't use it seriously.

So to celebrate my return to the Flickr realm, I've posted a VERY funny picture in the Singapore StarHub cable TV guide for this month!

That's right, they called him NILL O'Reilly! He's nothing, his opinions are worthless, he's NILL!

If you don't have the pleasure of knowing who Bill O'Reilly is, he's a self confessed "traditionalist" who tries to seek the truth "without spin" but is in reality a loud conservative pundit who yanks the microphones - and screams over the top of - people he disagrees with. Very entertaining television if you don't take him seriously.

But now he's being shown in Singapore? Argh where's Keith Olbermann when you need him?