Follow You… Follow Me: Making Meaningful Connections with Twitter

So you've become part of the twitter world. You set up your account and start following people like crazy. But you begin to get discouraged. Few are following you back and a fair number are actually blocking you from following them. What gives?

Strategizing on New Media for Nonprofits

On Thursday, July 16th, I had the pleasure of presenting a two-hour seminar on "new media for nonprofit organizations". In the audience were 55 or so representatives of organizations in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Brought together by the Winnipeg Foundation, the seminar was designed to introduce new media tools and providing guidelines about how an organization develops a communications strategy given all of the social networking and online content tools available.

Misleading Reports About Indians Throwing Their Babies

Have you heard about babies being thrown from roofs for their own good as some kind of traditional ritual? My guess is that you haven't, unless you read about it in the last year or two in some foreign publication. There have been news stories about this baby throwing "ritual" abroad and the impression created is that this is a traditional Indian ritual.

Can Works Be Taken Out of the Public Domain?

I spent the summer finishing up a paper that I have been working on (off-again, on-again) for the better part of a year. The paper grew out of a seemingly simple question I tried to answer a couple of years ago, namely: if I put something into the public domain, can I take it out again?

Site Finds Best Pay-As-You-Go Broadband Deals

As a web entrepreneur, there are a few times a year when I travel
out of town and I really must have a mobile Internet connection. This
is not very often, usually just twice a year when on vacation or
visiting friends. So I've been searching for an inexpensive but
quality solution that doesn't chain me to a monthly expense.

Why Not A Single Shot For Influenza Vaccines?

Two different influenza vaccines will be available in the fall of 2009. Many readers of virology blog have asked why these four virus strains will not be combined into a single, tetravalent formulation. I posed this question to Dr. Ruben Donis, chief of the molecular virology and vaccines branch at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

OMB’s 2009 Deficit Estimate Is Likely Too High

As expected, the new budget projections from the Office of Management and Budget show an estimated deficit of $1.58 trillion in the current year (which ends on September 30). In their coverage of the dueling budget releases, many members of the media are noting that this estimate is almost identical to the $1.59 trillion estimate released by the Congressional Budget Office.

3 Reasons Why Pittsburgh Is Perfect for the G-20

Over the past 3 decades people of Pittsburgh worked hard together to get a bright future. As a result it has become a model for economic and environmental changes. The life of people has also transformed with great ease and diversity, which lead to a balanced and bouncing economy.

FBI Informant Urged Lynching of Black Congresswoman

Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney sent an Email around on Sunday in which she wrote: "[I]t has just now come to my attention that a 'journalist' who suggested that I be lynched was actually being paid by our own government to say that."

Weed Killer Exceeds EPA Limits in Drinking Water

One of the most widely-used weed killers in the country is coming under fire. Yesterday the New York Times and my employer, the Huffington Post Investigative Fund, published investigations into the health risks associated with Atrazine.