swine flu infects twitter

The recent outbreak of swine flu has not only taken 100s of lives already, but it has terrified millions around the world. Today, CNN.com reported that Twitter is partially to blame for false information and scares in certain parts of the country and world. This is just another example as to why we cannot trust Twitter as a news source. One quote from the article read,"This is a good example of why [Twitter is] headed in that wrong direction, because it's just propagating fear amongst people as opposed to seeking actual solutions or key information," said Brennon Slattery, a contributing writer for PC World. "The swine flu thing came really at the crux of a media revolution." While Twitter seems to be a harmless form of micro-blogging, it aids in the spread of terror during drastic times like these. See the full article here.

Ashton Kutcher battles CNN for Twitterer of the Century

So if you have been living on mars or in Indiana for the past week, then maybe you haven't heard that Ashton Kutcher, everyone's beloved prankster, challenged CNN to see who could be the first to reach a million followers on Twitter. The winner would donate 10,000 mosquito nets and the loser 1,000 on World Malaria Day. Well, CNN's twitter account "cnnbrk" came up short even after holding the lead for a substancial time. Kutcher's account "aplusk" crossed the one million mark around 2:13 a.m. on Friday (4/17) morning, according to CNN. It took CNN's feed til 2:42 a.m. the same day to reach a milli. Aside from how weird it is for a person to challenge a corporate news company to see who can get more followers, the publicity surrounding the bet did create a lot of buzz for Twitter and for World Malaria Day.

Oprah Winfrey, the inventor of hugs, kisses, and motivational posters staring kitty cats, joined up on Twitter, and also pledged to give 20,000 mosquito nets on World Malaria Day. Not to be outshined by Kutcher, CNN, God or anyone else that gets in her way, Oprah obviously had to double the highest pledge amount. I know that it sounds like I really dislike Oprah and this whole publicity stunt by these celebrities, I do have to admit that there will be probably be a record amount of mosquito nets donated this year. CNN upped the ante and pledged 10,000 even though 1,000 was agreed upon by the loser. Ryan Seacrest couldn't miss out on all the fun so he too pledged to donate an undisclosed amount of nets. All in all, Kutcher did manage to get a whole lot of mosquito nets donated with just a little social networking and a computer.

As a side note, Oprah is definitely getting ready to take over Twitter as she had around 73,000 followers before a single Tweet went out. Bullsh*t. Someone follow me already. I'm just sour because I am incredibly jealous that only 36 people want to know that "I like to rock the party," which was my last tweet, but 73,000 pepople want to hear Oprah say "hello." Why do you have to be famous or incredibly good at social networking to get lots of cool followers? I guess I should work on forcing freinds to join up so that I feel like someone is actually listening. I just wish Tony Hawk followed me back, because he is the man. Oh well, watch out for Oprah, she catching on. Sorry for ranting, I just want to be loved on Twitter.

April Fools - Conficker

April Fools is tomorrow and there is quite a bit of news going around about a virus, Conficker, that is expected to attack computers tomorrow.

I found an article on CNN:

How will the April Fools' computer worm affect you?

Take a look. It will be interesting to see whether this supposed attack will be successful or not.