EppsNet Archive: Social Networks

Who is to Blame for Buffalo?

by Paul Epps on 18 May 2022

From Kevin D. Williamson: Before the blood was even dry in Buffalo, Democrats were asking the most important question: “How can we well-heeled white progressives most effectively use the murders of all these black people to our personal and political advantage?” The murderer in Buffalo didn’t kill anybody you’ve ever heard of, and so the first thing to do if you want to exploit the deaths of all these people — and that is what Democrats intend to do — is to connect the crime to some famous name or prominent institution. It doesn’t matter if there isn’t any actual connection: Just assert it, and that’s good enough for the newspapers and the cable-news cretins and the impotent rage-monkeys on Twitter. The usual suspects: social-media platforms, Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump, the Republican Party, Fox News, the National Rifle Association, etc. The shooter was actually well known in advance as a… Read more →

What to Do in a Tsunami

by Paul Epps on 15 Jan 2022

JUST IN: The National Tsunami Warning Center has issued a tsunami advisory is in effect for the entire West Coast and Alaska in the wake of an undersea volcanic eruption near Tonga. https://t.co/6QAUay90w7 — ABC News (@ABC) January 15, 2022 The good news is that on the water side of Ocean Blvd in Santa Monica there is about a 100-ft high bluff, which should be a good tsunami barrier. But a good way to go out of this life would be sitting on the restaurant deck at the end of the pier (in the middle distance below) with a refreshing cocktail and speaking my final words just prior to being crushed by a wall of water: “See you in Hell!” Record the whole thing as a live TikTok. If that doesn’t go viral, I don’t know what will. Read more →

I’m Actually Old Enough to Remember Freedom of Speech

by Paul Epps on 20 Feb 2021

Poland Proposes $13.5 Million Fines for Tech Giants Engaging in Ideological Censorship — The Epoch Times I’m actually old enough to remember when the USA, not Poland, carried the torch for freedom of speech. We took it for granted I suppose, but Poland has much more recent experience with being told what they are not allowed to think, say or write, and they don’t like it. Na Zdrowie, Polska! Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki wrote the following: I was born and raised among people for whom freedom was the most precious of values. In Poland we are so attached to freedom because we know what it is like when someone tries to limit it. For close to 50 years we lived in a country in which censorship was practiced, in which Big Brother told us how we are meant to live and what we are meant to feel, and what… Read more →

Ayatollah So

by Paul Epps on 18 Apr 2016

In Iran you can vote for anyone for President so long as that person has been approved by the Ayatollah Khameini. We Americans call that system a dictatorship. Voters in America recently discovered that they live under an Iranian type of system and didn’t know it. In the primaries, voters participate in some sort of ritualistic placebo voting while party leaders select the candidates. . . . Thanks to social media, and Trump, America will get its first taste of real democracy. If it doesn’t work out, we can always go back to the Iranian model and hope for our self-awareness to diminish over time. — Scott Adams Read more →

How Would You Like to Share This News?

by Paul Epps on 18 Sep 2015

Neil Young in LA

by Paul Epps on 27 Feb 2014

Neil Young is playing a couple of solo acoustic shows next month at the Dolby Theatre. Tickets went on sale Monday morning, but somehow I missed the fact that they’d been available via “pre-sale” since last Friday and were all gone by Monday morning. What a heartbreaker. Fortunately, thanks to the wonders of technology and social networks, Mr. Young and his team were able to inform me via Facebook that a third show had been added and I was able to log in and get tickets for that one. The sold-out shows are on a Saturday and Sunday. The new show is on a Tuesday. Am I looking forward to driving in to LA and back on a Tuesday? No, but on a list of solo acoustic shows for which I’d be most willing to knock over my own mother to get a ticket, Neil Young would be second, behind… Read more →

Coursera Recommendations

by Paul Epps on 27 Jan 2013

Coursera‘s been around long enough now that some classes are being offered for a second time, including a couple that I’ve taken and recommend: Modern & Contemporary American Poetry, taught by Al Filreis at Penn Social Network Analysis, taught by Lada Adamic at the University of Michigan Read more →

Visualizing Social Networks

by Paul Epps on 27 Oct 2012

I’m taking a Social Network Analysis class on Coursera. These weren’t assignments for the class (well, the Facebook one sort of was), just some experiments I wanted to share. Facebook You can use netvizz to download a gdf file of your Facebook network, i.e., all of your Facebook friends and all of the connections between them. You can then use your favorite graph analysis software (I used Gephi, which is open-source and free) to look for patterns. My Facebook network is in the image below. Of the four main clusters, two consist of co-workers, one is family and one is people I know from roller hockey. Twitter This is the network of people I follow on Twitter. I used NodeXL (a free, open-source template for Excel) to download and lay out the data. I labeled the nodes in this one. With a few exceptions, the light blue nodes are people… Read more →

Living in the Digital World

by Paul Epps on 26 Oct 2011

A 2011 study by telecommunications giant Ericsson found that 35% of iPhone and Android users check their email or Facebook account before getting out of bed in the morning. Read more →

Alone Together

by Paul Epps on 26 Oct 2011

We are lonely but fearful of intimacy. Constant connectivity offers the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship. We can’t get enough of each other if we can have each other at a distance and in amounts we can control. — Sherry Turkle Read more →

Hashtag

by Paul Epps on 18 Jun 2011

My wife dominates the Twitter landscape with almost 1,000 followers . . . “I have to say something to my followers about my son going to college,” she says. The boy overhears this and pipes in: “My only child is leaving for college in two months. Hashtag sadbutproud.” Read more →

Thomas Jefferson on Weinergate

by Thomas Jefferson on 7 Jun 2011

Rep. Weiner of New York — one of the 13 original colonies — has been sending photos of his penis to women in Texas, Washington and other points west. When I was president, Texas and Washington weren’t even part of the country, and if I wanted to show a woman my dick, she had to be right there in the room with me.1 And still there are some misfits who insist that there is no such thing as progress. Yes, I could have made a sketch and sent it through the mail but that could take weeks. Read more →

The Lord Moves in Mysterious Ways

by Paul Epps on 22 Jul 2010

My eyes were severely burned by a toxic poison.Hospitalized Mon.Excruciating pain.Now home.Pray my sight loss is restored — Rick Warren (via Twitter) The Lord moves in mysterious ways, e.g., blinding a mega-pastor. Call me a skeptic, but if I were blind and in excruciating pain, I wouldn’t be sending Twitter updates. These guys like to exaggerate and call attention to themselves. Update: Doctors have determined that Warren was unable to see because he had his eyes closed. I’m not kidding. Read more →

Twitter: 2010-06-26

by Paul Epps on 26 Jun 2010

RT @SarahKSilverman: Sometimes people act like the US isn't the only country in the whole world. # Ignore the influencers: The dangers of a social media world | Conversation Marketing http://shar.es/mIRWQ # Watching the World Cup unfold on Twitter at http://twitter.com/worldcup/home # Read more →