Non Sequitur Takes a Poke at Social Networking

I love the comics. I read them every day. Well, almost every day, if I have to be utterly honest. One of my favorites is Non Sequitur.

Wiley Miller, the cartoonist for Non Sequitur has an outrageous sense of humor and sees our world as no one else does absurdities and all.

A few days ago, he jumped into the world of social networking by taking a poke at Facebook.



So, what is social networking? It's the grouping of individuals into specific groups. Huh? Here's a website that can explain it easily. WHAT IS SOCIAL NETWORKING?

Facebook is just one of those social networks. Myspace is another. LinkedIn is another. Those are the top three. And, they're all used for very different reasons by very different people.

I'm going to be VERY basic here. One size does not FIT ALL!!!!

Myspace is used by the younger crowd and the artists groups: authors, muscians, artists, etc.

Facebook is used by slightly older crowd and you still have the artists groups as well as more business people. It's also used by the families and schoolmates looking to reconnect.

LinkedIn is probably the only one that has the majority of business people on it and does nearly all business, no socializing.

I purposely left out the Tweeters mostly because I don't understand them, and I don't exactly know how they fit into a stable social network.

So, enjoy the cartoons and have fun on your social networking site of choice.

Weird but Brilliant?

This column appeared in our Tampa St Petersburg Times Newspaper

The Annals of Improbable Research magazine bestowed the 2009 Ig Nobels last Thursday in a ceremony at Harvard. The awards honor scientific research that seems odd but has serious practical application. The awards were handed out by Nobel laureates.

And the winners are:

Veterinary Medicine: Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson for showing that cows with names give more milk than unnamed cows.

Peace: Stephan Bolliger, Stefen Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Micheal Thali, and Beat Kneubuehl for investigating whether it is better to be struck over the head with a full or empty beer bottle.


Economics: Executives of four Icelandic banks for showing how tiny banks can become huge, and then become tiny again.

Chemistry: Javier Morales, Miguel Apatiga, and Victor Castano for creating diamonds out of tequila.


Medicine: Donals Unger for cracking the knuckles on his left hand for 60 years to see if it contributes to arthritis.

Physics: Katherine Whitcome, Liza Shapiro and Daniel Lieberman for figuring out why pregnant women don't tip over.

Literature: Irish police for issuing 50 tickets to Prawo Jazdy, which in Polish means "driver's license."

Public health: Elena Bodnar, Raphael Lee, and Sandra Marijan for inventing a bra that can be converted into a gas mask. Actually, two gas masks.


Mathematics: The Zimbabwean Reserve Bank for printing notes in denominations from 1 cent tot $100 trillion.


Biology: Fumiaki Taguchi, Song Guofu and Zhang Guanglei for demonstrating that bacteria in panda poop can help reduce kitchen waste by 90 percent.

*****

All I can say, is "So that's where our Research and Development grant $$ are going?"

What the "Fragglerock" is that all about?