Hi Robert,

Emily ——

At least she got my name right unlike the other people. My response:

If I worked with you, it was likely to hire temporary help, unless your data entry positions are paying upwards of $200k then I might be interested, so double check your mailing list, thanks.

Also, apparently the space bar usage is not soaring nearly as much as the job opportunities, you might want to increase that in order to convey a slightly more professional message.

k thx bai

</sarcasm>

I feel like if you didn’t realize that constantly, publicly, announcing your location was grounds for being robbed raped and pillaged (arrr!) then you are and idiot.  I understand there are probably arguments out there against this being an issue, but what it all comes down to is making yourself an easy target.  You can say “well people can break in whenever they want” or “if they really want to steal from me they will be able to just see when I leave.”   This is true unless you are a CEO, famous athlete, JHM, etc and thus more of a target than a normal person.  Outside of fitting into that criteria, why should a person bother to care that other people know their name, address, when they are home, or other things?

Well.. if I am looking for a place to steal shit from, and there are two houses on a block, one with a sign on it that says “no one is home!” and one that has nothing posted.. which one will I go to?  Yeah, exactly.  A bit of an exaggerated point, but if you narrow your twitter feed, looking for people in a specific region that aren’t home, then use their twitter account to find their facebook, linked in, google account or anywhere else their address is posted.. you now have an open invite and can probably figure out exactly how much time you have to peruse their belongings based on where they are “checked in.”  Or, the best status message, “in Hawaii for a week!” shows them they have an entire week to scope the place out and pick the best time to walk in to steal your shit.

Everyone should furthermore appreciate this stupidity in light of how just a few short years ago everyone was worried about posting their LAST NAME online somewhere.. let alone addresses or phone numbers.  Amazing how we went from being tentative to state our last name on a profile or IM account, for fear they could look us up in a phone book.  <- remember those? I do, because they still freaking come to my house. But I digress, that is an argument for another day.

So we’ve moved from that mentality briskly into announcing every piece of contact information about ourselves and on top of that where we are at all times!  Besides being robbed, if a dude (you might not even know them, maybe they found your pic online and liked what they saw) wants to stalk you, find you at a bar or whatever, you are paving the road for them.  Nicely done.

I must be taking crazy pills here but I can’t be the only one who realizes how stupid this is right?!  People gobble shit shit up as soon as the newest ‘social networking app’ is released.  Immediately adopting allows them to be on the forefront of whatever, and cooler cause they can say ‘oh I’ve been using it for months, its awesome you should check it out.’  Other reasons I can think of for using these apps in this manner include but are not limited to, bragging about what they are doing (I include myself amongst people guilty of this) and ‘everyone else doing it.’

I know there are probably more arguments against my point of view, so let me have it, I’m interested.  (And “getting points” or “being a mayor” on foursquare does not count.)

(CNN) — There had been no confirmed deaths in the United States related to swine flu as of Tuesday afternoon. But another virus had killed thousands of people since January and is expected to keep killing hundreds of people every week for the rest of the year.  That one? The regular flu.

The other reputable news source?  Well he hasn’t updated his site (prior to this) in about six months, but in college it was where I went for advice on everything from critiquing children’s artwork to movie reviews.

Maddox — You’re all idiots. If you’ve spent more than a few minutes worrying about swine flu, you are an idiot. That’s because it only takes a few minutes to look up the symptoms, mortality rate, and treatment to realize that it’s no different from the common flu (which kills way more people and by extension is way more awesome)

Anywho, on to the stupidity:

Jogger injured after using Twitter as he ran
—————————————
“Some dude tweets (and Facebooks) his vacation plans then heads out of town. While he’s gone, someone breaks into his house and steals his computer. Surprise! This guy a) has too many non-friends on Facebook and b) is real fast and loose with his home address. Reminds me of when I was in high school and was too cool to lock my car, even though everyone could hear my boomin’ Kenwood speaker system. Guess what—it got stolen! Use your head, don’t beg people to steal your shit.” gizmodo.com
—————————————
And last but not least, one of the least shocking revelations of all time, right up there with “Earlier this year an insurance company revealed the dangers of twittering whilst driving.” from the running article.
10% Of Twitter Users Account For 90% Of Twitter Activity
Which seems to be 100% in line with what happens when I open my account. This also applies to facebook, though facebook is certainly worse what with the quizzes and surveys that clog my newsfeed. But I digress. About 10% of the people I know on there have posted hundreds of things about their lunch, sleeping, going for a run, walking down the stairs, going to the bathroom, etc etc while most people have only posted a couple of meaningful things I’m actually interested in that are downed out but all the posts I wish I hadn’t wasted the brain power reading.

Being caught on camera, screwing up once and then going back to try a SECOND time are all good ways to get in trouble robbing a bank. So, next time you attempt electronic robbery of a financial institution remember what not to as dictated by Gizmodo.