Showing posts with label Twitter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Twitter. Show all posts

Friday, March 9, 2012

How Luther Went Viral

The following takes a look at "How Luther Went Viral" and in this sense also helps to spread the original article (from the economist) and send it viralling off into the darkness -- er, "cloud."

While the author draws a neat
parallel
between social activism in the 1500s
and the riots in Arabic countries
in 2011
based on people making connections through new and growing social media
of their times, he seems content
to shine a light on Luther’s progress and to
reiterate the adage that “History repeats itself” by stating “History tells us
that there is nothing new under the sun.”

Even though we have newer technology
by which these connections were
made for the riots in 2011
(the internet, tv, social media like Facebook and Twitter),
these are simply comparable to the older technology when it was new in the 1500s:
cheap pamphlets, crude political/religious drawings, and easily learned ditties.

From both, people of geographic disparity learned that others shared their views,
and this created a growth and an impact for change to occur.
The author ends his brilliant discussion
-- of Luther’s use of media and propaganda to flame the passions of the common people --
with a mediocre stab that seems more intent at ending the article than saying anything:
that they “do not just connect us to each other: they also link us to the past.”
How this links us to the past (other than being a parallel) is not part of the article.
Even Hitler used media and propaganda,
and the new media he used was FILM.

Seems this was a clever idea on how
to showcase the author’s knowledge of Luther.
If one wants to know more about the riots of 2011 (not much was
mentioned of them in the article), there is a link below this one to another
Economist.com article. It’s located
under “Religion” rather than “Politics.”

One is further provided choices to “LIKE” this on Facebook (4k so far),
“TWEET” this on Twitter (3890 so far, so perhaps the same 4k),
Comment on it (40 so far),
Email, Print it, or Reprint it (with permissions).
One can also recommend it on the Economist (504 so far),
reddit (unknown), Google +1 (199 so far), and
LinkedIn Share it (857 so far).

I would say this article has not gone viral yet.

Given that it was first published/posted in Dec 2011, it’s not likely to get much more attention, but it is a possibility. (Here's one post that might help that, eh?)

And, yes, the author likened Luther’s popularity and his movement to “going viral.”

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Eating Your Weight Thru the Holidays

I've added a Twitter feed to my blog and if you've noticed that, then you know that I'm baking holiday cookies this week, and Barry has an office party at our house this Friday. It just cannot be complete without making a lot of sweets and a lot of carbs!

So how do I handle all this?

1. I have an emergency plan if I lose control. Call this your back up plan.
  • Stop at 3 (3 cookies, 3 candied things) if I do get into the goodies.
  • Call a friend or check online with a support group who can give you encouragement to drink some water instead and wait 15 minutes to see if you can control the craving.
  • Leave the house; take a walk or a drive. A walk is good because it also increases your metabolism. Be gone for at least 15 minutes. If you go on a drive, drink water and go where there is no food - the gym or the library or a walk in a park/woods. (Avoid the mall, Target, Wal-mart and any other store that has any food in or around it - the smells won't help you even if you think you could kill two birds with one stone by getting some errands done.)

2. Increase your exercising during the week by 5-15 minutes a day...for the week, this will give you 30-45 minutes more for the week.
  • If you're short on time, take the 5 minutes to run up and down the stairs somewhere or dance like crazy in the kitchen when a great song comes on (they're only about 3 minutes - I did 3 different songs during the big bake-a-thon).

3. Its winter, so double-duty: Increase your water - add 2-3 cups a day.
  • Another cup when you wake up, one while you dance or run the stairs (when you finish) and another before you go to bed, or wherever you can find the time to suck another one down.
  • This will help you feel fuller when you do eat, and helps hydrate your skin during these drier months, too.

4. Make extra portions for yourself of things you can have on your program and reward yourself by having more of those and limiting your other indulgences.
  • I like veal sauteed with mushrooms and asparagus and maybe crab meat (veal oscar). I use chicken breasts usually for this, and parmesan and egg for the "breading" and maybe italian seasoning.
  • Leftovers can go into an omelet for breakfast the next day and it's really a snap to whip up a one-person hollandaise sauce.

  • If you haven't tried this, you owe it to yourself. A good whisk and the
    microwave - watch the "pot" - does the trick and if not, throw it into the
    blender to eliminate any lumpy mistakes.
  • The blender then goes into the
    dishwasher - easy clean-up (yay!).
  • Crab and asparagus omelets with
    hollandaise - now there's a real holiday treat!

With these methods for reducing your hunger, keeping your metabolism up, and avoiding the worst cravings as much as you can, you can enjoy the holidays and maintain the weight loss you've already enjoyed, and be ready afterwards to kick it into high gear for the spring bathing season coming up....

All you're doing then (since you've increased your metabolism and your exercise and your water) is stop indulging in carbs and sweets (again). Think you can do that? Sure thing!