Jon Morrow, in a rant on social media being abused by Internet marketers:

We’re not going to give you another self-righteous argument about how you can’t make money with social media. We’re not going to sermonize about the pitfalls of sleazy marketing. We’re not going to tell you you’re ruining opportunities for all of the other marketers out there who are trying to do things the right way.

You’ve probably heard enough of that, and it doesn’t matter anyway.

No, the honest truth is that it’s just a bad business strategy, and eventually you’re going to get burned. Sure, you can make a few quick bucks, but over the long term, trying to manipulate social media to get free traffic for your business just isn’t a sustainable strategy.

[via David Kaneda at 9-bits]

Philip Berne has a meltdown.

Each time the company does this, I feel a little older.

So very true, Shawn.

The Pew Research Center:

A substantial and growing number of Americans say that Barack Obama is a Muslim, while the proportion saying he is a Christian has declined. More than a year and a half into his presidency, a plurality of the public says they do not know what religion Obama follows.

[...]

The view that Obama is a Muslim is more widespread among his political opponents than among his backers.

[via @epilnivek]

Steve Jobs, in this video linked to by All Thing D’s John Paczkowski:

This is a very complicated world. This is a very noisy world and we’re not going to get a chance … to get people to remember much about us. No company is. And so we have to be really clear on what we want them to know about us.

Be still, my heart.

Dave Pell:

Have I ever checked email, read incoming tweets or responded to a text message while behind the wheel of a car? Yes. I’m usually at a stoplight or stuck in motionless traffic when I actually use my phone’s virtual keyboard. That factor might make might my behavior slightly less risky, but it doesn’t make it any less stupid.

While I can imagine either sending or receiving a message so pressing that an action would have to be taken at that very moment, I’ve never actually experienced such a scenario. The urgency that drives me to check Twitter or read an email while in the car is entirely a creation of my own mind.

All of this data can wait until later – and much of it can wait until never.

That’s what I needed to read to push me into finally turning off my Facebook account.

[via Shawn Blanc]

The Big Picture has posted a gallery of photos from Hurricane Katrina damage:

Five years ago, Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, centered on New Orleans, as a Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 125 mph (205 km/h). More than fifty levees were breached by its storm surge, causing massive flooding. Over 1,800 Gulf Coast residents lost their lives then, and damages totaled more than $80 billion – the costliest hurricane in U.S. history. Many intangible things were damaged then as well, communities were erased as their neighborhoods washed away, much of historic New Orleans was badly damaged, and frustration and anger remain towards an inadequate immediate response by the U.S. government.

Be sure to check out these Google Earth images of the area, before and after the storm.

Janie Porter at WTSP Channel 10 News in Tampa Bay:

A woman in the Philadelphia area is recovering from “Blackberry thumb” surgery.

The mortgage banker spends 12 hours a day texting clients on her iPhone.

“I’m texted out,” she said.

The constant texting put so much pressure on her hands that the tendons in her thumb became inflamed. She had to undergo surgery to remove the tendons.

[via Ben Popken at The Consumerist.]