Mark Bult Design: San Francisco, CA, Established 1988

Hire a better lawyer than the other guy

I heard about this case a week or so ago, where a woman is being sued by the rental company that manages the apartment she used to live in, because she tweeted that there was mold in the place and they didn’t seem to be doing anything about it.

In a perfect world, she would clearly win on first amendment grounds, but this is a defamation suit, where “proof” depends more on who has the better lawyer than who’s telling the truth. If she can “prove” better than the realty company that she had a moldy apartment when she made the statement, she wins. If she can’t, she loses. If her lawyer can paint her as more trustworthy than the shyster realty guy quoted in the papers, she wins. If their lawyers paint her as a flaky tenant who was late with her rent half the time, she loses.

So the first lesson for people who blog, use Twitter, etc., is the one stated at the end of the article: Don’t tweet anything you wouldn’t say to someone’s face, and don’t lie. But the unstated — and arguably more important — lesson really is: Anyone can sue you, regardless of how frivolous their suit or how it impinges your right as an American to speak your mind, regardless of how factually wrong you might be when you do it. So hire a better lawyer than the fucker who sues you.

Labels: blogging, censorship, law, Twitter

Posted by espd at 11:33 PM |  5 comments
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Thursday Top 5

“You bastard! You’ve summoned the fail whale!”
Hilarious! This is for Velma (and anyone else) who doesn’t get the appeal of Twitter. [4:24 min]



Real-life Twitter
lol. [1:20 min]



Stephen Colbert survives a close shave in Iraq
“The Colbert Report” was broadcast live from Iraq this week, and the first show kicked off with guest Ray Odierno, Commanding General, Multi-National Force – Iraq. During the interview, President Obama dropped in via satellite and ordered General Odierno to shave Colbert’s head. [23:42 min, 3 commercials]



Food, Inc. [3:31 min]



Facebook Manners and You
Lolz, this is brilliant. Mind your Facebook manners or ya might end up in the slammer. [4:14 min]

Labels: distractions, Facebook, food and drink, humor, Thursday top 5, TV, Twitter

Posted by espd at 6:30 AM |  0 comments
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Thursday Top 5

How Peeps are made
Photos: Inside Just Born, the manufacturing factory of marshmallow Peeps in Bethlehem, PA.



Twitter co-founder Biz Stone on “The Colbert Report” last week [7:10 min]



Osbournes Reloaded: Episode 1
I had no idea there even was a new Osbournes show. I only learned about it through someone’s tweet. It’s kind of a variety/game show. Lots of swearing (censored, since it’s on Fox), but not bad really, all things considered. Ozzy even looks pretty good. I have to say, the ending of this first episode is truly over the top. [28:59 min]



For the Love of Vinyl: Aubrey “Po” Powell on Hipgnosis
Hipgnosis was the design firm behind some of the most influential and recognizable (not to mention strangest) album covers of the 1970s and ’80s, having worked with artists such as Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney, and Led Zeppelin. The principals have put out a retrospective book: For the Love of Vinyl: The Album Art of Hipgnosis. [8:42 min]

Bill Gates on Facebook
40 billion reasons why he’s better than Steve Jobs.

Labels: Apple, art, distractions, food and drink, humor, music, Ozzy, photos, tech, Thursday top 5, Twitter, videos

Posted by espd at 6:50 AM |  0 comments
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Thursday top 5

Mind the crevasse
Pavement art inspired by Julian Beever. View some high quality photos of the installation in the video, plus another cool (hot?) one, at the Daily Mail.



A Charlie Brown Heavy Metal Christmas
[via Diane RW]



Facebook Fever
A good follow-up to the article I linked to a week or two ago about things everyone should know Facebook privacy settings. [via Jeanne B.]

Follow Cost
If you’ve ever had a people you on Twitter who just post waaay too much, you can use this little web app to see their average daily number of tweets. I’m seriously considering unfollowing this one guy who drowns everyone else out with an average of 24.52 daily tweets.

We Refuse
“We don’t want any federal bailout. We don’t want any reward for irresponsible behavior in our market. We don’t want artificial support of any kind for our market...” Unit Interactive refuses to participate in the recession. Hear hear!

Labels: animation, art, distractions, Facebook, humor, po, Thursday top 5, Twitter, videos

Posted by espd at 8:09 AM |  0 comments
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