Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
3.24% of Facebook Users are Dead
from Marketing Tech Blog
In a recent census of social media users, it was identified that 3.24% of all Facebook users were actually dead. Dead Myspace users trumped Facebook at 7.46%. It’s a fascinating statistic because it raises the question of how social networks charge advertisers and how they measure growth.
Social networks don’t actually report the number of engaged users nor do they measure the number of dead ones. Advertisers pay for advertisements based on the number of users in social media, so dead advertisements could be siphoning millions out of your marketing budget.
In a recent census of social media users, it was identified that 3.24% of all Facebook users were actually dead. Dead Myspace users trumped Facebook at 7.46%. It’s a fascinating statistic because it raises the question of how social networks charge advertisers and how they measure growth.
Social networks don’t actually report the number of engaged users nor do they measure the number of dead ones. Advertisers pay for advertisements based on the number of users in social media, so dead advertisements could be siphoning millions out of your marketing budget.
Monday, February 8, 2010
The United Fruit Co.
by Pablo Neruda
When the trumpet sounded
everything was prepared on earth,
and Jehova game the world
to Coca-Cola Inc., Anaconda,
Ford Motors, and other corporations.
The United Fruit Company
reserved for itself the most juicy
piece, the central coast of my world,
the delicate waist of America.
It rebaptized these countries
Banana Republics,
and over the sleeping dead,
over the unquiet heroes
who won greatness,
liberty, and baners,
it established an opera buffa:
it abolished free will,
gave out imperial crowns,
encouraged envy, attracted
the dictatorship of flies:
Trujillo flies, Tachos flies
Carias flies, Martinez flies,
Ubico flies, flies sticky with
submissive blood and marmalade,
drunken flies that buzz over
the tombs of the people,
circus flies, wise flies
expert at tyranny.
With the bloodthristy flies
came the Fruit Company,
amassed coffee and fruit
in ships which put to sea like
overladed trays with the treasures
from our sunken lands.
Meanwhile the Indians fall
into the sugared depths of the
harbors and are buried in the
morning mists;
a corpse rolls, a thing without
name, a discarded number,
a bunch of rotten fruit
thrown on the garbage heap.
When the trumpet sounded
everything was prepared on earth,
and Jehova game the world
to Coca-Cola Inc., Anaconda,
Ford Motors, and other corporations.
The United Fruit Company
reserved for itself the most juicy
piece, the central coast of my world,
the delicate waist of America.
It rebaptized these countries
Banana Republics,
and over the sleeping dead,
over the unquiet heroes
who won greatness,
liberty, and baners,
it established an opera buffa:
it abolished free will,
gave out imperial crowns,
encouraged envy, attracted
the dictatorship of flies:
Trujillo flies, Tachos flies
Carias flies, Martinez flies,
Ubico flies, flies sticky with
submissive blood and marmalade,
drunken flies that buzz over
the tombs of the people,
circus flies, wise flies
expert at tyranny.
With the bloodthristy flies
came the Fruit Company,
amassed coffee and fruit
in ships which put to sea like
overladed trays with the treasures
from our sunken lands.
Meanwhile the Indians fall
into the sugared depths of the
harbors and are buried in the
morning mists;
a corpse rolls, a thing without
name, a discarded number,
a bunch of rotten fruit
thrown on the garbage heap.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Some Interesting Articles About Writing and Journalism
J.D. Salinger: A generation’s silent hero, by Robert Fulford, The Globe and Mail
A Writing Career Becomes Harder to Scale: The Los Angeles Times
Good Bye to Journalism 804: Mark Bonokoski, the Toronto Sun
Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable: Clay Shirky
Who Killed the Newspapers?: The Economist
The Most Irritating Phrases in the English Language: The National Post
A Writing Career Becomes Harder to Scale: The Los Angeles Times
Good Bye to Journalism 804: Mark Bonokoski, the Toronto Sun
Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable: Clay Shirky
Who Killed the Newspapers?: The Economist
The Most Irritating Phrases in the English Language: The National Post
Friday, January 22, 2010
Long May You Run
~ Neil Young
We've been through some things together
With trunks of memories still to come
We found things to do in stormy weather
Long may you run. Long may you run. Long may you run.
Although these changes have come
With your chrome heart shinin' in the sun
Long may you run
Well, it was back in Blind River
When I last saw you alive
But we missed that ship on the long decline
Long may you run.
Maybe the Beach Boys have got you now
With those waves singing' "Caroline"
Rollin' down that empty road
Get into the surf on time
We've been through some things together
With trunks of memories still to come
We found things to do in stormy weather
Long may you run. Long may you run. Long may you run.
Although these changes have come
With your chrome heart shinin' in the sun
Long may you run
Well, it was back in Blind River
When I last saw you alive
But we missed that ship on the long decline
Long may you run.
Maybe the Beach Boys have got you now
With those waves singing' "Caroline"
Rollin' down that empty road
Get into the surf on time
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Welcome to Project Hunter
I love writing, but I’ve found that I have a hard time containing myself to only one forum. I have a Writing blog, naturally, dedicated to the life and musings of a writer (The Writer’s Den), I have a newsy-journalist type blog (The National Affairs Desk, Toronto), I have a seasonal story blog (The Campfire Pages: stop me anytime!) and I even have a Fan-Fic page (UHF Signals!)
And now, I have this, Project Hunter.
I don’t know why I feel the need to separate all my thoughts, but I do. I have varied interests; music, writing, art, film, history etc…and blogs are best when left focused and not a rambling catch-all of everything in our brains. Of course, that’s what THIS is, a rambling catch-all of everything in my brains. Leave it to me to make a rule in one sentence and then break it in the next!
!@#$%^&*!@#$%^&!@#$%^&*!@#$%^&*!@#$%^&*%^*
Recently someone asked me to publish a list of the books in my personal library. This struck me as a very daunting task, as I have at least 150 books or more, until this particular someone told me they had 1500-2000 books they wanted to list (good luck with that!) So with further ado, I’ll give you all a sample of what’s in my personal collection, book wise. In the future I’ll be adding a legend (recommended books, crappy books, etc..) and some synopsi (what IS the plural of synopsis? A quick Google reveals it to be “Synopses”)
Enjoy the list, which for the time being is un-alphabetized, and feel free to recommend books to me.
The David Hunter Official Library (DHOL), Part One
Brave New World- Aldous Huxley
Bluebeard- Kurt Vonnegut
Slaughterhouse Five- Kurt Vonnegut
Cosmos - Carl Sagan
The Sun also Rises- Ernest Hemingway
The Colorado Kid- Stephen King
The Elements of Style- William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White
Sherlock Holmes, the Complete Novels and Stories Vol. 1- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Night Lives On- Walter Lord
Of Mice and Men- John Steinbeck
The Red Pony- John Steinbeck
Cannery Row- John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath- John Steinbeck
The Tell-Tale heart and Other Writings- Edgar Allan Poe
On Writing- Stephen King
Different Seasons- Stephen King
The Stand- Stephen King
The Green Mile- Stephen King
Night Shift- Stephen King
Skeleton Crew- Stephen King
Duma Key- Stephen King
The Pigman- Paul Zindel
The Revolutionary Age of Andrew Jackson- Robert V. Remini
Dianetics- L. Ron Hubbard
Her Name, Titanic- Charles Pellegrino
The Good Earth- Pearl S. Buck
The World Without Us- Alan Weisman
Durango Street- Frank Bonham
Cool Cat- Frank Bonham
Secrets of the Past- Readers Digest Paperback
Great Detectives- Otto Prenzler
Civil Disobedience and Other Essays- Henry David Thoreau
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest- Ken Kesey
In Cold Blood- Truman Capote
To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee
Deviant- Harold Schechter
Watership Down- Richard Adams
On the Road- Jack Kerouac
Dune- Frank Herbert
The Monkey Wrench Gang- Edward Abbey
Down the River- Edward Abbey
Desert Solitaire- Edward Abbey
The Journey Home- Edward Abbey
The Best Short Stories of the Modern Age- Selected by Douglas Angus
Valentines and Vitriol- Rex Reed
The Rough Guide to Boston- David Fagundes and Anthony Grant
A Tale of Two Cities- Charles Dickens
The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy (entire series) - Douglas Adams
No One Here Gets Out Alive, the Doors- Jeff Hopkins
Zodiac- Robert Graysmith
Zodiac Unmasked- Robert Graysmith
The Lord of the Rings- J.R.R. Tolkien (entire series)
The Hobbit- J.R.R. Tolkien
Harbrace College Handbook for Canadian Writers
Part Two
Hamlet- William Shakespeare
Othello - William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet- William Shakespeare
Henry IV Part 1 & 2- William Shakespeare
Hamlet- William Shakespeare
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn- Mark Twain
Roughing It- Mark Twain
1984- George Orwell
Shane- Jack Schaefer
The Catcher in the Rye- J.D. Salinger
Journey to the Center of the Earth- Jules Verne
Around the World in Eighty Days- Jules Verne
20,000 Leagues under the Sea- Jules Verne
The Time Machine- H.G. Wells
Great Short Works of Jack London- Edited by Earle Labor
An Anthology of Verse- Edited by Roberta A. Charlesworth
Treasure Island- Robert Louis Stevenson
The Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Wiseguy- Nicholas Pileggi
Blue Highways- William Moon
21st Century Dictionary of Quotations- The Princeton Language Institute
Cold Case- Linda Barnes
Billions & Billions- Carl Sagan
Pale Blue Dot- Carl Sagan
The Rolling Stone Rock and Roll Reader 1974- Edited by Ben Fong Torres
Redrum the Innocent- Kirk Makin
Celebrity Murders- Max Haines
Anthology of Robert Frost’s Poems- Selected by Louis Untermeyer
Where Have All the Bullets Gone? - Spike Milligan
Mussolini: His Part in my Downfall- Spike Milligan
Chuck Amuck- Chuck Jones
Chuck Re-ducks- Chuck Jones
Complete World Bartender Guide- Standard Reference to 2000 drinks ~ Bob Sennett
Searching For Bobby Orr- Stephen Brunt
The Game- Ken Dryden
Hope you enjoy this voyeuristic look into my book collection. There are some classics, and some laughables, that's for sure!
Take care for now.
To be continued…
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