No Country For Old Men
Jan 9 at 8:08am by Andrew Benton
My Review: It Sucked
Sorry for the short post, but this movie, which was heralded as a absolutely great film, was quite possibly my biggest let down for a movie in 2007. I usually “get” the whole deeper message and all that stuff, but this film seriously left me saying “WTF”.
Maybe someone can explain why I should have enjoyed it more, but it was just a very well directed, acted, and casted movie, that I completely wish I hadn’t watched. It had hints of “chance” and “luck” struck by similar movies like Magnolia and Crash, but just for me, it didn’t get it right.
They should rename it to “No Good For Andrew Benton”…
So, am I way off here? If I am let me know, maybe I missed a part of the movie that was the “groundbreaking” section.
Why Newsvine is Better Than Digg
Dec 9 at 2:02pm by Andrew Benton
It’s no surprise that I found myself wanting to write an article about this, I am a member of both Digg and Newsvine, contribute to each, and like them both equally for their individual strengths. Both of them run on the basis of user-generated content; digg through article/picture/video submissions, and Newsvine as a place for new-age journalist to write to a niche of other writers and daily news and opinion readers. While each of them are pretty different, both in audience, age range, maturity and content strength, to me at least, Newsvine is the more superior of the two.
I want to first say that by superiority I do not mean sheer numbers, if that was the case then Digg most assuredly wins. What I’m talking about is relevant, educational information that me as both a contributor and a writer, can read and ascertain to make myself a more educated individual. Below are a few areas that Newsvine is great in. I will talk later about what Newsvine could do to improve their readership though.
Usable Knowledge
If you look at the front pages of Digg and Newsvine respectively, as of the time I’m writing this article, this is what I see:
Digg Top 5 Stories:
Newsvine’s 5 Most Active Stories:
As you can see from the comparison of the two, Digg pretty much only has one, maybe two real articles that could make you any smarter. With Newsvine, all 5 are interesting, researched, well-written articles by the community, for the pure reason of educating fellow Viners.
Maturity of Community
With the comment system in place with Digg, the vast majority of it’s users do not welcome any comments that contradict a particular story. For example, if a user were to post a breaking story related to Bush, they almost always mis-title it inaccurately to get a view across, for a perfect example, see here. An article that is clearly from a site with slanted views, titled in such a way to not even be news, but rather a partisan attack with a misleading title.
On to Newsvine. While I do believe some of the same “tin-foilers” from digg (from all sides of the aisles) show up on Newsvine, the system is much better at handling these kind of people. For one, you can flag a comment so that if it is truly of no value, inflammatory, etc, it can be removed. The main difference that I’ve noticed however is that the community of Newsvine likes to use the comments section as more of an open forum, rather than a pedestal to either condemn or promote the story. Most Digg articles seem to be quick rips at whatever party, then one side subsequently votes the view down. That brings me to another thing that I really dislike with Digg. If you post something contrary to a articles overview, you almost assuredly get voted down so no one will ever see your comment unless they go looking for it. For example if someone posted a positive article about Ron Paul, and someone brought up a point about Ron Paul that was not positive, the “fan boys” of Ron Paul would most assuredly bury that comment. It’s almost a communistic information controlling by the masses. Newsvine does not allow this to happen, it actually has the community behind it that loves to debate, argue, disagree and discuss. I have never seen people on Newsvine flag someones comments unjustifiably, but it happens 24/7 on Digg. The bottom line with maturity is that Newsvine has lots, Digg has hardly any.
The only noticeable difference I’ve seen about Digg in relationship to Newsvine, is that if you’re looking to drive traffic to a site, or become popular, Digg is the way to go, if you are just worried about content, Newsvine is the way to go.
So, what do you guys think? Am I way off?
Zopa Has Launched for US-Based Customers
Dec 4 at 1:01pm by Andrew Benton
Zopa, the peer-to-peer lending network has launched for US Customers, heres an excerpt from their blog:
So this week we’re launching in two new countries. In the United States, we’re launching a product that’s really new and different. And in Italy, we’re launching with a product that will be familiar to any member of Zopa UK. But even in the UK we’ve been changing - we launched Zopa Listings a month ago, and it’s going gangbusters!
Different countries, different products, same Zopa values. It’s a pattern you can expect from us going forward, as we adjust the Zopa idea for different regulatory and cultural contexts around the globe. (For example, in the US, we wanted to tap into the phenomenon of charitable giving, which is nearly $300B a year.)
Money has a long history of being a bad thing. With Zopa, we are going to change that. That’s why say we’re “making money human again”. And that doesn’t just mean the pound, either. But all around the world.
This is really going to shake up the place here in the Financial sector for the US. This has had some big success in the UK, and will surely do well here.
Bad Day For One Stock Sector
Nov 28 at 11:11am by Andrew Benton
If you’re heavily into the Consumer Cyclical sector…. you’re probably screwed.
Ok, so a further examination shows that this is just a bug or something with Google financial, but it’s still pretty funny.
Proof That Google is Evil!
Nov 27 at 8:08am by Andrew Benton
I found this while checking my stocks today. Finally, definitive proof that Google is evil. It’s science, don’t argue it.
This is Just Funny… If You’re a Nerd.
Nov 8 at 7:07am by Andrew Benton
This website has tons of funny comics like this one: http://xkcd.com/
Score One For the Good Guys
Nov 6 at 6:06am by Andrew Benton
Three Armed robbers enter home with three kids, mom and dad. Dad shoots robbers, holds them around until the police arrive. Score one for 2nd Amendment and not being a victim. Watch the video!
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