#IAmARepublicanBecause is trending in Denver right now and the tweets show how quickly a theme can mutate on social media. The original posts were along the lines of “I Am a Republican Because I’m a Hateful Moron.” But then actual Republicans started weighing in to share sincere opinions, setting off…
Why did Facebook pay $1 billion for Instagram? You’ll have to ask Mark Zuckerberg. But there’s no question the photo-sharing program is a wonderful way for shutterbugs to showcase their work — and snaps from Denver demonstrate the creativity boasted by so many of our friends and neighbors. Check out…
Visit Denver has a new mobile app designed to lure vacationers to Mile High City hotspots through a series of “dares:” Complete a “Denver Dare” and you’ll earn a Facebook badge. So what are these terrifying tasks, these death-defying deeds? Here’s a hint: One of them involves the Celestial Seasonings…
Civil unions bill supporters are blaming House speaker Frank McNulty for its death for assigning it to a so-called “kill” committee. Witness the explosion on Twitter, where the response was vitriolic even by social media standards. If there were any positive takes, we could’t find them. Here are the top…
This evening, President Barack Obama is slated to speak at CU-Boulder’s Coors Events Center — a venue that won’t need airing out, since Wyclef Jean’s 4/20 concert was a poorly attended disaster. How is Twitter Nation feeling about his visit? Divided, pretty much like America as a whole. Below, find…
At this writing, the top Twitter hashtag in Denver is #MyThoughtsDuringSex. As well it should be. Not all of the tweets on this topic qualify as hilarious. In fact, some of them will leave you feeling in need of a shower — alone. But plenty others are hilarious. We’ve collected…
Earlier this month, I attended a birthday celebration for my wife’s great uncle, a World War II vet in his eighties — but since he was born on Leap Day, he’s actually just in his early twenties. Lucky man! Look below to see our favorite twenty examples of how Twitter…
This morning’s out-of-the-blue snowstorm is already over: #WelcometoColorado. Right now, this Twitter hashtag is trending — and it may stay popular for a while, since it works for pretty much any observation that’s uniquely CO. Check out some Mile High samples of fresh tweets below…
Protecting copyrights in today’s wild Internet era is getting tougher and tougher. But for photographer Scott D. Smith, it’s a matter of survival — which is why he’s fought for months to get country radio station 92.5 The Wolf to pay for allegedly stealing more than twenty photos from a…
YouTube users began sharing videos of Colorado’s ongoing snowstorm hours before daybreak today. But they’ve got nothing on Twitter users, plenty of whom are dispatching photos and messages of delight about having a day off work. Lucky bastards. Look below to some of our favorites among the latest tweets and…
Say you’re in the mood to look up a factoid about something odd — like, for instance, the history of Velcro. So you go to Google, ignore the weird bar over the logo, and type in “Velcro” and “Wiki.” A Wikipedia link appears, and a click brings it up –…
This morning, David Barnett, a University of Colorado philosophy professor, has reason to be philosophical. After all, his iPhone 4 case, which he’s hawking at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, was prominently featured on NPR — even though one commentator deems the overabundance of such cases as the…
It’s time to dust off the Westword glitter cannon, because the Best Of… iPhone app has earned some prestigious year-end acclaim. The Best Of… app (also available for Android!) has made it onto Apple’s iTunes 2011 Rewind, which shows off the top apps of 2011 as chosen by the editors…
Looking at Internet page design from years past has an almost high-school-prom-like photo quality to it. That color scheme! Those buttons! Why is that blinking?! Westword’s gazillionth new redesign, which just went live, will look like one of those prom shots a few years from now. But right now, it’s…
Update: Yesterday, we told you about a Denver Police Department Twitter survey asking respondents to compare the fairness of photo-radar reports by Fox31 and 9News. Earlier today, the DPD tweeted the results. The winner? Hard to say. But “Who cares?” did very, very well…
The results of a 2011 Ad Age survey measuring the consumption of media by type, generation and time of day balance affirmations of long-held suspicions with a few surprises. There are a few things we already knew. For instance, four in ten 18- to 29-year-olds spend their evenings watching TV…
Wednesday’s slightly awkward Twitter Townhall (twownhall?) with President Barack Obama and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey touched on serious issues (reducing the deficit, tax breaks for veterans and health care) and went off without any real hitches. Even the president corrected himself immediately after calling it “Internets.” Yet, these Colorado-based questions…
The Internet has dramatically changed how we learn. In some ways, the change has been worse than others, considering that students are sometimes Googling their way to a diploma; see Melanie Asmar’s story, “Passing on Education”. But on the plus side, access to knowledge is now in students’ hands. The…
Osama bin Laden’s death was an instant Twitter sensation. But likely more people shared their immediate reactions on Facebook — especially those under twenty, like my seventeen-year-old twin daughters. Last night, while my wife and I channel-surfed, 20th century style, in advance of President Barack Obama’s speech, they sat alongside…
#OMG, they killed #OBL. And finally, tonight, Gary Faulkner can sleep soundly, Samurai swords safely sheathed. We heard “Bin Laden is dead” about 500 times from Wolf Blitzer in about thirty minutes, listened as Geraldo tried to articulate his joy at the death of Usama [sic] bin Laden. But the…
Yesterday, we told you about Boulder’s Off the Quad, whose Trendsttr algorithm is designed to find the most socially influential college students by measuring things like how many of their Facebook conversations go viral. But even if such shares can be monetized, are they destroying the students themselves — or…
Our Best of Denver issue (which hits newsstands on March 31) is sure to be a big, bulky thing, as it is every year. Unless you possess a European men’s carry-all, it can be tough to tote around. Which is why we came up with the Best Of… iPhone app…
