Is Twitter Just for “Old People”?

You’d better believe it, says Matthew Robson, a 15-year-old British lad whose paper on how young people devour media is being read by online marketers around the world. Robson wrote the report, How Teenagers Consume Media, while on a two week summer internship at Morgan Stanley.

After reading the young Brit’s report, most of the information is obvious: Kids don’t read newspapers, boys play video games, and no one uses the yellow pages anymore. But his comments about Twitter are what are making headlines.

In his own words:

Facebook is popular as one can interact with friends on a wide scale. On the other hand, teenagers do not use twitter. Most have signed up to the service, but then just leave it as they realise that they are not going to update it (mostly because texting twitter uses up credit, and they would rather text friends with that credit). In addition, they realise that no one is viewing their profile, so their ‘tweets’ are pointless.

Coincidentally, I just left a fascinating panel discussion put on by Campus Progress in which blogger Latoya Peterson touched on this very thing: The under-21 crowd just isn’t into Twitter. But, she explained, people 23-35 are really into it. Go figure.

And if you think you’re not old, you’re fooling yourself. (But I’m only 23! you say)  To a 15-year-old, you may as well be knocking on death’s door.

Despite how relevant the boy’s comments are, they do leave us with a few questions to chew on: Is Twitter really the future? Is this kid just not with the times? Maybe he’ll grow into it? Has this child turned our world upside-down?

Discuss.

CP K Street Cafe

Income Tax Turns 100 Years Old

Yes, it was indeed 100 years ago Sunday that the House passed a resolution to send the 16th Amendment to the states for ratification, thereby establishing the federal income tax.

Since then, teenage socialists everywhere quickly realized the sins of their ways the day they received their first paycheck….or, the percentage they were allowed to take home at least.  (Oh, I’m sorry, did you think you were getting the full amount?)

The tax system in the United States is terribly complicated, and when all of the rules, regulations and instructions are written out, it fills more than 70,000 pages. The darn thing is so confusing that Americans spend about $300 billion per year to hire professionals to pay their taxes for them.

But it wasn’t always this way. On the wall of the Tax Foundation in downtown Washington DC is a copy of the first tax return form printed in 1913. It’s a whopping four pages…and that includes the instructions. Anyone who has paid taxes in the past 90 years know all too well that those good old days are long gone.

Not to be outdone (nor shortchanged) the federal government also enacted the corporate tax in 1909, which has grown steadily over the decades. Today, the United States has the second highest corporate tax rate in the entire industrialized world. Even Canada has a higher rating when it comes to economic freedom. (Some companies are even closing up shop and moving across the border!)

Taxes, in one form or another, are necessary. The government does have a role to play, and it takes funds to fulfill their obligations. But we have come a long way from the low-tax, simplified code of yesteryear.

From the looks of things ahead, it doesn’t look like we’ll be headed in that direction any time soon. So enjoy your 100 candles, income tax. It looks like you have a long life ahead.

My Absense

My apologies for neglecting the blog over the past few weeks. No excuses, I just haven’t been doing it. With many thanks to editor Jason Pye, I have been blogging at a UnitedLiberty.com, and will be cross-posting when appropriate.

The Portrait of a Hero

Construction worker Jason Oglesbee rescues a woman whose boat capsized near a dam in Des Moines, Iowa.

“They just harnessed me up and dipped me down in the water and I grabbed her and the crane drug her to the boat and that’s it,” Oglesbee said. “What are you going to do if she’s like that? It’s no big deal. The whole crew did it.”

The Des Moines Register reports, “Oglesbee was reluctant to give his name or be interviewed when first approached by members of the media. He later allowed a couple of questions before returning to work”

…”I just told her to hang on tight. I won’t let go,” Oglesbee recalled.

Read all about this amazing story, and watch the video here.

New York Times Headline Fail

This, on the front page of the New York Times site: Top headline: Government-run health care botches prostate cancer operations. Bottom Headline: U.S. in support of government-run health care. HT Instapundit

The Mouse that Made a Tyrant Tremble

He has reason to be afraid.

H/T Jim Harper

Iran Cuts Off Foreign Press

…and no one really notices.

Because guys like Andrew Sullivan are providing all the coverage one needs from Providence, RI, as thousands of bloggers report from Iran.

The images, the reports and the video are all getting to the outside world without elite media boots on the ground.

Michael Totten is there, blogging through the protests. CNN is not.

The Iranian government is doing whatever they can to stop the marches and the outpouring of online information, but young men and women in the tech profession in Silicon Valley, and across the country, are helping people they have never met fight for the liberal movement in Iran. Even the Iranian football team is showing solidarity.

For more, Nico Pittney is live-blogging what’s going on, Twitter is going nuts, and The Big Picture takes you into the action with some of the most amazing and troubling pictures from Tehran.

Imagine if Tiananmen Square happened in 2009. Could a world-wide liberal revolution be coming?

FAIL Friday

see more Fail Blog

Smallest Woman in the World

Amazing pictures of 15-year old Jyoti Amge. She weighs 12 pounds. All the photos, here.

“I don’t know anything about cars”…

…says the new government-appointed chairman of the General Motors board.

But it’s okay. He has vowed to learn about them soon.