I will attempt to mentally exclude you next time I observe something about Hubski, if that helps. That's all I can promise. However, if I make a mental note to the tune of, "Wow, there's a lot of people commenting on this article!" and you have commented, I cannot promise you will not be involved in that observation.

Just out of curiosity, what game?

I'm highly confused here. This kind of 'experiment' isn't something that requires a review board. This is simple statistics gathering from an already established set of data. It's amateur data gathering as well (no offence to jleopold.)

This is like people watching at the mall and telling your friend that you noticed that teens tend to 'shop' in larger groups than the elderly. This is neither amoral nor unethical.

I could understand the animosity if he had tried to manipulate content, 'game' the number of shares, or otherwise cause something to happen which wouldn't normally, but in this case he didn't do any of those things.

Maybe I just don't understand, though. I'd like to hear your thoughts, though.

My girlfriend's daughter has a Beagle named Frodo. That name comes from the Humane Society, not our choosing. However, this named was extended to Frodo Waggins.

I think I'll try to hop on for the first time. What's the dress code?

I really wish Google's Voice/Hangouts systems were more fleshed out and full featured. Where Voice takes care of SMS but not MMS, Hangouts manages messaging with too many features. If Google, Microsoft, and Apple could simply include a default inter-operative messaging protocol that wasn't SMS or MMS, we would finally be moving forward on the messaging front. Unfortunately, I don't see this happening any time soon. I'll keep my fingers crossed, though.

So, I'm either biased, have specific knowlege, or both. I work in the oil industry, though downstream (Oil Refineries.) I'm against fracking, first and foremost. Traditional drilling is cleaner, more established, and safer. However, this article is all over the place when it comes to the dangers of fracking, and seems extremely and consiously biased against it. Just to get this out of the way: Is it concerning that there is an extreme higher-than-average number of stillbirths in a company town based on fracking? Yes. Is the most likely cause residual run-off from fracking operations? Yes.

What I am concerned about is the tone and accuracy of the article. A small example:

"In Karnes County alone, we had two blowouts last week, one that covered everything in a coat of oil and methane, including people's homes and livestock," says Sharon Wilson[...]

Unless refrigerated, methane is a lighter-than-air gas. I don't understand how anything can be covered in a coat of it. Crude does contain methane, but it also contains propane, pentane, gas oils, and heavy oils (among many other products of crude.) I seems disingenuous to call out methane specifically. There are also other slight technical innaccuracies, but it's unimportant to the article as a whole. Suffice it to say, I'm unsure if this article was reviewed for accuracy.

Also, I cannot put my trust into the protagonist of the article, Young. These two paragraphs in particular stand out:

When he retired to Idaho, Young joined her folks there and opened a health-food store. A mother of two, she earned a degree in naturopathy, then found her true vocation, birthing babies. "I'd been working with lots of people, some cancer patients and chronically sick people, and here were these clients who had a clean slate — or would have, if their moms had ate healthy. I thought, 'Oh, this is what I'm put here to do. Bring 'em into the world with no drugs or toxins, then teach the moms to raise them that way.' "

She put together a method that was two parts nutrition to one part personal trainer. "From the git-go, my girls give up flour, milk, sugar, soda, caffeine and anything microwaved — and they know I'll urine-test them to check." They exercise for at least an hour each day and do floor work to bring the baby's head down to the proper position for birthing. "I don't have patients, I have athletes — and you should see the kids that come from them."

I personally find naturopathy to be pseudoscience, and because she's used as a heroine in the article, her perspective on fracking is the predominant one. Let's just say she's not the person I would be going to when trying to prove my point about the dangers of fracking.

The comments had this artcle as well: Iinfant deaths not tied to bad air However,I have no clue as to the trustworthiness of that article, either.

And then it closes with this:

She tested the water with a monitoring device used by drillers; most of the batches tested were positive for extreme toxicity from hydrogen sulfide, H2S, one of the most deadly of the gases released by drilling. [...] Young says she found were more than 7,000 times the EPA threshold for safety.

I'm confused, because according to [this (pdf, World Health Organization,)](http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/chemicals/en/hydrogensulfide.pdf) "it is unlikely that anyone could consume a harmful dose of hydrogen sulfide in drinking-water."

To close, I am concerned about the practices by oil companies described in the article. Federal inspectors need to be sent out ASAP, and I hope this article may spur some action regarding this. However, I don't like this particular article on the matter, and I hope a more sensible and reasonable article is written.

PS:

"I can nail a coyote in the pasture from 100 yards."

Yeah, well I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back home, they're not much bigger than two meters!

I've explained my views on Snapchat before (synopsis: It's a great way to communicate casually, without fear of permanence.) I don't think it will ever become "the standard messaging app."

Kik fills the role outlined in the article already, minus the status update (story) shoe-horned in. It also has the benefit of already being a lot of people's standard messaging app. The real difference is in permanence, where Snapchat fills the role of disposable messages, Kik fills in with semi-permanence. Kik also takes on the idea of being a platform, where many apps are designed as an extension of Kik, to fill in the need for meeting strangers, playing games, etc.

The downfall, in my opinion, of Snapchat is, and will continue to be, Snapcash. It's basically a way to become an adult cam-site, without blatantly admitting it. This increases spamming and scamming, from both people and bots, reducing user enjoyment.

Snapchat has it's specific niche (disposable media messaging,) but almost all added features seem supplemental, and simply seem like it's trying to keep up with other forms of social media. If Snapchat is going to stay around, it needs to emphasize privacy, usability, and the original ideas it was based on. Otherwise, other apps are going to win out.

In my opinion, this would fall under the blanket of "personal content," (See Personal content isn't a sin.)

I don't think the established Hubski community will find this site appealing, but I have no problem seeing it.

This is exactly how I view Hubski. It's different enough from Reddit that it does not serve as a direct replacement. It doesn't quite have the traffic (and therefore content) that Reddit does, either. I find Hubski to be more like a full featured suite of "TrueReddits" (such as /r/TrueAskReddit, /r/TrueGaming, etc.) in that there is a major emphasis on conversation, and I really enjoy that.

I don't participate much, but that's solely because I don't often have much to say that hasn't been said. I hope that with more content, this will change. I'm here to stay, though, which is a whole lot more than I can say about other social media platforms.

I'm glad there is more of a movement of using Grey Water in toilets, and I hope there will, in the future, be an all-in-one solution for systems like these. Currently, these systems tend to have a large up-front cost, which take a very long time to recover. I'd hope to see a toilet which has a pump and reservoir built in, which would connect to a grey water system. This requires a re-design of the entire plumbing system in a house, however.

On the topic of waste-compost, this is alive and well in any house that contains a septic system. The reservoir is contained underground, and functions exactly the same as a sewer system in regards to day-to-day use. I cannot see, however, human fertilizer taking off, without the same amount of processing done to purify water.

And, finally, the subject of wasting water. Without an increase of price of water, showers that are more functional and less work will prevail in general society. I see social stigma surrounding the sharing of bathwater, for example.

C'mon, al. If you're gonna be an extremist, turn it up to 11. ;p

Guess it's par for the course around here.