Conservatives-react-to-obama-s-re-election-on-twitter-c6136700f7

Twitter Conservatives

Barack Obama‘s victory for his second term as U.S. President sparked substantial social media reaction Tuesday night.

Among conservative users of Twitter, the news of Mitt Romney‘s defeat launched a great deal of chatter as well — some sympathetic, others angry.

Outspoken conservative commentator Ann Coulter expressed her sympathy for the Romney/Ryan campaign: “I feel so sorry for Mitt Romney, but sorrier for the country that will never have him as president.”

Former actress Victoria Jackson was a little more direct, tweeting that “America had died” and that she “couldn’t stop crying.” She took a stab at the Christian population, too, for not being present enough during the election:

The hashtag #tcot (top conservatives on Twitter) was also hot with disbelief:

Among the #tcot posts, one Twitter user referred to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s collaboration work with — and later praise of — Barack Obama in superstorm Sandy’s cleanup as “treasonous” and unforgettable.

Others focused less on attacking, and instead on congratulating Mitt Romney for a hard-fought campaign.

Former General Electric CEO, and noted Republican, Jack Welch congratulated President Obama.

Meghan McCain, blogger for the Daily Beast and daughter of Senator John McCain, said she was “heartbroken,” but added that the Republican party “has to evolve or it’s going to die.” She extended a congratulations to the Obama campaign as well.

Did you keep track of the election results through Twitter? What were some of the highlights you saw? Let us know.

Mashable composite: courtesy of Flickr, Winston Smith in America and whoohoo120

More Coverage of Election 2012

window._msla=window.loadScriptAsync||function(src,id){if(document.getElementById(id))return;var js=document.createElement(‘script’);js.id=id;js.src=src;document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0].parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);};
_msla(“//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”,”twitter_jssdk”);

Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/11/07/conservatives-2012-election-twitter/

Mashable-weekend-recap-67-stories-you-might-have-missed-cab0c8fda5

The fallout from Apple’s Maps debacle was among the top headlines this past weekend. Mashable brought you those stories, as well as other tech and social media news while you were out of the office.

Our staff kept tabs on all the latest happenings, so don’t worry if you missed a few articles. Check out all the coverage here, in our handy Weekend Recap. Take a look at the links, below.

Editor’s Picks

Obama Has ’99 Problems’ but a Mitt Ain’t One [VIDEO]

Think Apple Maps Is Bad? Remember the Tale of MobileMe

Take 100 NASA Photos, Stir, Make Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’

Cute Images Make Us 44% Sharper [STUDY]

China’s Internet Is Getting Faster [INFOGRAPHIC]

These Are the Tech Job Hot Spots [INFOGRAPHIC]

Apple No Longer Saying Maps Are ‘Most Powerful Ever’

5 Games You Should Play This Weekend

Zooka Speaker Bar Makes Any Bluetooth Device Sound Better [REVIEW]

Facebook Embraces Bubbles in Messenger iPhone Upgrade

Which Are the Most Social Colleges? [INFOGRAPHIC]

6 Apps You Don’t Want to Miss

Former Employee Explains Why He Was Fired From Facebook

10 Amazing Google Earth and Maps Discoveries

Why Social Media Makes Customer Service Better

Bots Drive 16% of U.S. Web Traffic [INFOGRAPHIC]

Power Nap With This Head-Consuming Ostrich Pillow

Facebook to FTC: Let Us Advertise to Children

Which is Sorriest, Apple Maps or Siri? [SUNDAY COMICS]

Top 10 Tech This Week

Here’s Why Tumblr Will Be Down Next Weekend

Simon Cowell and Will.i.am Planning Show to Find the Next Steve Jobs

Smartphone Camera Shootout: iPhone 5 vs. Galaxy S III vs. iPhone 4S

Watch These Epic iPhone 5 Vs. Android Music Videos

‘Dexter’ and ‘Homeland’ Premieres Available in Full on YouTube

Something Is Missing, Batman [COMIC]

Planes May Get Laser-Wielding Robot Snakes

News & Opinion

Kodak Exiting the Consumer Printer Business

FCC OKs Television-to-Wireless Data Spectrum Auctions

Metal ‘Sunflower’ Lets You Capture Sunlight and Power

Many Windows 8 Tablets Will Sport a Keyboard

Startup Marketplace Connects Fashion Brands With Boutiques

CruxSkunk iPad Keyboard Exposes the Mirage of Kickstarter [REVIEW]

Video Callers Know No Bounds – Not Even Bathrooms

Burberry Tops Fashion Brands In Social Media This Week [CHART]

How Much Bandwidth Will the Vice Presidential Debate Need?

‘People Style Watch’ Sells Ads on Its Twitter Page

Biodegradable Medical Implants Dissolve in Water [VIDEO]

These Robots Can Help Disabled Officers, Veterans Get Back to Work [VIDEO]

Apple Cites Improved Working Conditions in Foreign Factories [REPORT]

Does This Video Show the iPad Mini?

Spookiest Smartphone Malware Yet?

Book About Kickstarter Fails to Raise Enough Money on Kickstarter

Xi3 Packs a Fully Functional Desktop PC Into a Tiny Cube [VIDEO]

One Proposal to Cool a Warming Planet: An Umbrella Made of Asteroids

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite is the Best E-Ink Screen You Can Buy [REVIEW]

Twice as Many Mobile News Readers Prefer Browsers to Apps [STUDY]

HP Shows What Windows 8 Tablets for Business Will Look Like [PICS]

Weekend Leisure

Watch These Quadrotor Robots Learn to Play Catch [VIDEO]

Top Comments From Mashable Readers This Week

Bizarre YouTube Video Removes Music From ‘Gangnam Style’

5 Mobile Photographers Capturing the World With Android

Top 10 GIFs of the Week

How ‘Mad Men’ Could Turn You Into The Worst Employee Ever [INFOGRAPHIC]

10 Funny YouTube Clips of Sleeping Dogs

7 Free Android Apps for Killing Time in Lines

Viral Video Recap: Hottest Memes of the Week

This Week’s Top TV Moments in GIF Form

Helpful Resources

FinderCodes Uses QR Codes to Find Lost Phones

The Digerati: 7 Profiles of Successful Entrepreneurs

10 Essential Resources for Bootstrapping Businesses

5 Easy Steps To Make Your Job Descriptions Go Viral

Top 5 Apps Your Kids Will Love This Week

4 Tips to Avoid Work-From-Home Email Scams

65 Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed

Parking Panda App Finds and Guarantees Parking Spots

Small Business Advertisers Like Facebook’s Immediacy, But Not Its Metrics

Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/10/01/mashable-weekend-recap-__stories-you-might-have-missed/

Is-wikipedia-the-key-to-predicting-mitt-romney-s-vp--fbfd48dd16

Wikipedia might be the key to predicting Mitt Romney’s pick for a running mate as the political world scrambles to figure out his nominee before the campaign’s official announcement, according to a new report.

Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, 2008’s VP nominees, both saw a considerable spike in the number of edits made to their Wikipedia pages in the hours before they were announced as the candidates. Micah Sifry, co-founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, wrote for TechPresident Monday reminding the political world of the hereunto mostly overlooked fact.

“Sarah Palin’s Wikipedia page was updated at least 68 times the day before John McCain announced her selection, with another 54 changes made in the five previous days previous,” wrote Sifry. “The same burst of last-minute editing appeared on Joe Biden’s Wikipedia page, Terry Gudaitis of Cyveillance, told the Washington Post.”

Essentially, Sifry is suggesting that political candidates’ staff are making these changes to Wikipedia pages in order to clean up the pages prior to the public unveiling of the VP pick.

That hasn’t been proven, but Wikipedia is a publicly-editable knowledge database that’s become a go-to source for information about almost any subject, political candidates included. Therefore, it makes sense that politicians’ staff would edit a possible VP’s page before the candidate is thrust into the public eye and millions visit the site for information about their history and political stances.

Mashable covered the “Wikipedia Effect” in politics earlier this year, finding that Mitt Romney’s page saw a considerable spike in edits just before, during and immediately after primary elections — a sign that Wikipedia users may have been trying to influence voters by changing details about Romney’s history on the site.

Does Wikipedia’s publicly-editable nature make it a less reliable source for information about current events, such as politics? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Image courtesy of Mitt Romney on Facebook

Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/08/07/wikipedia-romney-vice-president/

U-s-military-tackles-high-rate-of-suicides-with-an-app-e122e72405

More U.S. military service members have died from suicide than enemy fire, roadside bombs and injuries sustained during combat this year.

As 2.4 million Americans who fought in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan prepare to return from combat, U.S. military entities are struggling to tackle the rising number of suicides, according to an NPR report. After experiencing war-related trauma, active-duty service members and veterans often face debilitating mental-health issues — including post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and suicide ideation.

Suicide remains a top cause of death among active-duty personnel and veterans. For years, the Department of Defense has tried to find a solution to the problem plaguing troops.

Dr. Nigel Bush, a clinical psychologist with the DOD’s The National Center for Telehealth and Technology, or T2, believes reforming a classic suicide-prevention tactic could be the solution.

One strategy medical health practitioners use to redirect a distressed individual’s attention towards wanting to live is by creating a “hope box.” Doctors and patients work together to fill a shoe box with reminders of reasons to live. It becomes a repository of images and important items that reminds patients of loved ones, accomplishments and future aspirations.

Patients with suicidal thoughts can feel hopeless, like there’s no way out. Dr. Bush tells Mashable that one of the distinguishing characteristics of suicidal patients is being able to recite more reasons to die than to live. Clinical therapy and dialectical behavioral therapy are both effective ways to counter this state of mind, according to Dr. Bush.

“It tries to teach patients to identify positive outcomes and to try to modify their thoughts and behaviors to increase the likelihood of thinking and perceiving positive events,” Dr. Bush says.

SEE ALSO: Veteran Central: A Career-Oriented Social Network for Vets

Dr. Bush believes creating a Virtual Hope Box app could make the “hope box” portable for service members in Defense hospitals as well as veterans in V.A. hospitals.

Getting help to those who need it in time is pertinent to saving lives, according to researchers. Since providers are “somewhat clustered in locations,” help isn’t always available in moments of crisis, T2’s public affairs officer Joe Jimenez tells Mashable.

“People either don’t want to go into the office or they physically can’t because they are hundreds of miles away,” Jimenez says. “If they are in treatment that requires them to go back at least once a week, that could be very difficult to do, which causes a high dropout.”

It would be ideal for active-duty service members to undergo counseling or diagnosis testing while still deployed on combat missions. T2 hopes mobile technology can reach soldiers around the world.

“We were looking at a broad community that’s worldwide and very active, deployed a lot of the time for combat missions as well as missions around the world,” Jimenez says. “We had to look at everything to try to develop products and services to help this very large diverse community.”

T2 has about 12 health-related mobile apps in the works or already available on Apple and Android markets for U.S. military, National Guard and Reserve members.

Virtual Hope Box

The Virtual Hope Box app is designed to help active service members and veterans struggling with suicidal thoughts. The app mimics physical hope boxes used currently in suicide-prevention treatments.

“It’s tailor-made for a military population of patients — active duty and veterans,” Dr. Bush says. Smartphone penetration within the U.S. Military community mirrors the rate civilians are using them (more than 60%).

Unlike a physical shoe box, the app is portable and unlimited in space. The Virtual Hope Box app includes important contact information and connections to suicide hotlines for emergencies. The app will also provide “distraction” games, coping cards designed by licensed psychologists, inspirational quotes and guides to relaxation exercises (breathing exercises). It’s built to discourage hopelessness and thoughts of suicide.

The app prototype is still going under review and extensive testing. The technology research center comprised of clinical psychologists, researchers, designers and specialists will work with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (V.A.) to test the app with military patients. It’s projected to be on the market at the end of next summer or, at the latest, October 2013.

Images courtesy of Flickr, DVIDSHUB

Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/10/05/suicide-prevention-app/

Bill-cosby2

Entertainer and Navy veteran Bill Cosby at a Veterans Day ceremony, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2014, at the The All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors in Philadelphia.
Image: Matt Rourke/Associated Press

Bill Cosby is still slated to perform at a venue on the outskirts of New York City next weekend, but has agreed to offer refunds to ticket-holders who don’t want to attend.

The offer is in the midst of mounting sexual abuse allegations against Cosby that recently resurfaced. So far, 16 women have publicly accused the comedian of sexually assaulting them, and many of their stories include allegations that Cosby drugged them beforehand. He has denied the allegations.

Tarrytown Music Hall, where Cosby has two sold-out shows on Dec. 6, will offer refunds to ticket-holders. In an update on its Facebook page Saturday, the venue thanked “all parties involved in negotiating this deal.”

An email sent Friday afternoon from the Music Hall box office told ticket-holders, “Mr. Cosby’s management is now allowing for refunds for any patron’s (sic) that do not wish to attend the show. Please let me know if I may cancel and refund your order,” The Journal News reported.

Previously, Tarrytown Music Hall executive director Bjorn Olsson wrote on Facebook that the shows were booked before the allegations against Cosby had resurfaced, and that the venue couldn’t cancel them or offer refunds. “Canceling the show or refunding tickets would not hurt Bill Cosby, only The Music Hall, a non-profit organization, and the promoter,” Olsson said on Nov. 19.

(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/all.js#xfbml=1”; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));

Venues in Nevada, Illinois, Arizona, South Carolina and Washington have all recently canceled Cosby performances, but the comedian still has more than 30 shows booked through May 2015.

Cosby’s first stop on his American standup tour since the allegations resurfaced was in Melbourne, Florida. The comedian received a standing ovation from the crowd, but there were also many empty seats, despite the venue claiming that the show was sold out.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press

window._msla=window.loadScriptAsync||function(src,id){if(document.getElementById(id))return;var js=document.createElement(‘script’);js.id=id;js.src=src;document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0].parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);};
_msla(“//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#appId=116628718381794&xfbml=1&status=1&cookie=1″,”facebook_jssdk”);

Read more: http://mashable.com/2014/11/30/bill-cosby-theater-refunds/