Condo Newspaper Boxes

The City of Toronto has introduced a new, sexy type of newspaper box - a community type of box with multiple newspapers living together in harmony, a sort of hippie newspaper commune or a condo-box for a condominium city. The grey structure I found at Queen Street West and Bay Street is branded with the City of Toronto Logo, holds eight different papers with up to four paid editions possible (yeah, like that will be necessary in the near future). Maybe they can remove the coin slot area and stick in more free editions as necessary. This design was actually released to the media in 2008 and shown in this Torontoist article but this is the first time that I have seen it in the wild.

The other newspaper boxes are scared of the beautiful lines of the new box and fearful of a future where they may have to go to for recycling. You can see the City's logo on the side of the box.

This sleek new baby replaces the long line of multi-coloured newspaper boxes that fill many street-corners and which many people consider an eyesore. I didn't mind the old individual boxes because they were sometimes the most colourfull objects on a downtown street. You can see that they must have just taken the wrapping off the installation as the dull grey finish is yet untouched by stickers, graffiti or posters. I will check back later this week to see if the finish remains virgin.

The old boxes in front of the Starbucks wait for the transfer of the paying editions to the new box. They are remarkably clean with very little marks added by artistic citizens. Both the Star and the Sun boxes have small stickers which mention agendas and lies.

I Am An Addict

I have read and heard this many times that internet and virtual world is contributing greatly in isolating people from the real life to a virtual life. People who spend too much time on the internet and social networking sites  don't really have real friends and groups to hang out with nor do they spend healthy time in out door physical activities. 

Thus now a study conducted by University of Maryland's International Center for Media and the Public Agenda and the Salzburf Global Seminar's Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change has proved the fact that people who use social media frequently are displaying symptoms similar to alcohol and drug addicts. They end up having physical and mental anxiety.

Now, the real issue is with social media entrepreneurs, marketers and those who have a job that requires them to work on social networking sites to share large amounts of information are the real target of becoming addicts. More on the article goes on to say that such people will have no friends when they will retire.

This is not a shocker...some people have such jobs and some people do it for fun. One is essential and the other can be controlled. Some people like to do hard core corporate jobs that can be really painful and stressful as well on the other hand and can be the cause of early grey hair, baldness, back problems and heart attacks. 

But yes, the important thing is to be aware of such news. I say there have always been people who are introverts, recluse and who don't like to socially interact, much before the social media arrival. Such people are just never accepted ever.

Ok I am an addict too, I will take their words. I worked the same way when I wasn't into social media too. The choice is between working in peace and having fun at the same time and guess what I have friends too :) 

Just William star targeted by stalker on Facebook

Child actor Daniel Roche, who played Just William in the recent BBC1 series, has been targeted by an internet stalker who set up a fake Facebook page in his name. But when Daniel’s mother asked Facebook to take the page down they failed to act – until The Mail on Sunday stepped in.

Well this has been the usual story of FB. They do nothing till the media steps in.

A fake page was also created in the name of 8 year old Isabella who played Violet Elizabth Bott in Just William. Daniel’s mom discovered about her son’s fake page when Isabella’s mother told her. Although Isabella’s parents somehow managed to persuade FB to delete that page, but when Daniel’s parents contacted FB, nothing was done.

Scotland Yard also failed to act after Mrs Roche complained to a police station in North London. But Scotland Yard said it had ‘no knowledge’ of a complaint having been made by Mrs Roche. Very weird!

Last year, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre attacked Facebook for refusing to install a panic button which would allow users to report inappropriate behaviour on the site directly to CEOP.

A Facebook spokeswoman said:

‘It’s against Facebook’s rules to use a fake name or operate under a false identity and we provide our users with the tools to report anyone they think is doing this via report links on every page of our site.

These tools enable people to flag exactly why they are reporting someone, for example an inappropriate picture or a fake profile, and we urge all our users to make sure they are aware of how to use these reporting tools correctly.’

I don’t think any action is ever taken on FB. It’s only when the media gets in the picture, they delete pages or fake ids. They may have provided options, but it’s all useless. In fact a time comes when a person is so used to these fake ids that he/she stops complaining about them. Moreover, stalkers also confuse themselves as admirers, which is of course very amusing, as long as it’s not happening to you. It sounds like a broken record but FB never takes any action. Instead of wasting time on fake ids, it’s better to ignore them.

Social networking is so much fun. You get to meet people from all over the world. But it's not just FB, even other sites face the same problem. There are always people who want to abuse & invade the privacy of others. It doesn't matter what is their problem.

Facebook Apologizes to Iowa Birth Photographer

This is interesting. FB only takes action when the media gets involved. Laura captures birth story in photographs & those photos can be a bit too much for many. You know it’s not for everyone & it’s not fun stuff. You may have the urge to vomit even if you don’t have any problem with it. Parents may see the beauty of it, however.

Anyhow, I don’t think people have the right to approve or disapprove of it. No one forces you to watch these photos. You do that at your own will. But unfortunately, we still live in the Dark ages & FB disables accounts & pages whenever nudity comes in the picture, but so many fake ids are there & no action is taken against them. Only real people are bothered, cause they have a passion for something & closed minds have issues by what they are doing.

Laura Eckert said “she was shocked when the social media company told her last month it had removed inappropriate photos from her page.”

She sent several emails to FB & all of them were ignored till the media got involved. She sent some 30 emails & FB didn’t bother to respond to even one mail, but we all know that the involvement of media can generate a response very easily.

"It's funny it happened after the media got involved. I sent many polite e-mails asking for information over the course of the last few weeks and got no response. None," Eckert said.

FB has apologized Eckert for disabling her account.

Facebook spokesman Simon Axten said that while they review content on a daily basis, occasionally a mistake is made." Of course, we make an occasional mistake. This is an example," he said in an e-mail. "When this happens, and it's brought to our attention, we work quickly to resolve the issue."

According to MSNBC, Eckert believes the photos in question “were pictures she took of her friend, Leslie Kung, after Kung gave birth in her bathtub in May. The pictures show the mother and baby embracing for the first time, and parts of Kung's breasts can be seen, but not her nipples.”

In May when Laura posted these photos, she received warning from Facebook that the pictures were inappropriate because they contained nudity. Eckert cropped the images “to make sure they did not contain nipples or genitalia so they complied with Facebook policies.” She even removed some. Months passed and she never heard another word about it until December when her personal profile and business pages were disabled.

However, Eckert said she’s still a bit cloudy on what photos Facebook will and will not allow. "I need a little bit of clarity on what is a violation and what's not. I'm going to shoot another birth in a week or two and I'm going to want to share those photos," she said. "I see the miraculousness of it. Maybe that clouds my judgment a little bit."

Here’s a slideshow of some of her work & please bear in mind that it’s not for everyone:

http://www.newcreationphotography.com/birthslideshow.html