Outside the Beltway

Last week, an absurd campaign became even more absurd.

Rex Huppke reports, “Facts died Wednesday, April 18, after a long battle for relevancy with the 24-hour news cycle, blogs and the Internet.”

Thanks to a media that focuses obsessively on irrelevancies, we now have a permanent political silly season.

The vetting process for a Vice-Presidential running mate will likely be very different with memories of the Sarah Palin debacle fresh in everyone’s mind.

Like it or not, what you do online will be of interest to someone looking to hire you.

Today, the #stopkony hashtag is trending on Twitter. Here’s why.

There’s an entire industry that profits from exploiting political controversy and division. Why do we let them get away with it?

An object lesson in celebrity worship from the State of New Jersey.

It’s looking increasingly unlikely that anyone will have the race for the nomination wrapped up any time soon.

Within an hour last evening, I passed along and retracted two breaking news stories on Twitter.

Should journalists report things they happen to overhear in a public place?

Wikipedia’s English language site will be offline for 24 hours tomorrow to protest two controversial online piracy bills.

Henry Farrell thinks “The New Gmail Sucks” and doesn’t care who knows it.

Apparently, people who work for the government are surfing the World Wide Web.

The Associated Press is trying to fight Twitter rather than engage it.

Gary Johnson is right to be upset that he’s been excluded from debates, but he shouldn’t get the government involved.

Are America’s political parties become irrelevant?

Google+ was supposed to be a Facebook killer. If their social media icons are any indication, it’s not happening.

Rick Perry has gotten the most and best coverage thus far in the campaign. President Obama has gotten mostly negative coverage.

Listing affiliation with gay activist groups hinders one’s chances of landing a job interview.

A group of researchers at Texas Tech, The University of Texas, and Yale University are conducting an online survey investigating social media use and political attitudes and behaviors.

A meme is emerging that the Occupy Wall Street protests are America’s version of the Arab Awakening. That meme must die.

The Obama campaign’s new “Attackwatch” site is the latest Outrage Of The Day

The idea that students raised in the Information Age are therefore savvy about information is a dangerous but pervasive myth.

Contrary to myth, the college classroom is a rapidly evolving place.

What’s a little thing like freedom of speech when there are shops being looted and burned?

Netflix will charge $7.99 for streaming video; it’s now a $2 add-on.

The biggest news story of the past six weeks was something completely trivial.

When everyone can record video at any time and post it for all the world to see, is there such a thing as privacy anymore?

Where’s the line when a public figure interacts with a teenage fan?

Perhaps understandably, the Anthony Weiner incident seems to have caused some politicians to rethink their Twitter strategy.

It’s hard to get paid for work others will do for nothing.

Has technology robbed us of more than it’s given in return?

Video calling is becoming widely available. Will it become as common as talking on the phone?

Why the United States has found itself in a seemingly endless series of wars over the past two decades.

Sunday’s announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden was the latest example of how Twitter has become the go-to source for “Breaking News.”

While complaints that there’s too much information for intellectuals to sort through, much less read, are constant, they’re not new. Harvard historian Ann Blair argues in her new book Too Much to Know: Managing Scholarly Information Before the Modern Age that this stress goes back at least to Seneca’s time.

In less than two weeks, much of the content of The New York Times will go behind a paywall.

Philippa Thomas has a fascinating take on how she broke the news of (now former) State Department P.J. Crowley’s condemnation of the Obama administration’s treatment of Bradley Manning.

Facebook limits accounts to those who say that they are at least 13 years old. Shockingly, some kids lie to get on the popular social network.