Stand With Me, Jose Antonio Vargas, for a New Conversation about Immigration

Change.org recently sent an email reminder out about a pledge for a new conversation about immigration, started by Jose Antonio Vargas and Define American.

“I Pledge to Define American

I pledge.

Like Jose Antonio Vargas, I believe that our nation’s immigration woes are complex. Still, if we listen to one another and begin asking the right questions now, I believe we can fix them — together. I believe it is time for a new national conversation on immigration.

I pledge to ask questions, debate, listen, and learn. I define American.

[Your name]“

For more information on Jose Antonio Vargas’ story, check out Define American.  Click here to sign the pledge.

Received this email from peopleforbikes.org

This is Urgent!

Federal funding for bicycling and walking is in jeopardy. We need you to send a short email today to your members of Congress.

Today, Congressman John Mica of Florida, Chairman of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, outlined his plans for the new transportation bill and called for the elimination of dedicated funding for biking and walking programs, which he suggested, “do not serve a federal purpose.”

In the Senate, James Inhofe of Oklahoma is leading a similar attack. Inhofe, a senior member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said that one of his top-three priorities for the next multi-year federal transportation bill is to eliminate “frivolous spending for bike trails.”

If Representative Mica and Senator Inhofe get their way, dedicated funding for three crucial programs — Safe Routes to School, Transportation Enhancements, and Recreational Trails — will be eliminated. The cost-effective federal investment in bicycling that is making our nation better will shrink dramatically. We can’t allow this to happen.

That’s why we are asking you to reach out to the two U.S. Senators and the U.S. Representative who represent you in Congress. Ask them to support ongoing, dedicated funding for biking and walking in the next transportation bill. (You can find your representatives and send your note directly from our website. Click here to review clear, basic, suggested text for your email. Feel free to customize it and/or add a personal story.)

Your simple messages will make a difference. You can help refute Representative Mica’s and Senator Inhofe’s unreasonable, counterproductive cuts. You can help assure that progress will continue in all 50 states to make bicycling safer and better for people of all ages.

At peopleforbikes.org, our goal is to unify support for bicycling and celebrate all the great things that happen when people ride bikes. Occasionally, we need to stand strong together to keep bicycling on track. This is one of those times!

Thanks for your support and your quick response to this call to action.

Tim Blumenthal
Director, Peopleforbikes.org

I received this cycling survey from the College of Cycling listserv, so if you’re a Chicagoan consider filling it out (link to survey below).

Friends,

As part of our Bicycle Plan for the 1st Ward of Chicago, Jack Eskin, Che Copper-Davis and I are putting together a survey of people who ride, live or work in the ward.  If you don’t bicycle, we would also like your opinion.

If you ride, live, or work in Wicker Park, Bucktown, Logan Square, Noble Square, Westtown, East Village, Ukrainian Village, or Humbolt Park please take a few minutes to fill out this 10 question survey <http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TVWWYNV> and perhaps pass it on to your friends, colleagues, and fellow bike enthusiasts.

Alderman Proco ‘Joe’ Moreno is very interested in this plan and will be attending the presentation of it – which means your opinion can actually help shape public policy.  This plan and presentation will also be shared with Ben Gomberg of CDOT.

Thank you,
Adam Moore

PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY!

Survey URL: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TVWWYNV

Bikkit the Drive

Although thunderstorms were in the forecast, the inclement weather held off just long enough for Bike the Drive.  The heavy fog created an otherworldly feel down Lake Shore Drive and created a beautiful landscape to bike through.  The Field Museum and Museum of Science and Industry both looked quite amazing engulfed in the fog, and were my favorite sights of the south route (I didn’t get a chance to ride the north route).  All in all, the ride was quite pleasant.

However, there was at least one accident that looked pretty bad.  I didn’t see what happened, just another ambulance arriving at the scene (right before the exit from the south LSD route, around 9 a.m.).  The injured person (guy?) was on a gurney, covered up to mid-chest with a white sheet, and looked to be unconscious.  There was a towel nearby his head that looked to have been used to stop bleeding.  It was a somber reminder that accidents can happen even in relaxed and (fairly) controlled environments.  Hopefully he’s okay, and I’ll update this if I find out any other information.

Overall, Bike the Drive was a lot of fun and I definitely plan on being back next year for the north LSD route.  If you’re interested in being more involved in promoting walking, biking, and public transit, check out the Active Transportation Alliance.

Aids Run and Walk Chicago 2010

You get the idea:

1. Raise money to fight HIV/AIDS
2. Run or walk a certain distance, and
3. Feel good afterwards.

Well, I’m doing the 10K run for this. I thought about the 5K walk because I’ve been exhausted lately from work and school. I decided that I should at least do the 5K run, because the walk felt like I was being lazy. Then, I decided if I’m already doing the 5K I mind was well do the 10K run, because it’s “only 6.3 miles or so.”

I’m on the UIC MBAA team – it was thanks to a reminder email that we have a team that I finally signed up.

So, help fight HIV/AIDS!

Participate

If you’d like to participate, the event is on October 2, 2010. Registration/Check-In starts at 8am, and the walk & run starts close to 10am. Link to AIDS Run & Walk Chicago 2010.

Donate

If you’d like to donate, go to My Page.

Trust me, donations are nice because they give me motivation. And getting up before 11am on a Saturday requires plenty of motivation!

Anyhow, even if you’ve never been impacted directly by HIV/AIDS the effect locally and globally is felt by many. Do some good and give to a good cause.

Try to play a World of Blood Series game, such as Elven Blood, on Facebook and you’ll find it is gone. Gone with a capital “Removed from Facebook Entirely.”

Inside Facebook reports on April 9, 2009, in Facebook Removes Developer of Elven Blood from the Platform that the Royal East India Trading Company was a moniker for the developer Patrick Shyu, who along with his World of Blood Series games was also removed from Facebook.

A look at the reasons why and the timeline of events leading up to the removal:

The Royal East India Trading Company website, which once praised it’s World of Blood Series, has been removed and is now a text message saying, “Beautiful. Just Beautiful. I applaud you, stranger. If we are in the same game, we should be friends. Tell me your name.” In addition, all references to the Royal East India Trading Company from any of the World of Blood Series applications or pages (that remain) have been removed. However, Patrick Shyu continues to have World of Blood listed as a current project for MySpace and Facebook on the “about” page of his website.

On the Facebook Developer Forum, in thread Elven Blood (and the 3 other “clones”) gone?, post #5, April 6, 2009, Matt Trainer, Facebook Platform Developer Operations & Support, says,

Hello Andy and others,

If you have evidence of any apps still available on Platform that are operated by Patrick Shyu, then please let us know.

To reiterate an earlier post, there are more enforcements on Platform than you are aware of, since Facebook does not publicize enforcement actions.

Cheers,

Matt Trainer

It would seem that not only were the World of Blood Series applications in trouble, but any other application operated by Patrick Shyu.

However, following the trail of events that would lead to the removal of the World of Blood Series applications, it becomes apparent that the World of Blood Series applications were having difficulties much earlier back in December, 2008 with reported potential Platform violations. In a thread titled Anyone gonna enforce the platform policies on Snowball Fight? in the Facebook Developer Forum, user zerostar07 reported a possible Platform violation in post #55, on December 16, 2008,

“notification from city of blood wrote: … ‘New! Join the holiday fun with your friends! Give some Christmas treats! 7:09pm’”

This just arrived from ‘City of blood’

the link goes to this application: http://www.facebook.com/apps/applicatio … 9548357635

some things never change

Matt Trainer’s response was as follows,

Hi George,

While this is certainly suspicious, we cannot take action without more detailed information (screenshots, URLs, and other proof).

We’d like to thank everyone again for staying alerted to bad apps like these. We’re aware that most developers on Facebook are honest and working to build good value for users, and so we are working on ways to better pinpoint and remove bad actors from the ecosystem.

We’re reviewing ideas brought up here and internally in order to best encourage positive use and limit negative use of Platform. We appreciate your continued discussions here.

We’re devoted to staying ahead of those who are abusing the system. You may not always see the results of these efforts, but we hope you continue to have faith in our commitment to the task.

Cheers,

Matt Trainer

So even back in December, 2008 the World of Blood Series was being observed.

Regarding Snowball Wars, the application was providing incentives to rate the game 5 out of 5 stars, which in the above referenced thread, Matt Trainer in post #6, December 9, 2008, states is a violation of Rule 3.1 of the Platform Policy Wiki,

“1. Application developers cannot trade positive reviews or collude with others to post, incentivize, or otherwise “game” the posting of negative or positive reviews. Applications should stand on their own merits based on user feedback, not insider quid pro quos.”

Snowball Wars was subsequently disabled, by post #16, December 9, 2008, although it was allowed to continue with a new ID and database and potential violations continued to be reported even after the new ID. The connection? Snowball Wars, and the related applications, were also developed by Patrick Shyu and the Royal East India Trading Company.

The Elven Blood Group wall’s postings fill in some of the gaps from December, 2008 to April, 2009 (the official Facebook Elven Blood discussion board has been removed, therefore the reliance upon the Elven Blood Group’s wall and other related groups). All dates unless otherwise noted are from 2009 and according to abridged reports by Facebook users.

• -February 22, 5:05 am – the World of Blood Series applications are not available for the first time.
• -February 22, 10:47 pm – Elven Blood has been renamed Twilight of Dragons.
• -February 23, 2:26 am – Blood Lust has been renamed Nightfall.
• -February 23, 6:31 pm – Elven Blood is back to its original name.
• -February 25, 11:24 pm – Elven Blood is again unavailable.
• -March 23, 4:39 pm – Elven Blood is back up.
• -April 9, 12:33 pm – World of Blood is removed from Facebook completely.

Checking this line of events against the anti-World of Blood Series group, Blood Games: Boycott!, the only discrepancy seems that on April 9, 12:23 pm Elven Blood might have lived once more as Twilight of Dragons before being removed completely. Although on April 9, 2009 it appears that all World of Blood Series applications have been removed, Matt Trainer’s post from April 6, 2009 seems to indicate that actions were already being taken against applications operated by Patrick Shyu, however due to the wall activity in the group Twilight of Dragons Forum’s Wall it does appear that Twilight of Dragons and Elven Blood may have been running concurrently between March 23 – April 9, 2009, but the exact dates are uncertain.

Using the above referenced threads, posts, and groups, it seems the following were alleged/potential Platform violations:

• -Users gaining Stamina in return for sending out invites to other Facebook users
• -Use of copyrighted materials and images without permission, attribution, or payment
• -Cross-promoting other applications via notifications
• -Alleged extortion – freezing a user’s account for “cheating” and requiring payment of 15 blessings, which may only be available through participation in a sponsored advertisement or via purchase of blessings with a cash payment

In the end, it appears that not only World of Blood but any other application operated by Patrick Shyu are either on a warning list of sorts, or have been removed from Facebook. Considering the convoluted process it took from warnings to removal, combined with the lack of clear ownership and potentially shaky business activities, it seems that there remains more to be uncovered behind the removal of the World of Blood Series applications from Facebook.

However, while the World of Blood Series applications are no more on Facebook, they are still available on MySpace, attributed to the user ~World of Blood~.

Should any additional information come to light, or additional articles covering this topic, updates and links will be posted below.