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Some who are at a loose end will find it odd to wake up to a Labor Day weekend and discover that the Adult Section on Craigslist has been removed and that the link to it on the site's home page has been replaced with a black bar reading "censored."

Craigslist has long been the whipping boy for attorneys general seeking to control prostitution within their purview and perhaps also seeking to win the favor of certain members of their constituencies.

However, why the section should suddenly have been removed in such a dramatic way (the censorship … Read more

People who describe themselves as friendly often aren't. What they actually mean is that they're friendly to people with whom they can find something in common.

When it comes to encountering a public that is a touch more general, they're as indifferent as the next man. Who is, of course, indifferent to them. Unless they can establish some commonality, that is. If they manage that, the conversation can suddenly turn from one of utter emptiness, to one of radically emotional charge.

Remember those times when you sit at a bar and happen upon someone who supports the … Read more

When businesses become big, some decide to act big too. They walk into the legal saloon, swagger up to the bar and expect plaudits and favors to come streaming their way.

Sometimes it is for good reason, for they fear that others might trade off the back of their bigness. Sometimes, though, it is just an attempt to live large.

What, then, might one think of the news that Facebook is reportedly not merely attempting to trademark the word "book," but also the word "face"?

The trademark application, seems to seek a rather broad coverage.

TechCrunch reports … Read more

Perhaps privacy doesn't exist any more. Or, perhaps, as the highly incisive Danah Boyd of Microsoft Research New England suggests, we will have to find more sophisticated ways (and more sophisticated software) in order for everyone to understand what information should be made available and to whom.

Yet when the issue reaches the level of comedy, then you know it is truly serious. So this week, when Stephen Colbert decided on his "Colbert Report" to make Google and its CEO Eric Schmidt the rather public source of entertainment, what was most surprising was not the humorous way … Read more

It is hard--living in Northern California--to bump into someone under the age of 82 who doesn't smoke pot.

It seems as if it is, in all but lawyer's paperwork, legal.

It seems, though, that making advertisements to encourage the completion of that paperwork is causing something of a smoky atmosphere to develop between lobbying groups and Facebook.

According to the Huffington Post, Facebook first approved ads created by lobbying organization Just Say Now and the Libertarian Party, then removed them.

In the case of Just Say Now, Facebook reportedly said it didn't allow pictures of drugs in … Read more

Court papers are serious documents. They present serious arguments about serious issues that often have serious consequences.

However, I have just pored through a new 27-page submission by Lindsay Lohan's legal representative, Stephanie Ovadia, and I found myself moved. In many ways beyond the serious.

Should you have missed Lohan's reason for this particular court battle, she is alleging that a Super Bowl ad for E*Trade mocked her persona because it included a character (a baby, surprisingly enough) who was a milkaholic (as well as a boy-stealer) and happened to be called Lindsay.

E*Trade has moved … Read more

It has never been my ambition to be mayor of an artisan bakery or a partisan gas station.

However, I know there are quite a few people, some of whom remain my friends, who delight in attaining such a respected position on Foursquare. Their joy is doubled when they manage to oust someone else from the mayoral seat. Even if they don't know that person and will never meet them.

Such enthusiasm has clearly attracted the attention of Facebook, which, by launching Facebook Places, foresees a future in which your friends--as well as your very good friends at retail … Read more

I am not entirely sure why people who don't like to be afraid in real life go out of their way to enjoy the same feeling in the movie theater.

Perhaps it's because their inner cortex knows it's not real. Or perhaps this is some strange mating ritual in which boys take girls to horror movies in order to get them frightened, which results in the vastly clever male showing his protective side.

But people's motivations for watching horror films aside, I have my doubts that a new movie called "The Last Exorcism" will … Read more

One should always believe in good intentions. For, though they may be rare, they can move people to heights they thought previously unattainable.

So when I look at Verizon's new ad campaign, I seek the nobility within what I fear is something that might attract a touch of venom.

Verizon, should you have lived lately far beneath the earth's surface, is the company that might have the finest wireless network. It is also the company that some say might, together with Google, have some intention of bending the idea of Net neutrality in order to satisfy loftier, if … Read more