Friday the 13th: The Unluckiest Day

In case you missed it the first time we posted it in June 2008, Friday the 13th: Why Friday the 13th is Considered Unlucky.

It explores the history of why Friday the 13th is considered so unlucky.

A random and sundry collection of information on the (supposedly) unluckiest of days: Friday the 13th.

* Friday the 13th is considered a day of bad luck in English-, French- and Portuguese-speaking countries around the world, as well as in Austria, Germany, Estonia, Finland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Republic of Ireland, Poland, Bulgaria, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, and the Philippines.

* Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13.

There’s much more…

Some of the Friday the 13th “facts” are complete bunkum (In our opinion); some are interesting and others have a historical reason for designating the 13th day of the month–when it falls on a Friday–as “unlucky”.

This is the 3rd time in 2009 that Friday the 13th has appeared. February, March and November all have the unlucky day: Friday the 13th. It’s the last time for 2009.

In 2010, Friday the 13th will only make one appearance: in August.

SOME WON’T LIKE IT; SOME WILL
OTHERS WILL SHRUG

Jason Falls Predicts Google Will Buy Twitter:

It is clear that Twitter is a valuable tool for business. WebProNews spoke with Jason Falls, the Principal of Social Media Explorer, who believes the reasoning behind this thinking is a result of the “conversational platform” Twitter provides for business usage. It is for this very same reason that he predicts Google will acquire the microblogging service.

Earlier in the year, Falls predicted that Google would buy Twitter by the end of the year. Although it may not happen within that time frame, he hopes and believes it will happen eventually.

Video at link.

For those who think “big is bad”, this is not good news. Most people could care less–as long as no one notices any differences in service or how easy it is to use Twitter.

Despite all the gains other companies (Google, Facebook) have made,

Despite all the gains other companies (Google, Facebook) have made, it’s still Microsoft’s world, according to new statistics from comScore. comScore found that, in terms of time spent on sites, the Redmond-based corporation continues to maintain a huge lead over its competitors.

People spent about 3.920 billion hours on Microsoft’s sites in September, which equates to about 14.5 percent of the total time spent online. Meanwhile, people only spent about 2.512 hours on Google-owned sites, which works out to 9.3 percent of the total. And Google barely logged more growth than Microsoft (48 percent versus 44 percent).

From “Time Spent Online” Report Puts Microsoft Way Ahead

Is it being mean to ask if all that time spent on-line at Microsoft sites were people trying to get help for Vista?

FCC moves to codify network neutrality principles

As expected, the vote was unanimous to launch the process, but the commission Republicans dissented on the factual basis undergirding it, which was that there were cracks and fissures in the open Internet that needed fixing. They warned of unintended consequences that could include reduction in service quality, a rise in price and disincentive to investment. . .

Net Neutrality is the beginning of the end for unregulated free speech on the Internet.

Its regulations attempt to fix what isn’t broken: the Internet.

There are those who think it’s overstating the case; that Net Neutrality is “no big deal”. Those people are the same basement civil libertarians who blogged unceasingly about the fascist Bush regime.

To repeat our point from earlier posts on the subject: this is not a Democrat-Republican, conservative-liberal issue. It is a freedom of speech issue, no matter which party holds the keys of power at any one moment.

That it has attracted a lot of attention on both sides of the political spectrum is encouraging.

It’s regulation dressed up as “protection”–the usual way government goes about the taking away of freedoms.

DBKP would gladly fight alongside anyone who opposes this–regardless of whether it’s Pat Buchanan or the Daily Kos.