On January 1st, Haiti celebrated their independence day. Less than two weeks later, the country is in dire straits. On Tuesday, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the small country, approximately 10 miles west of the capital, Point-au-Prince. While Twitter hashtags notoriously point the way to frivolous conversation, #Haiti is currently one of the top trending topics of conversation. Popular music artist and Haitian native Wyclef Jean is asking followers to retweet the following message:

So far, it has been reported that a hospital has collapsed in the wake of the disaster, and the New York Times has reported that the US Agency for International Development is currently in the process of deploying disaster response teams to the scene. The area, including the Dominican Republic, is also reportedly on a tsunami watch.

Please stay tuned to Twitter by following and contributing to the #Haiti hashtag. The Twitter community rallied for the Iranian citizens, and the same can be done for the people of Haiti in their time of need.

Also follow @YELEHAITI for more information. http://yele.org

What does Kanye West have in common with author Dan Brown?

Although both love seeing their names printed in italics and are obsessed with ancient artifacts (in Kanye’s case, his reputation), both have a link to the theoretical subfield of noetic science. Dan Brown’s latest novel, “The Lost Symbol,” delves into this discipline which studies vast quantities of information that can, when dissected, support the existence of a collective consciousness. This theory is the basis for outings like We Feel Fine, Global Consciousness Project, and the Web Bot Project, which crawl the internet looking for recurring keywords, phrases, and data that can reportedly detect the underlying “mood” of the masses.

What does this have to do with Kanye? On Wednesday, Kanye fell victim to the noetic field yet again after being beset with the hottest hashtag, #RIPKanyeWest, on Twitter. Read the rest of this entry »

Michael Jackson. Ed McMahon. Farrah Fawcett. Jim Carroll. 2009 has been the unofficial year of the death of celebrity, literally and figuratively. From the passing of the aforementioned to the sheer irony and foolishness of Chris Brown’s bow tie, Twitter followers have been some of the first to break the news of a trending event in the realm of pop culture.

Last night saw the #VMA hashtag all abuzz with the news that, yet again, Kanye West stole the spotlight (this time from an unsuspecting #TaylorSwift) to protest her win for Best Female Video in lieu of #Beyonce. A day later has brought us not only the continuing gossip regarding the buffoonery of West, but the tragic passing of actor Patrick Swayze. Read the rest of this entry »