Three Cheers for the Lori Drew Acquittal, But Not for Drew

The directed acquittal of Lori Drew is the only sensible disposition of a depressingly sad case in which the suicide of a 13-year-old girl was linked to the bad behavior of a grown woman, the mother herself to a teenage daughter.

Drew could be ostracized, she can be sued for damages in a civil proceeding, she can become a pariah. I would not like to know her.

I am not a lawyer, but for the state to deny her liberty for lying when she created an account on a social network would be excessive and chilling and imperil hundreds of thousands of people who, while doing the TOS version of jaywalking, set themselves up for selective prosecution if some chain of evidence or events can associate them to someone else’s tragedy.

(Continue reading on Epicenter)

We Drive the BMW Mini E

WHITE PLAINS, NY — The BMW Mini E is a solid little electric ride that provides a comfortable, effortless driving experience with all of the usual small-car perks, plus an ultra cheap operating cost and a carbon footprint approaching zero. But as a $50,000 two-seater with no head-turning quotient, the pitch for this first cousin of the Mini Cooper won’t be so much to our inner rock star as our inner Al Gore.

Tooling around a busy interstate and the city streets of White Plains, it is easy to forget this is a pure electric vehicle, and something of a prototype at that: There are only about 450 Mini E’s on the road, driven by an unusually generous band of volunteer beta testers who pay $850 a month for the privilege of helping BMW work out the kinks before the car’s anticipated launch in 2012. They have no dibs on their cars and will not be allowed to buy them when the lease ends. All maintenance, and car insurance, is paid by BMW.

And, of course, nobody pays for the gas.

(Continue reading on Epicenter)

Facebook, shmacebook: What’s the next great thing?

Facebook is the 800-pound gorilla in the social media space, with some 200 million members, a valuation of perhaps $5 billion and a base that has expanded well beyond its early roots as a private hangout for bored Ivy League students.

But, like the ad says, life comes at you fast — and there is nothing more unforgiving than internet time. So, are the best years ahead for Facebook, or is the finicky mob of cool kids — and now their parents and grandparents — already peering down the road for another Next Great Thing?

One thing is for sure: Nothing lasts forever.

Continue reading 'Facebook, shmacebook: What’s the next great thing?' on the Reuters 'Great Debate' Blog.

Waiting for Steve

First, the good news: I got to do this interview from a studio-for-hire a couple of blocks from my office, on a workday, so no long trip on a day that I would otherwise have been off (still — not complaining MSNBC!). But these things always seem to end in a 10th of the time you think you'll have.

Still, as @samerfarha advised, I said nothing to draw fire from John Gruber.

Also, you'll see I have much longer hair than my profile picture, which was taken a year ago almost to the day. My last haircut? Sept. 30, 2008.