Facebook is part of nearly every college kid's life. Many students in the class, for credit or not, have posted something about Facebook on their blogs... some have even done presentations about it in some of their classes. What in the world of Facebook could I possibly talk about that hasn't been talked about before? the answer is "not much". That's the point: Facebook is very popular; it gets a lot of attention accordingly.
And Why shouldn't it? It is a brilliant idea that will make Mark Zuckerburg, its creator, insanely rich. It is the closest online replica of how our social networks work in reality. I think its most uncanny ability is how effective it can be at informing you of changes in your world. It actually improves upon the way we roll along in our normal lives. I could go to one class and have one whispered conversation with the person next to me for gossip news. I may find out that that person bombed a test, or that infamous line to describe a dull uneventful life: "I'm good...". But in 20 seconds on Facebook, this is the info I glean (this is an actual test; I pulled up my home page and scanned for information, stopping after 20 seconds):
I have 3 friends with birthdays in 3 days.
2 of my friends are going to the Phillies game next week.
One of my friends, according to his status, is currently confused.
What I call the "Don't ask, don't tell" picture albums... You fill in the material.
I've read three sentences in three of my friends' conversations to each other.
This instant and useful information are the cornerstones(can one have two?) of what makes Facebook an incredible phenomenon. The popularity of Facebook, as described in the article by Newsweek, is growing at the rate of one million people a week. It's apparently "a perfect fit" for plenty of people across demographics with a seemingly endless myriad of uses. This aspect is something the article above stressed in detail. Since Facebook opened to support third party applications, everything from playing poker or listening to new music can be done on Facebook.
Ah...The ever present buzz word of technology these days: versatility. Multifaceted technologies are becoming more popular. People can no longer live with a phone. Why would they, when they can have an internet browsing phone that plays music, has a built in planner, and can feed your dog for you? Ok, so maybe I'm getting a little facetious, but you get the point. The more things you can do on Facebook, the more time you spend on Facebook. Consolidation is key in today's technology market.
To summarize, I'll use the Austin Powers "Paradox Construction", courtesy of a certain overweight individual:
"I Facebook because I need to gossip, and I gossip because I Facebook. It's a vicious cycle..."
The Effects Of Social Networking: A "Big Picture" Approach
Social Networking sites have had a number of positive and negative effects on society since their inception. These two articles really show the full spectrum of their effect in that they explore different areas of society: your work life and your personal identity.
This article, titled "Ten Cultural Implications of Social Software", states ten major changes in societal patterns as a direct result of the popularity of Web 2.0 technology. This article is worded very formally, definitely written to be read from a business perspective. Further proof of this fact is that all ten of the effects listed in this article refer to some type of business relationship. For example, It states that things you post online that are written poorly can have an effect on your job search, because the number of companies that hire illiterates are shrinking. Also, posting online in a blog about your industry could increase or decrease a potential employer's view of your professional competence, depending on your knowledge.
It also stated major changes in the way businesses market products. Beta Testing, or a release of a version of a product to a small community for testing, has been invaluable to many. It allows the "bugs" of the project to be discovered before the finished product is shipped.
Clearly, positive and negative effects exist here.
The second article, titled "Social Networking 'Addiction' Aids Phishing", describes a new wave of crime that uses data from social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace to gather the personal information of others. This act, called phishing, can effectively allow criminals to reverse engineer your identity profile, or commit identity theft. Information that used be lulled out of unsuspecting consumers of products such as AOL (their passwords, pretending to be AOL employees) used to steal their identity can now be found posted on a website by the victim's free will. Sites like Facebook and Myspace in this way act as a "one stop-shop" for Phishers and Identity thieves.
Here is a perfect example. A phisher used to send you a spam mail that read like this :
This is a Citibank Employee. Please verify account information for security purposes.
If you couldn't differentiate this from a genuine email from Citibank, you could give away your credit card information to an identity thief. Now consider the possibilities granted a phisher when he goes to your Myspace, assuming you're bad at being safe online...
He gets your cell number, or an address. For a small fee, many online services exist for tracking down full names, other phone numbers and living locations based off of less information. Possibly one could gain pictures of you he can scan to a good fake ID. A brief view of any blog entries might give him the knowledge of where you will be certain days. How would you feel coming home to an empty house? This article brings up a severe danger to having more of our lives posted on the internet.
The first article seemed fairly straight forward to me. The information that I put on the internet can effect my Job Search. This is knowledge I have been force-fed in the last few months. It was the second article that truly scared me. Have you noticed on the lower right of your browsers, you users of Internet Explorer 7, that you have a Phishing Filter? This is searching for the legitimacy of the sites you visit. I have turned this off before!! This article gave me a reason to research what phishing really was, and it has definitely furthered my cause in reducing the information held on these social networking sites. In an earlier post, I mentioned my mother is now a blogger. I didn't mention it in the post, but my mother had posted her full address and a picture of herself on her blog at Blogger.com. I have told her to take it down, because it is quite frankly a security risk. This article is more fuel to the fire.
First off, let me apologize for the long pause in my blogging. I really enjoy it; I don't know what came over me for the last two weeks. Especially with the much needed clarification of "the blog rules", you'd think I would be blogging all the time! This post initiates what I hope will be a rebirth in activity on this site. Ironically, that word "rebirth" is all too fitting for the subject of this post.
I'm going to talk about a scientific breakthrough that I read about on Endgadget's RSS feed(linked in the black and white pic). It is controversial, contains enormous potential, and could determine the shape of our lives in the future, from solving our world's problems to defining humanity. I am not a mad scientist. Craig Venter is.
J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., is regarded as one of leading scientists of the 21st century for his invaluable contributions in genomic research and is one of the most frequently cited scientists. He the figurehead of the J. Craig Venter Science Foundation, not-for-profit, research and support organizations dedicated to human genomic research, to exploration of social and ethical issues in genomics, and to seeking alternative energy solutions through microbial sources. In addition Dr. Venter is the founder and chairman of The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR).The successful completion of his research as well as that of many others, culminated with the publication of the human genome in February 2001. This is still considered to be one of the most significant breakthroughs in science to occur in our lifetime.
Craig Venter has been doing some very interesting work with the development of a synthetic chromosome. Now, my biology is a little rusty, but the chromosome is the part of our cells that contains the genetic code for the species, your genetic code. As early as Monday the 7th, we could hear the official announcement of his feat.
Venter took the genetic makeup of a bacterium and stripped it to the bare essentials required to sustain life. This required removing about of fifth of its genetic code. He injected it into the cell of another bacterium, effectively changing the species of that cell to that of the engineered chromosome. The synthetic genome would be dependent on the host cell to replicate itself and for the cell parts necessary for maintaining life. This means it isn't necessarily a true artificial life form, but it is a monumental step in that direction.
This is the difference between reading genetic code and writing genetic code.
The implications of this technology are massive. On a small scale, like bacteria, could we engineer a bacterium that would feed on the excess carbon monoxide in the atmosphere, ending the greenhouse effect? Could we eventually push this technology into the creation of a new life form, a new species?
Why stop there? What about genetic enhancement of the human genome, or the implications for medicine? Muwahaha!!
The ethical debate has not been overlooked either. The controversy a discovery this monumental would cause would mimic the level of the evolutionary debate. Nay, it would revive it, seeing as how the potential would include controlling our own evolution. We are not close to this, but it certainly seems more possible now.. Is it our right to play God?
We often talk of how technology, as in computers, robots, and other various devices will define our generation in the future. If this research were to be completed, I would consider this a viable form of life-changing technology. We build machines. We don't have the same direct role in creating life. Thats a big difference. If we were to build sentient life, it is comparable (in my mind) to building a supercomputer, or artificial intelligence. It certainly seems that this discovery's potential has me dreaming of the manifestation of every Scifi book plot I have ever read. Do you find it as interesting?
So 24 Carrot gold MacBooks... I'm just stunned. Perhaps floored would be the better term... Lets run the numbers:
A MacBook Pro, as of August '07, cost between 2 and 2.4 gs. Now add to that the 24 carrot gold casing and the diamond crested Apple logo on the back. Look at it: it's like a moth being drawn to a flame! It's so sexy (yes, gadgets can be sexy) that I could actually see someone putting up their house as collateral to buy one..
Not only does it make all white Mac products look cheap, but it is psychically calling you, and telling you that it is somehow different from all those "other" Macs. Don't listen! It is the same MacBook. This isn't all they've dipped in precious liquid metal, either!
You can stop drooling. The iPhone has been given the same VIP treatment, adding to the already staggering number of people who fear fingerprints on their "precious!" toy. Weren't devices supposed to be used, not thrown in a safe? I personally wouldn't feel safe with these collectibles anywhere but a Swiss bank account! At least there will be plenty of space for it, seeing as how they were emptied to pay for the beasts.
Doesn't this bring a whole new meaning to the term consolidation?
More Than A Look At Technology: A Way To Look At Life
I love to read. It is an escape for me from daily life, and from the impossible. I mainly read Fantasy and Science Fiction, but last night I just reread one of my favorite books, one that I believe is accessable to nearly all people with an open mind. I want to write about it because I feel like I need to verbalize what this work has done for me. I also want to somehow link it to technology. Lets see how I do...
Let me start by saying that Richard Bach is an amazing writer. Besides this book, he is known as the author of Jonathon Livingston Seagull. Illusions is a short, easy read of 200 pages. You could read it in an hour. If you like books that make you think: about life, God, or yourself-or even if you just like looking at things from a different perspective every now and then-this book is for you.
I can't (or choose not to) write about the plot of this book. I think it would take away from reading it. But I will say a few things about it. This book does not attack religion. Messiah is in the title, but don't let that scare you away from reading it. Secondly, keep an open mind. New perspectives don't have to be right: they just have to be different.
This book is full of wisdom. Real wisdom, the type you can use, can be found on 50% of the pages. Every time I read Illusions, I feel like I've been re-centered. I have been stressing out about an Exam I have coming up, and I couldn't sleep. After I reread it, I felt reminded of what was really important to me. It kind of put things back into the proper scope. What is it that this book says that brings this effect? Well, now that I've constrained myself to not using the plot, it's a little harder to say.
What is real? Well, thats a big question. The book used going to see a movie as a prime metaphor to reality in this life. Is a movie real?
A movie isn't real; it's not even moving! It's just pictures that have been shown in a procession at the right speed to simulate the process. When you watch a movie, you're immersed within it. For two and a half hours or so, it's as real as life. You live vicariously through the characters.
You chose to see the movie for one of two reasons; essentially for fun or to learn something. Fun would include escape, entertainment and the like. Learning could be as simple as a movie with educational value. It could also be more implied, like a moral lesson. What does this say about us as human beings? We are Fun-loving by nature, and we have a yearnin' for some learnin!
At any time in the movie, we can walk out. We don't have to subject ourselves to bad movies! We can if we want. More often than not, people will sit through a movie even if they know 20 minutes into it that they won't enjoy it. That, however, is still their conscious choice to do so.
What if you thought of your life as a movie? One of the wisest things my father ever said to me was, "Son, you are the star of your own movie. Your friends and your family are just your supporting characters. But ultimately, the plot follows you." Your choices effect your movie. You can make your life what you want. You follow this thought pattern and these are the statements you make:
You are here in this life to learn something, and to be happy.
If you don't like your movie, change it. Would you want to see your movie?
It's a metaphor. You have freedom in your life.
This is the part where someone says, "Well, thats beautifully idealistic, but not reality. Some people have jobs that they have to do that they hate and some people have no control of the condition of their lives." I'm not in a position to argue one way or the other. But this book provided an escape to a place where it was possible. It made me feel like I had control.
Certain technologies, like Second Life and the Sims, are new age methods for finding the same escape (now, for the beautiful transition). I think human beings either have a tendency to want control, or ability to give that control to a supreme being. When real life isn't going the way you'd like, or you want to try something different, these "games" come in handy. The lack of responsibilities in a game like the Sims is attractive to someone bogged down in life. John Smith may have zero control over whether his meeting is on Saturday or Friday, but in the Sims he carries complete control over what his avatar does in the realistic, but not real world. In which world would you argue he is living? Which would John Smith?
In conclusion, wherever possible, choose to pursue Happiness. With any luck, these technologies or this book will make you one step closer to that ever-present life goal.
The three sites I chose for this assignment were Facebook, Mog, and Twitter.
The focus of my discussion is simple. The word social in social networking is pretty general. The reason there are so many social networking sites are because people are "social" in many different ways. Therefore, there are as many social networking sites (SN sites) as there are ways to be social.
Mog is a unique SN site that focuses on just one way people socially interact. We've all been there: greatest way to break the ice with someone is to ask "What music do you listen to?" It gets you talking about a subject that everyone can relate to in some way. Mog not only focuses on just that social interaction, it facilitates it! You set up a Mog page and download the Mog updater. It tells your Mog your music library by reading the information that your music player gives off. It updates you page with your top rated album for that week, most played songs, and a list of what's in your music library. Using GraceNote, the database program that the iTunes Music store uses index songs, it even links the blurb in your profile to a snippet of the song. Someone can browse Mog pages for a certain type of music and meet people that like the same things. You can post "reviews" of any song posted on Mog, blog about music, or even comment on people's music choices. It doesn't have a clear cut friend system, but you can add to your page a list of "trusted Mogs", or a list of Mog pages that you trust to post quality music. This is the networking factor of Mog. All in all, it focuses on one tried and true part of everyone's personality and allows you to socialize with people that share your interests.
Facebook is something everyone is a little more familiar with. It takes the most obvious aspect of socializing, making friends, and simulates it in an online experience. It links you to your friends the same way you do in real life: by classifying each friend with information unique to your connection with that person. Maybe you met Bob in grade school. You worked with Jim. You traveled to Europe with Cindy. Those are differentiating factors when distinguishing different friends. Facebook also facilitates the activities that occur between friends, such as talking, sharing videos and pictures, or planning events. Everyone is fairly familiar with Facebook because making friends is the most popular way to socialize. This is why Facebook is so insanely popular.
Twitter has its own unique way of defining social interaction. It is basically a "What are you doing this second in 140 characters or less?" website. I find this SN site particularly interesting because it more accurately mimics real social interaction among close friends and new acquaintances alike. With your close friends, you know whats going on in there life; there post is just a current "This is what I'm doing right now." Don't you find it ironic that when asking someone you barely know "Whats up?" You always get a short but informative answer? Twitter posts of people you just met can be read basically like the answer to a "Whats up?". It includes a basic instant messaging service, and recently cell phone text message support, which is significantly less communication than the services provided by a SN site like Facebook. I prefer to see it as the trade-off of the feel of a real life social network in an online space for functionality.
The format of these SN sites directly correlates to how easy the sites are for you. For example, how many of your friends are friends with each other as well? If you find one of your friends on Facebook, the likelihood of finding more of your friends through his friends list is strong. This makes setting up your network fast and easy! The fact that Twitter restricts you to so many characters dictates the way it is used - constant, non- life changing posts that change every two minutes. The fact that Mog provides something that updates your page for you saves you time in maintaining it. You can spend that time (while listening to the music you love, and updating your page as you go) looking at other profiles. You may discover your new favorite band!
Being social is a complicated thing. not everyone can be social in the same manner... The surge of different social networking sites intimates, however, that there is some way that everyone can socialize if given the proper environment.
I present to you a marvel of modern science. The Alarm Clock:
Many have tried to wake me. Few have succeeded. It is because for me, I must be jarred awake so I really get up. I can move, speak, think, and see (briefly) while still technically asleep. Those functions associated with consciousness aren't as clear cut as you would think. An average alarm may go off in my vicinity, but normally I have just enough functionality in my unconscious state to get up, turn it off, mumble how rude it was, and lie back down in bed - even if it was across the room - and not remember it ever going off when I truly awake. I've tried everything. I drink a bottle of water right before bed. I think really hard while I'm trying to sleep about exactly when I need to get up (sometimes that gets me up at that exact time I was thinking - It's so creepy, you should try it). Nothing works. I still get up an average of 45 seconds before I have to be in class. It's just not a healthy habit.
Maybe it's like the common cold in that no clock could possibly best my mind's intense will to sleep at all costs. These masterpieces, however, are certainly going to give me a run for my money.
The carpet alarm clock requires weight pressure to turn off. You would have to put your full weight on it. I doubt I would do that more than once or twice before I kicked it under the bed or pressed on it with my feet and then went back to bed. However, it is an interesting perspective that would probably work for many people.
The helicopter alarm clock is just demonic. The alarm goes off, and so does the helicopter. That will fly in many different directions based on what it hits. The alarm is un-endable until the helicopter wings are put back on the launch pad, making you get up and look for wherever the hell the bloody thing landed. I've never had this alarm, but I can imagine that it would drive me nuts and make my roommate wet his pants laughing.
These are all well and good, but I have encountered one clock that puts them all to shame. Nothing can wrest a gut-wrenching scream from me quite like: Spongebob.
I had this alarm a few years back. Let me just say that the beginning of the theme from Spongebob is enough to wake a man from any sleep state, including a tranquilized one. You awake in horror staring at its inherently evil face and you want to hurt something. My alarm never passed the "OOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH" portion of the "melody" before I punched it or threw it or maliciously yelled at it. But I got up. Every time. That alarm's first 5 seconds was like a shot of caffeine into my blood stream. Unfortunately, the clock itself took such a beating that eventually I snapped dear old Spongebob clean off and broke the clock from the 7th level of Hell.
Moral of the story? Human Beings can't create something from this side of heaven that can wake me up on a consistent basis. I'm open to suggestions, but for now, I just have to get lucky. It's because the same driving will to create and invent, the spark of creation if you will, cannot match in strength the will to continue that dream, do nothing but rest for one more hour, or to avoid our responsibilities.
This is what happens when your physics engine includes the ability to ricochet bullets off metal. And to think that we wouldn't have this work of art without the wonderful theatre engine and slow mode!! Happy laughing...
So we're about half-way through our IST110 journey, and I would like to touch on what I feel I've learned... This class is currently my favorite class to attend all week. It may sound like I'm trying to make teacher's pet, but seriously, I would regret it if I didn't say something. I love the way our class is run. I feel like as a member of team Wintermute, or as part of our class, I have gained so much from our dysfunctional pseudo-family! We are all so different, yet not. At some point in the last few weeks I have bonded in some way, usually privately to myself, with all of my classmates. Maybe I personally agreed with some *deep* thing you said in class, or laughed at something you wrote on your blogs. The purpose of this post is to elaborate on why I feel this class was so conducive to creating such a learning environment.
Being graded on what we do, not what we can memorize.
Being treated (right down to our sometimes belligerent opinions) with respect.
The understanding that a set curriculum isn't set in stone.
Consistently giving us the liberty in our projects to stretch the limits and make it our own.
Give a shout out if you feel this class has affected you positively or negatively! We can speak our minds freely (arguably) for the first time in our education. Here's to saving the school system!
Video Sites: Different At All? Or Just A New Audience?
Youtube is immensly popular and has set a benchmark for what should be expected from the world of internet video 2.0 websites. That is precisely why I am not doing this project on youtube. I instead chose three sites that are in some cases less popular, but in general containig a smaller scope.
College Humor is a very different breed of comedy. That is why CollegeHumor.com was founded in 1999 by two high school friends from Baltimore, Maryland. They went to different colleges as a way to share all of the pictures, videos, and links their friends would IM and e-mail each other. Now it's a lot bigger. This site includes social networking capability, as well as the ability to upload photos and video compilations. You aren't the only supplier of content, however. The site has a dedicated team of writers that spend their days finding funny things on the internet to share with us.
CollegeHumor.com reaches over 6.21 million unique visitors each month, and displays over 200 million monthly page views (courtesy of Nielsen data). Our users are 73.4% male and 42.6% are within the 18-24 age demographic, and 69.2% are between 18-34 (based on @Plan data). The user base is made up largely by College students - in fact 68% of our users are students. In addition, their weekly email newsletter reaches over 200,000 subscribers. Some of their past site sponsors include Proctor and Gamble, Sony Motion Pictures and Home Video, Ford, Rockstar Games, Jose Cuervo, Virgin Mobile, CBS Television, Miller Brewing, Comedy Central, Paramount Theatrical and Home Video, Warner Brothers, MTV and many others. It uses connected ventures technology - which states tha by using their site you acknowledge that all works they submit as solely theirs and all works you submit as solely yours.
Here's something (appropriately) funny I found on CollegeHumor.com: aptly titled, Spam I Might Actually Read...
Obviously, Stupidvideos.com hosts videos of people doing stupid things. Specifically, they offer stupid videos, photos, and parodies of tv shows. They also offer ecards and contests for cash prizes for good stupid videos, blogging and social networking capability and links to sites such as xsports for specific genres of stupidity, such as sports bloopers.
StupidVideos is located in El Segundo, CA and is part of PureVideo Networks. StupidVideos.com is a viral video website dedicated to humorous, off-the-wall videos, including wild stunts, wacky animals, sports bloopers, funny commercials, song and dance parodies and more. The videos are submitted to us by users like you, licensed from their partners, or produced by the StupidVideos staff.
"IMPORTANT: IF YOU ARE UNDER THE AGE OF 18, STUPIDVIDEOS WILL NOT CONSIDER YOUR SUBMISSION WITHOUT YOUR PARENT OR GUARDIAN'S CERTIFICATION THAT THEY HAVE APPROVED OF THE ACTIVITIES INVOLVED WITH YOUR SUBMISSION BEFORE YOU BEGAN PRODUCING IT. "
Copied straight from their terms of service, this is unique to them. They refuse to allow minors to partake in doing stupid things on purpose without their parents permission. Now if only the lady that spilled McDonald's coffee on her lap to test the temperature was told that, we'd have less general stupidity in this world...
Break.com is a leading entertainment channel for guys fueled by user created media. Break creates a growing community based on timely, visceral entertainment, and enables users to upload and share their original content. essentially its a powerhouse.. Break remains a leading proponent of the democratization and monetization of content. Thanks to Break, you don't need to be famous to create entertaining videos and have them distributed to millions. Break has already worked with a wide variety of advertisers including Anheuser-Busch, Verizon, Lions Gate, Paramount, MTV Networks, Haggar Clothing, Universal Pictures, Miramax, The Weinstein Company and many more.
Break has some powerful statistics. It's the largest independent multimedia destination (Hitwise), as well as a top 100 domestic US web site (Alexa) and top indexer for men 18-34 (Comscore). It's become a platform to reach over 1.3 million daily unique visitors who consume over 15,000,000 videos daily!
As with all of these sites aforementioned, Break follows the same terms policy for uploaded content. This is Taken directly from their Terms and Conditions:
"You understand that all user feedback, data, comments, suggestions, information, text, data, software, sounds, photographs, audio, audiovisual, video, artwork, graphics, messages and other materials of any nature ("Materials") that are transmitted to or via the Site are the sole responsibility of the person from which the Materials originated. This means you, and not us, are entirely responsible for the Materials you transmit through the Site. Further, you understand that by using the Site you may be exposed to Materials that are offensive, objectionable or indecent."
Well, t least they're honest..
For your enjoyment, this was gleaned from the videos at break. This girl was playing a computer maze game, when randomely a scary picture comes to the screen and screams, scaring the girls. It's a poplar prank and a large number of videos use it to get scares from their victims.
All three sites have practically identical legal issues surrounding their content and they handle it in nearly the same way. They all deal with humor, instead of the all-encompassing youtube, which has vlogs and serious things as well. They all use standard social networking technologies to their advantage. They all advertise, but to their respective audiences. Break and CollegeHumor have similar audiences and advertise to the age group 18-34. Stupid Videos tend to attract a wide following of those bored of their respective day jobs, and tend to advertise big companies such as Geico.
But they all share a purpose: to bring a smile to our faces when we should by rights be doing something important
Chuck Norris is a washed up has-been. It is harsh, but the truth. In his day he was a 6 time world karate champion, and was a horrible actor on classic failures such as Walker Texas Ranger, where a round house kick could stop a bad guy with a gun. Not many people still know about him in my generation.
Conan did a skit on his Late Show about being attacked by the insanely powerful Chuck Norris a few years back and since then this form of humor (oddly similar to "your momma" jokes) has taken off. You can find at least 50,000 of them on the internet, all of them hysterically funny.
Some of my favorites jokes are:
Chuck Norris does not wear a condom. Because there is no such thing as protection from Chuck Norris.
When Chuck Norris goes to donate blood, he declines the syringe, and instead requests a hand gun and a bucket.
Chuck Norris' first job was as a paperboy. There were no survivors.
Chuck Norris is the only person to ever win a staring contest against Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder.
Now, Chuck Norris has become more popular with this generation than he ever was in his glory days. These jokes, which he finds hysterical (if not a little crude), have catapulted him to god-like status. In an article from WorldNetDaily.com, Chuck Norris is interviewed about the jokes surrounding his super human strength. He finds most to be good fun and some rather offensive. He claims that he is not as saintly strong as the "facts" make him to be. Here is a video of Chuck Norris reading jokes about himself he's never heard before on a talk show:
Why has it caught on so quickly? I can't say that I know. All I know is that this internet phenomenon has transformed this old actor into a current celebrity. But maybe this deity has been tricking us all along! It is already considered "fact" by the Chuck Norris fans that "Chuck Norris has never won an Academy Award for acting... because he's not acting."
