Photo: Mark Zukerberg, from Wikipedia.

Facebook was born in February 2004. It now has 500 million active users. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, a 20-year old Harvard Sophomore, with his college roomates and fellow computer science students. Zukerberg’s idea was to form a network so that students could get to know each other better. It was initially limited to Harvard students. Zuckerberg was born May 14, 1984 in White Plains, New York. He is now 26 years old and is CEO of Facebook, Inc.

In January 2009 Facebook was ranked as the most widely used social network worldwide in monthly active users.

Facebook generated 450 visitors in its first four hours online. Within its first month more than half the undergraduate population at Harvard was registered on the site. It expanded to Stanford, Columbia and Yale. It gradually expanded to all Ivy League schools, New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Expansion continued to universities in Canada and the United States. It currently gains 1 million new users per day, according to David Kirkpatrick, author of “The Facebook Effect.” It is located in Palo Alto, California. Facebook is currently open to all persons age 13 or older with an e-mail address.

The website is now worth some $15 billion dollars. More people visited Facebook than Google in 2010. A movie about Facebook, called “The Social Network” will be released next month.

Facebook is a social network where friends communicate with each other and keep track with what their friends are doing. Kirkpatrick states users of Facebook will reach 1 billion users worldwide within another year. He says that communications between people via Facebook exceeds that of e-mails.

Pahrump, Nye County and residents of the entire state of Nevada are well represented on Facebook. Not only individuals, but politicians and multiple businesses are active on the site. Groups of all kinds maintain active use of Facebook. For example “Positive Pahrump” has 1,781 friends, mostly residents of Pahrump or people actively involved with the Town, reflects positive attributes of the community.

Another group, “Mule-Lick Nevada,” is a humorous parody about Pahrump that is one of my favorites.

Local politicians use Facebook. Both Tony DeMeo and Scott Cobel, candidates for election to Sheriff of Nye County, have a presence on Facebook. You can learn a lot about each just by visiting their Facebook pages.

Whether you love or dislike Sharron Angle you will find her there as well.

Both Laurayne Murray and Dan Schinhofen, competing for election to the Nye County Board of Commissioners pursue their campaigns on Facebook. So do Carolene Endersby, Tom Waters and Don Rust, running for Town Board of Pahrump. Brian Kunzi, candidate for Nye County District Attorney, is there, though I did not find Ron Kent, his opponent.

Oddly, neither the Nye County Democratic Party nor Republican Party maintain a presence on Facebook that I could find. The Nye County Republican Central Committee has a website but seems to ignore Facebook. The Nye County Democratic Central Committee not only ignores Facebook but the internet completely since they have no website presence at all.

One would think both political parties would be communicating furiously with their members by both methods, particularly with the November elections fast approaching.

Facebook’s effect on the American political system became clear in January 2008. Both Facebook and Twitter has virtually revolutionized politics. Facebook is an extremely popular and powerful new way to interact and voice opinions on the political scene.

Facebook has been blocked intermittently in several repressive countries including Pakistan, Syria, People’s Republic of China, Vietnam, and Iran.

The impact of Facebook on the future of the United States has been recognized. Particularly with the younger generation, which is quite familiar with the Internet, Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging, and the whole range of communicative techniques of modern 21st Century. For the first time in history ordinary people are capable of personally interacting with each other, governments notwithstanding. That is a good thing.

You are welcome to read more about this and other matters on the Nye-Gateway to Nevada’s Rurals blog at http://nyegateway.com. You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Featheriver.

Governor Jim Gibbons is having his portrait painted. Paid for by taxpayers.

The Nevada Arts Council has chosen three finalists to paint the official portrait of the Governor. Forty-four artists competed for the honor. The three chosen are: Ned Bettinger of New Mexico, John Ennis of Pennsylvania and Michele Rushworth of Washington state.

Guess nobody in Nevada paints portraits.

Gibbons gets to make the final choice of which of the three get to paint him. The chore has to be completed by December 17.

The person chosen will be paid $17,500 for the painting, frame and hanging materials and also will receive up to $2,500 in travel expenses.

Governor Gibbons’ portrait will hang in the hallway of the state’s capitol.

You know what, the Governor’s portrait could be digitally painted for just a few bucks. Corel Painter software will do the trick. Costs $49.99. Works just fine. The picture you see above is of my oldest son when he was five years old. What you see is a painting from his picture was done by Corel Painter Essentials by me this morning. And I live in Pahrump, Nevada.

All the Nevada Arts Council had to do was send me a photograph of the Governor, or I could have found one myself with a Google image search, then run it through Corel Painter Essentials and voila it would be done. I’d been happy to do have done it for $20. And that $20 would have been spent by me here in Pahrump, not New Mexico, Pennsylvania or Washington state. And I’m not gainfully employed either.

Source: Nevada Appeal

and Don

I’m always fascinated with “First Annual” affairs because who knows if there will be a “Second Annual.” Sort of depends on how well the First Annual goes.

[Read more →]

Gov. Jim Gibbons

Nevada Republican Governor Jim Gibbons isn’t sure whether he will accept $162 million in federal money to hire school teachers and supply funds to the Medicaid program.

A couple of days ago I wrote about this asking the question whether or not Nye County would reject the money from the federal government. It hadn’t occurred to me that the Governor of Nevada would relieve Nye County of having to make any decision at all. He may make the decision for all counties in the state.

Gibbons has nothing to lose, politically, because he’s a lame duck and we’ll be rid of him come January.

He first wants to see the strings attached to the law signed this week by President Obama. It would protect an estimated 1,400 teacher jobs in Nevada.

The governor has to approve accepting the money pushed through Congress by Democrats..

Gibbons complained the federal government is making decisions on Nevada’s school system. For instance, he said the Eureka County School District might need books or computers but will be required to use the funds for teachers.

No mention by Gibbons that he’s making the decisions on Nye County’s school system. Lord, considering the dismal state the education system is in how can it be any kind of improvement for Gibbons to be the “decider?” Seems to me the local school districts should be making the decision. Local school boards would seem to be in far better position to know what they need than Gibbons, or even the federal government.

"We have to study the requirements for taking that money," Gibbons said. "The requirements by the federal government oftentimes put us in a more difficult position."

He said the state might get the $82 million for education "but in some ways you have to continue to spend state money to keep getting that money and oftentimes we don’t have the matching dollars."

"I’m prepared to say ‘Thank you’ and I’m prepared to say ‘Thank you, but no thank you,’" Gibbons said.

The state, under the federal legislation, would get $79 million for the Medicaid program, which provides medical care for the needy.

Gibbons will decide whether Nevada’s Medicaid beneficiaries get their medical treatments or not. Of course the “needy” are needy due to their own fault. Or at least that seems to be the Republican viewpoint.

Gibbons press secretary Daniel Burns said it was disappointing for the federal government to offer money to states and not let states decide how to spend it.

"Rhode Island, Florida, Mississippi and Nevada have different educational needs and to say that all this money can only be spent on teachers when a school district may need books or buses or supplies for the classroom … That’s part of the strings attached," he said.

Republicans Sen. John Ensign and Rep. Dean Heller opposed the congressional bill, saying it wouldn’t create jobs in private business or spur the economy.

These two guys aren’t much help to Nevadans either. They’re locked into their “just say no” mode.

School teachers, children and the medically needy can simply go pound sand.

[Source: Las Vegas Sun]

Today, President Obama  signed legislation to provide urgent fiscal relief to school districts across the country to maintain our education system, and to enable 160,000 teachers to keep their jobs.

The 160,000 figure is nationwide. Nevada’s share is 1,400 teachers.

I assume that a portion of those 1,400 teachers will be here in Nye County.

The question is: “Will those Nye County residents that are concerned about Obama’s ‘big government spending’ rise up  in protest, demanding the federal money be rejected?”

By the way, Senator John Ensign voted No (to reject the money) and Senator Harry Reid voted Y (to take the money). [Congress.Org]

[Source: White House]

It is interesting to note that Senator John Ensign voted NO on the bill the Senate passed to provide aid to the states, including Nevada, to help Nevada extend Medicaid, secure and retain the jobs of teachers. Notice also that Senator Harry Reid voted YES.

Wonder why Senator Ensign voted to ignore Nevada who desperately needs some financial assistance currently?

This is segment I of a video of Carolene Endersby, a candidate for the Town Board of Pahrump, Nevada.

Carolene was interviewed for about 20 minutes about where she came from, how she came to Pahrump, why she is running for election, what she hopes to accomplish if elected.

There will be a series of  of incremental clips of that entire 20 minute interview uploaded to YouTube and posted on this blog. The reason for the increments is to chop the 20 minutes into small bites making it possible to upload the files for your viewing. YouTube won’t permit uploading an entire 20 minute video—thus it must be done in increments.

In addition to this blog the video’s will appear on Twitter and that way transmitted to some 211 followers of tweets I publish. Additionally the video series will appear on Mrs. Endersby’s campaign website. Also, the videos will be displayed on Friends of Carolene Endersby for Pahrump Town Board on Facebook. Of course you can always see her videos on YouTube.

The plan is to upload each segment in about two-minute segments because of the size of videos and because it permits a viewer to download the videos to watch much faster than it would take it the entire 20 minutes of video would have to be downloaded.

You are welcome and invited to contact Mrs. Endersby about her campaign, her plans and aspirations concerning the Town of Pahrump. You can contact her on her campaign website or Facebook or via her email at ecarolene@gmail.com or phone her at 775-513-0709. Additionally, her calendar schedule is contained on her campaign website so that you will know when and where she will be appearing throughout Pahrump during her campaign. That way you can meet with her personally.

Lots of people in Pahrump have particular concerns about their town and community over a wide range of matters. Mrs. Endersby is aware of that and wishes to meet as many of you as possible to discuss the matters which concern you most. So take advantage of the opportunities to talk with her. You will find she is an excellent listener, very intelligent, very committed to improving our community here in Pahrump. I can assure you that you will be glad you took the time and exerted the effort to meet her.

The House is in recess and is scheduled to reconvene on Tuesday, September 14. The Senate is in session this week. Here are the most recent votes.

Republican Sharron Angle reported raising $2.3 million since late May for her campaign against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, an amount that nearly equaled what Reid has banked since April, so reports the Las Vegas Sun.

Senator Harry Reid is spending nearly $1 million a month — that’s more than he’s taking in.

Reid has a balance of about $9 million in the bank. Angle has about $1.8 million on hand.

Reid will need to raise an average of more than $44,000 a day to reach his goal of $25 million.

Republican opposition in Congress has stalled legislation that would extend much-needed benefits to unemployed workers.

There are more than 14.5 million people out of work and another 2.5 million who are discouraged and have given up looking for work, according to the Labor Department.

As we have noted before, some conservatives stunningly argue that benefits keep people from looking for work.

Nevada leads the nation in the percentage of people unemplyed at 14 percent. There are 120,000 Nevadans out of work, and that doesn’t include those who have given up looking.

Despite arguments to the contrary, this isn’t about people being spoiled or lazy. There aren’t jobs available. This is about ideology: The right-wing crowd doesn’t like government, and they are willing to let millions of Americans suffer to get their way. That is tragic.

[Source: Las Vegas Sun]

I wonder  how many of those unemployed, who need this extension of unemployment benefits, are unemployed Republicans?I also wonder how those unemployed Republicans are going to vote come November?