teases: on • reblogs: on

ShortFormBlog

Read a little. Learn a lot. • Ask Us Stuff!FAQArchiveTimeline

Our best freaking stuff right now:

May 18, 2013
15:47 • 1 day ago

  • 3North Korean short-range guided missiles launched into the waters to the east, according to South Korea. Such tests are not uncommon, to be clear, but these few missile launches come during a period fraught with tension, aiming to tamp down the North’s aggression through diplomatic means after a particularly belligerent couple of months. source

15:16 • 2 days ago
14:52 • 2 days ago
nbcnews:

‘I couldn’t stop screaming’: Witnesses describe Texas tornadoes
(Photo: Ralph Lauer / EPA)
Survivors of the tornadoes that devastated two towns in Texas on Wednesday night described their terror as the violent storm tore apart their homes, killing six people and injuring dozens more.
Read the complete story.

The spate of extreme, hazardous weather we’ve seen over the last year or so has been truly disturbing, which is not to say the people of Texas aren’t in the know about tornado threats. Regardless, though, the damage and human toll here is deflating. Our thoughts are with the victims, stripped of their homes, and for some, their lives.

nbcnews:

‘I couldn’t stop screaming’: Witnesses describe Texas tornadoes

(Photo: Ralph Lauer / EPA)

Survivors of the tornadoes that devastated two towns in Texas on Wednesday night described their terror as the violent storm tore apart their homes, killing six people and injuring dozens more.

Read the complete story.

The spate of extreme, hazardous weather we’ve seen over the last year or so has been truly disturbing, which is not to say the people of Texas aren’t in the know about tornado threats. Regardless, though, the damage and human toll here is deflating. Our thoughts are with the victims, stripped of their homes, and for some, their lives.

01:32 • 2 days ago
00:35 • 2 days ago

You might remember Aimee Copeland as the twentysomething who went through a harrowing experience last year, losing most of her limbs after a zip-line accident exposed her to flesh-eating bacteria. Fortunately, though, technology is giving her a second chance. Copeland recently received bionic hands from a company called Touch Bionics—devices which are so effective that she can actually grab things and do tasks that most people take for granted. Amazing stuff.

May 17, 2013
22:55 • 2 days ago

seldo:

I am super bored of hearing this.

Could Yahoo have done a better job of managing Flickr? Absolutely.

In retrospect, if they’d been patient and poured money into it like Facebook did with their own photo-sharing features, Flickr might have been a lot bigger. (Facebook is by far the world’s biggest photo-sharing site, and tagged photos was key to its early growth, something Flickr didn’t add until 2007)

But that’s in retrospect. In 2005, it wasn’t at all clear what to do. Everyone in the industry was still feeling the burn of gigantic, unprofitable acquisitions prior to the great crash of 2001, so paying money for an barely-profitable site like Flickr still seemed like madness, even within Yahoo. So Yahoo focussed on making it profitable — and succeeded, which is no mean feat.

Could Flickr have done better staying independent? Absolutely no way.

And the way you can tell that for sure is that they let Yahoo acquire them. It’s not like Yahoo in 2005 had a great reputation; the only reason you’d do it is if you were out of money and out of options. In 2005, nobody was going to give Flickr the hundreds of millions of dollars in fresh capital they needed and hope for the best: it was exit or die.

On top of the bare financial reality, it is an open secret at Yahoo (my former employer) that Flickr’s internals are and have always been an architectural nightmare. They had no idea how to scale and needed huge investment just to dig themselves out of the technical debt they’d accrued. It could have been better, sure, but without Yahoo it would have been much, much worse.

Yahoo didn’t kill Flickr; Yahoo saved Flickr from itself.

Here’s a lesser-heard take on the Yahoo/Tumblr thing from Laurie Voss, who is a former Yahoo employee and has some good insight on the matter as a result.

Follow us on Facebook:
22:42 • 2 days ago
I thought there was a bombing. I smelled smoke and looked outside the window and saw a whole bunch of dust, and I grabbed my son.
Metro North train rider Natalie Sepulveda • Describing the situation she (along with her two-year-old son) experienced immediately in the wake of today’s crash, which has injured 60 people, including five critically. The crash snarled transit around the busy Northeast Corridor, forcing both Metro North and Amtrak to shut down operations north of New York City. Two trains collided near Bridgeport, Ct. during rush hour.
21:50 • 2 days ago
19:30 • 2 days ago
Two Metro North commuter trains crash, reports of injuries: At least 20-25 people have been injured after two Metro North trains crashed outside of Bridgeport, Ct., the Associated Press reports via its Twitter account. (No fatalities have been reported, however.) The heavily-trafficked train route, between New York City and New Haven, Ct., has been suspended for the time being. (photo via NBC Connecticut)
UPDATE: Reports now have 60 injured, including five critically.

Two Metro North commuter trains crash, reports of injuries: At least 20-25 people have been injured after two Metro North trains crashed outside of Bridgeport, Ct., the Associated Press reports via its Twitter account. (No fatalities have been reported, however.) The heavily-trafficked train route, between New York City and New Haven, Ct., has been suspended for the time being. (photo via NBC Connecticut)

UPDATE: Reports now have 60 injured, including five critically.

18:15 • 2 days ago
  • 41% of Republicans surveyed think Benghazi is the biggest scandal in US history
  • 39%of the aforementioned Republicans do not know what country Benghazi is in source

In the same poll: Voters trust Hillary Clinton on Benghazi more than congressional Republicans by a 10 point margin; a net +18 percent of respondents would rather congress focus on immigration reform than Benghazi; and voters were split 45/45 on whether Benghazi is more or less of a scandal than Watergate (although that broke down mostly on partisan lines).

Recent posts and stuff we dig:
17:35 • 2 days ago
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has released a comparison of the budgets offered by President Obama, House Republicans, and Senate Democrats. They’re a lot similar than you’d expect given how much the two parties are at each others’ throats about things like Social Security and taxes, huh? Anyway, for those who enjoy charts and graphs, the CBO’s blog post on its budget projections will not disappoint. (h/t Ezra Klein) source

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has released a comparison of the budgets offered by President Obama, House Republicans, and Senate Democrats. They’re a lot similar than you’d expect given how much the two parties are at each others’ throats about things like Social Security and taxes, huh? Anyway, for those who enjoy charts and graphs, the CBO’s blog post on its budget projections will not disappoint. (h/t Ezra Klein) source

16:54 • 2 days ago
15:55 • 2 days ago
13:40 • 3 days ago
michaelhayes:

heyveronica:

soon

YOLO!


If Microsoft tries to acquire them it’d be Mumblr.

If Facebook tries to acquire them it’d be Fumblr.

michaelhayes:

heyveronica:

soon

YOLO!

If Microsoft tries to acquire them it’d be Mumblr.

If Facebook tries to acquire them it’d be Fumblr.

More posts:

 

ShortFormBlog is the product of Ernie Smith, Seth Millstein, Chris Tognotti, Sami Main, Scott Craft, Matthew Keys, Julius the laid-off RSS robot, awesome links from awesome sources, a hacked version of Wordpress, Tumblr's Tumblarity, the letter Q, the number 13 and a series of tubes.

Copyright 2009-2013 Ernie SmithAsk us stuff!E-mail usFollow us on TwitterFollow us on Facebook

    TwitterCounter for @shortformblog   Real Time Web Analytics   Creative Commons License Real Time Web Analytics