Farhad Manjoo on the new Square Stand:
Translation: Credit cards will be here for a good long time. This isn’t a novel admission; Dorsey has always said that he doesn’t think plastic will go away anytime soon. But the launch of the Square Stand—a device engineered to improve the credit card experience—shows how deeply Square is betting on credit cards. It’s as if, after building the Model T, Henry Ford also spent a lot of money to build a faster horse, just to hedge his bets. In this way, Square Stand prompts a deeper question: What if, as wonderful as Square Wallet is, we just never move beyond credit cards? What if people find faster horses good enough?
The problem with credit cards is not that they’re not useful. It’s that they break down very easily and are a huge hassle to replace. If you have to get a replacement card, it’s a real pain, especially if you have a number of subscriptions attached to that account. That’s a big part of the reason that, even though I have bruised and faded cards, I live with it. Because replacing it is a bigger hassle.
But there is something to be said about Square’s overall philosophy here. Last weekend I went to a farmer’s market, something that’s long been a cash-only affair at many venues. But there were a number of vendors sporting Square devices—something which goes a huge way towards liberating both consumers, who hate carrying tons of cash, and vendors, who often find themselves on the short end of the stick with payment systems. The result? I only had to pull out cash once. They’ve gone a very long way towards making payments not suck. And that’s pretty awesome.
(Oh, and the other thing? The way they turn receipts into a digital thing is awesome in the age of receipt hell. The last time I went to CVS, I got six coupons. Six. How many trees does CVS waste because they give coupons to people that they’d never actually use? It’s not eco-friendly and it’s consumer-hostile. But if I had them on my phone, I might remember I have ‘em.)
Accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was found hiding in a boat days after the blasts, left a handwritten message describing the attack as retribution for US wars in Muslim countries, CBSNews reported on Thursday.
The CBS News report, citing anonymous sources, said that Tsarnaev used a pen to write the message on an interior wall of the boat, where police found him bleeding from gunshot wounds four days after the April 15 bombing. The note summed up with the idea that “when you attack one Muslim, you attack all Muslims,” CBS News reported.
CBS News did not make clear how its sources knew the information, and Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the report. A spokeswoman for the FBI in Boston, Katherine Gulotta, declined to confirm or deny the report.
More details on the Boston case.
[the entire article]
We shouldn’t publish full articles unless we have to (say, if the article gets taken down). A couple of key paragraphs is fine. People can click to read the rest. And the folks that don’t want to will just miss out.
You like Ezra Klein as a writer? Don’t take away his traffic. I don’t mean to pick on anyone, and this isn’t directed at anyone in particular, but it happens far too often on Tumblr. We have to start somewhere, right? So why not here? — Ernie @ SFB
The Legend of Ron Burgundy came to life this week when Australia TODAY host Karl Stefanovic channeled his inner-Veronica Corningstone with a last-minute change to the teleprompter lines of guest-host Roz Kelly. We don’t know about you guys, but we’d probably do this to our coworkers every single day if we worked on a televised news broadcast of any kind. Then again, that might be why we don’t work on a televised news broadcast of any kind. (ht to Gawker) source
Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley on Thursday signed into law one of the United States’ toughest gun control measures, even as opponents vowed to overturn it.
The legislation prompted by the Newtown, Connecticut, school massacre requires handgun buyers to undergo safety training and submit fingerprints to obtain a license.
It also bans the sale of 45 types of assault weapons, which have been linked to at least 461 U.S. deaths since 2004, according to the governor’s office.
Opponents of the changes say they aren’t planning to seek any sort of public vote/referendum on the bill, but will instead offer support to an NRA lawsuit which challenges the legality of the new regulations. Similar legislation has been passed in Colorado, New York, and Connecticut following a recent uptick in mass shooting incidents.
The most significant differences between those who smoked marijuana and those who never or no longer did was that current smokers’ insulin levels were reduced by 16 percent and their insulin resistance (a condition in which the body has trouble absorbing glucose from the bloodstream) was reduced by 17 percent.The Atlantic’s Lindsay Abrams, reporting on the results of a recent study on the health effects of marijuana. In addition, regular pot smokers were skinnier than those who abstained, “even after adjusting for factors like age, sex, tobacco and alcohol use, and physical activity levels,” and had higher levels of HDL (“good cholesterol”). source
Can we make ‘Go Bulworth’ a thing, you guys? #GoBulworth on Twitter and everything?
Obama would make a really good Bulworth.
Dear Colleagues,
It is with regret that I will be departing from the IRS as my acting assignment ends in early June. This has been an incredibly difficult time for the IRS given the events of the past few days, and there is a strong and immediate need to restore public trust in the nation’s tax agency. I believe the Service will benefit from having a new Acting Commissioner in place during this challenging period. As I wrap up my time at the IRS, I will be focused on an orderly transition.
While I recognize that much work needs to be done to restore faith in the IRS, I don’t want anyone to lose sight of the fact that the IRS is comprised of incredibly dedicated and hard-working public servants.
During my 25-year IRS career, I am profoundly proud to have worked alongside you and to be part of an institution that has worked hard to support the nation. I have strong confidence in the IRS leadership team to continue the important work of our agency.
I want to thank everyone for all of their support and friendship during my career in government service. And I especially want to thank each and every one of you for your continued commitment to the nation’s taxpayers.
Miller was forced to resign as a result of the past week’s IRS scandal.
I’m moving back to New York in a few days. Unlike past...
OMG. I got so...
In this week’s Newsweek, a little...
Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in...
Watch: PCB gets a visual shout out on GMA’s Yahoo/Tumblr...
Done! Just finished the final mix last night. In two weeks Arrested Development will be yours to do with as you please. Except for 1 thing! You gotta watch them in order. Turns out I was not successful in creating a form where the setup follows the punch line.Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz • Revealing that, after much fanfare, he was unable to create a choose-your-own-adventure setup to the show’s upcoming season, heading towards Netflix shortly. But on the plus side, we’re still getting a new season of Arrested Development!
President Obama announced minutes ago that, in response to the revelation that the IRS discriminately targeted conservative-leaning groups for scrutiny, he’s asked for and accepted the resignation of Miller, the acting IRS Commissioner. The commissioner at the time of the targeting was Donald Shulman; Miller didn’t assume the post of acting commissioner until November of last year, after the probe ended. However, he did have knowledge in May that the probe had taken place.
The White House on Wednesday released almost 100 pages of internal emails regarding the talking points that Ambassador Susan Rice and other officials used on Sunday shows following the deadly Benghazi, Libya attack on September 11, 2012.
You can read ‘em here. Meanwhile, the President is going to give a statement on the IRS scandal in 20 minutes.
Last Tuesday, Maria Melendez witnessed a half-dozen sheriff’s deputies fatally beating 33-year-old David Sal Silva—hitting him with clubs and kicking him— in Bakersfield, California outside Kern Medical Center. She began to film the scene on her phone, yelling to the cops that she was filming them.
Melendez, who had been visiting her son at the hospital, reported that the deputies beat Silva for eight minutes as he screamed and cried for help. He was “basically pleading for his life,” said Laura Vasquez, another witness with Melendez. “Then we couldn’t see him anymore. That’s how many cops were on top of him.”
A spokesperson for the Kern County Sheriff’s Department says that Bakersfield Police Department officers had a warrant for both phones they confiscated last week. Law enforcement officials apparently plan to continue holding the phones, as part of the investigation into Silva’s death, and all of the officers involved have returned to full duty.
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