This has definitely been our most well-received download. I don’t think any of us predicted it would be this much.Defense Distributed-affiliated developer Haroon Khalid • Discussing the success of the controversial group’s 3D-printed gun blueprints, which have been downloaded 100,000 times since they were released over the weekend. The distribution method isn’t without controversy, either: The group’s files are being hosted on Kim Dotcom’s Mega service. One member of Congress, Rep. Steve Israel, wants to ban such devices.
» How students reacted: Hundreds of students were removed from the district during the period. “They took away my high school, my time,” explained one student, Cesar Diaz, who was kicked out of school on claims that he was living in Mexico. “I wanted to study in the U.S. because I’m a U.S. citizen. My future is in the United States.”
Anglo district boundaries were redrawn to include particular country clubs and, in one case, the school belonging to the incumbent’s grandchildren.U.S. Circuit Judge Thomas Griffith • In his court’s recent decision to ditch Texas’ redistricting maps, which were in violation of the Voting Rights Act, the court found. Schools and hospitals, for example, were removed from districts with black incumbents. And, as Griffith notes above, country clubs were added to districts with white incumbents. On top of that, a lawyer used the phrase “no bueno” when emphasizing that the plans used shouldn’t leave a paper trail. The Texas Attorney General plans to appeal the ruling, which comes as part of a recent history of redistricting in the state that led to jail time for Tom Delay.
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nickdivers asks: Does anyone actually think Tom Cruise would send Suri, his very cute and very public daughter, to Sea Org? Wouldn't that be a huge PR disaster for both Cruise and COS?
» SFB says: Whether or not the Church actually would (the reports suggest that, even if they did, that was a concern of Holmes), they’re formally denying it, saying you have to be 16 to go to Sea Org. Don’t doubt you though; it’d be bad optics. — Ernie @ SFB
The phone call the night before he left [Turkey for Syria], there was screaming and slamming on the phone in discussions with editors. It was at this time that he called his wife and gave his last haunting directive that if anything happens to me I want the world to know the New York Times killed me.Ed Shadid • Speaking at the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee’s convention on Sunday about the fate of his cousin, storied New York Times reporter Anthony Shadid, who died not long after he allegedly made this statement. The New York Times disputes the report, with a spokesperson saying this: “With respect, we disagree with Ed Shadid’s version of the facts. The Times does not pressure reporters to go into combat zones.” (His widow has chosen to stay silent on the matter.) No matter who’s telling the truth here, Anthony Shadid’s work meant a lot to many people, and it goes without saying that we’d rather Anthony was still with us.
So here’s one of the more depressing things you’ll see today. It’s a scene outside of a NYC elementary school, in which a congressman (and Senate hopeful looking to win a primary next week) tries to lead a group of grade-schoolers in the singing of an uber-patriotic song — not the National Anthem, but that Lee Greenwood hit from the 1980s. The scene is sad at best and makes everyone look bad. So how did we get here? Read up below:
By taking detailed pictures of individuals in intimate locations such as around a pool, or in their backyard, or even through their windows, these programs have the potential to put private images on public display. We need to hit the pause button here and figure out what is happening and how we can best protect peoples’ privacy, without unduly impeding technological advancement.Sen. Charles Schumer • Arguing that Google and Apple’s separate, upcoming 3D aerial maps raise major privacy concerns. He even wrote an open letter to the companies on the matter, which features this all-caps scare message: “TECHNOLOGY STRONG ENOUGH TO SEE THROUGH WINDOWS AND EVEN CATCH SUN BATHERS IN BACK YARDS” Problem is, Schumer appears to be citing a Daily Mail report on the matter that suggested that “military grade” spy planes were used to get this data, despite the fact that appears to not be the case. Google, in fact, responded, suggesting Schumer misunderstood the technology. “We currently don’t blur aerial imagery because the resolution isn’t sharp enough for it to be a concern,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
Watch: PCB gets a visual shout out on GMA’s Yahoo/Tumblr...
Wrote a thing.
Hat tip to this headline writer.
Congrats Tumblr!
Don’t screw this up Yahoo.
In 2007, I was...
I started tumblr when I was at one of the lowest points of...
I’ve been meaning to write a piece about this. We were talking earlier about the daily gaffes and Twitter and the news cycle, and I’m totally as much to blame for helping that atmosphere as anyone. We all engage in tweeting and commenting and hammering these guys when they say something off message. It’s created a crisis for political journalism. People genuinely do not think it is in their interest — both White House and campaign officials, both campaigns, it’s not a partisan thing at all, it’s Democrats and Republicans — they genuinely do not believe it’s in their interest to talk in an unguarded way. Because even if they trust you to get the context 100 percent right, it doesn’t matter, because they know that a liberal or conservative blog, or a campaign ad, will just grab something out of context and run with it and create some damaging meme.
I’ve been doing this for 15 years, and it’s worse now than it’s ever been. If you think about it from their perspective for a second, you can’t totally blame them. Lately I’ve realized it’s harder than it’s ever been, and these campaigns want to exercise complete and total message discipline. In the current media environment, that’s the whole game. There’s pretty serious tension between running a campaign and running a transparent and open White House. We often complain about this, and rightfully so, but we have to recognize some of the blame here.
What are the odds the Etch A Sketch gaffe would’ve become a thing had Twitter not existed?
Phil — Just a quick note to encourage you to do the right thing and shoot yourself in the head. Don’t waste any more time, do it today. It is truly the greatest contribution to life that you will ever make.A note sent to climate scientist Phil Jones • Suggesting he kill himself for his work on climate change. Jones, a scientist at the center University of East Anglia, was one of the people at the center of “Climategate,” a controversy that climate change skeptics used to call into question the basic tenets of climate change. Journalist James Delingpole, one of the skeptics who spearheaded Climategate, called into question the idea that Jones got death threats, so an environmentalist checked with the university — and got back eight pages worth of death threats. Wowza.
Redditors are collecting the blacklisted sites at a freshly minted subreddit, r/BannedDomains. The list so far includes at least five: BusinessWeek.com, Phys.org, ScienceDaily.com,TheAtlantic.com, and GlobalPost.
Redditors are prevented from submitting links to any of the above sites. Instead, they’re greeted with the following message: “this domain has been banned for spamming and/or cheating.”
There’s a bit of backstory here: Jared Keller, a social media editor for The Atlantic, got banned from Reddit a couple months back after heavy posting of Atlantic links, something the community-oriented network frowns upon, but is very tempting due to the high amount of traffic it drives. But why prevent people from even submitting links from such big sites? Well, a Reddit technical staffer Jason Harvey claims that these actions were taken as an absolute last resort.
UPDATE: The bans are temporary, according to Reddit staffer Erik “hueypriest” Martin. (ht Brian Ries)
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