Gotta hand it to Slate. They certainly know how to pitch something nobody else would think to pitch …
Slate’s chart of presidents, based on the number of portrayals they’ve had in movies. Lincoln is obviously in first place, but strangely, Ulysses S. Grant is in third, likely thanks to the number of westerns that rely on Grant’s presence. Also, where is our James Buchanan biopic, anyway?
As this map from Slate points out, there have been five times as many unmanned drone attacks under Obama than there were under Bush.
Uhm. Yikes. This seems like a story with the words “bad idea” written all over it.
Brilliant takedown by Mat Honan of a post on Slate entitled: Chipotle is Apple. Yes, there was an article on Slate on Thursday with that title. And yes, it was ridiculous.
Chipotle is fine. Compared to say, Taco Bell, it’s fantastic. But as Honan points out, if you include some of the best burrito joints in California, Chipotle wouldn’t be in the top 100. It’s still fast food.
Name a smartphone better than the iPhone.
You can’t because most of the other manufactured ones are junk. There are a few other good ones, but there are none made by small shops like the best burritos are. Totally different industries.
Writes Honan:
Finally, we should look at the build quality. As we we said before, the Chipotle burrito essentially ripped off the design of the Mission Burrito. However, in doing so, it got important details wrong. The Mission Burrito is eaten vertically, by standing it on one end, and unwrapping the aluminum foil at the top side as you work your way down. It is flawless. The Chipotle burrito, on the other hand, is typically put together without care or attention by those aforementioned low-paid workers. They typically stuff them so full that the ingredients come bursting out of the side, and it is impossible to eat the burrito vertically, as the good Lord intended burritos to be eaten. Were the iPhone built like a Chipotle burrito, its processor would be on the outside.
In which our boy Matthew Yglesias lets us down by making an absurd comparison.
What makes this U.S. map better than any other U.S. map? Attention to detail. The guy who designed it — a seasoned cartographer named David Imus — spent 6,000 hours of his own time building it. And according to other cartographers, it shows — from the shading to the typography on down. Neat.
John Dickerson should be fired. He is a piece of @*&!. He is a fraud and he should be fired.Michele Bachmann’s campaign manager, Keith Nahigian • Running through the spin room after last night’s debate, claiming bias against his candidate, who got relatively few questions last night. John Dickerson (CBS News’ political director and a chief political correspondent for Slate) accidentally sent an e-mail to the campaign last night, intended for CBS News staffers, that said this: “Okay let’s keep it loose though since she’s not going to get many questions and she’s nearly off the charts in the hopes that we can get someone else.” Think Bachmann got a fair shake last night?
Slate’s John Dickerson makes a boo-boo by accidentally including Bachmann spokesperson on email. Bachmann campaign manager responds (from Facebook):
Team—This is Keith Nahigian, Michele’s campaign manager. While Michele has been onstage at tonight’s debate demonstrating strong leadership on foreign policy and national security, we received concrete evidence confirming what every conservative already knows - the liberal mainstream media elites are manipulating the Republican debates by purposely suppressing our conservative message and limiting Michele’s questions.
View the attached email by CBS News’ political director from earlier today—we need to show the liberal media elite that we won’t stand for this outrageous manipulation. Help us fight this affront by sharing this with your friends.
Bad mistake, of course.
So, uh, Slate redesigned today. They had to. Their old CMS was five days older than the original iPod. But as fans of the site, we see a bit of a problem. It’s the front page. The inside pages aren’t so bad. But the front seems to have crammed as much as possible into every square inch of space. White space is a tad lacking. Slate is a great site known for its relatively clean design. This flies in the face of that. We’re worried. What do you all think?
Did you guys know there was a French version of Slate? It’s true. And while it shares the same hue of purple as the mothership, it’s editorially independent and the Slate company owns a tiny 15 percent share of the product. Anyway, the site yesterday published an article noting the reported victim’s name in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn scandal (which we will not link directly here; if you’re interested, you can dig yourself) — a usual no-no in the world of journalism. And one that a few other outlets have also broken. But why Slate.fr, which carries the rep of a highly-regarded site that would never do something like that? According to an interview by The Atlantic Wire, the site’s founder, Eric Leser, says they did it to fight buck against the conspiracy theories that have grown around the story in France. “The story that we have published is proving that all of [these] theories are false,” he said. “That’s our main reason.” Do you guys agree with this stance? Do you think Slate.fr is making a mistake by publishing this? source
At the end of the process, if there is a deal, it’s likely that Democrats will trade even more cuts for the removal of the Planned Parenthood rider. That rider only cuts $300 million —Democrats could cut five to ten times as much.Overall awesome guy Dave Weigel • Suggesting that protecting womens’ rights might mean another $1.5 to $3 billion in additional budget cuts. Dude’s chillin’ in the White House now.
jeffmiller asks: What are your favorite (non-Tumblr) websites for news. (Or rather, what news websites do you read on a daily basis?)
» We say: Outside of our staple news sites (Reuters, CNN, the NYT and such), my personal favorite site is Mediaite, which I think strikes the perfect balance between news and commentary, and I can guarantee to generally have its finger on the pulse. (The aftertaste is also a little better than Politico, generally.) I also like a lot of The Atlantic’s stable, including The Atlantic Wire, which is a bit of an unsung hero among news commentary sites. I also greatly adore Hacker News, where you can usually find something generally awesome going on, be it a cool startup or interesting technical debate, and have been a faithful reader of Pitchfork, Slashdot and Fark since the late ’90s. Gawker Media’s stuff is staple food for me, and I’ve been a huge fan of Dave Weigel especially since he moved over to Slate. As for news outlets that never get their fair shake, the Christian Science Monitor always has stuff well-suited to SFB articles. And there’s a lot to like about The Awl. (It’s our Office Hours! Ask us stuff!)
She’s become the issue. She’ll never be an effective negotiator with diplomats who refuse to forgive her exuberances, and even foreign diplomats who do forgive her will still regard her as the symbol of an overreaching United States. Diplomacy is about face, and the only way for other nations to save face will be to give them Clinton’s scalp.Slate’s Jack Shafer • Arguing that the Wikileaks report on the diplomatic cables may be enough to do her in as Secretary of State. Why? Because, according to Wikileaks documents, she ordered her diplomats to spy on the people they were talking to. Even if she did nothing illegal, it’s going to be tough for other countries to trust someone they think is spying on them. If it does kill her career as Secretary of State, though, we don’t think it kills her political career. She’s too good to go away that quickly. source (via • follow)