If you haven’t already, this is a must-read:
On the death of Tyler Clementi, a gay Rutgers student, and the charges against his roommate, Dharun Ravi, who used a webcam to spy on him. Clementi took his own life shortly after the incident:
An online video chat, using an application like iChat or Skype, starts like a phone call: one person requests a conversation, and the recipient must accept the request. But Ravi had tweaked his iChat settings so that the program could automatically accept incoming calls. According to Ravi, he had made this his computer’s usual setting. Whatever the case, that evening the program was set to auto-accept; he also turned off his monitor, or darkened it to black. At 9:13 P.M., he was beside Wei at her computer. He opened iChat, and clicked his name on her chat list. A few feet away, his computer accepted his request, and Ravi and Wei saw a live video image of Room 30.
Former Black Panther patches together purpose in Africa exile:
When last he walked America’s streets, O’Neal was a magnetic young man possessed of bottomless anger. He was an ex-con who’d found a kind of religion in late-’60s black nationalism, a vain, violent street hustler reborn in a Black Panther uniform of dark sunglasses, beret and leather jacket. With pitiless, knife-sharp diction, he spoke of sending police to their graves.
This morning, he sits in his living room uncapping medicine bottles. A pill for high blood pressure. Another for the pain in his back and his bad knee. An aspirin to thin his blood. Time is catching him, like the lions that pursue him implacably through his nightmares, their leashes held by policemen…
Most of O’Neal’s big dreams have faded over the years, or come to feel silly. Like beating the 42-year-old federal gun charges that caused him to flee the United States. Like the global socialist revolution that he was supposed to help lead. Like returning home to the streets of his Midwestern childhood. Like winning citizenship in his adopted African country, and the prize that’s eluded him on two continents: the feeling of belonging somewhere.
The spending is leaving its mark on Florida, the site of today’s crucial GOP primary. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and his allies, especially the pro-Romney Restore Our Future, aired 12,768 television commercials in the state through Wednesday compared with 210 by former House speaker Newt Gingrich and his supporters, a study released Monday by the Wesleyan Media Project shows.
![reuters:
Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney tosses bags of chips to members of the press on his campaign plane in Jacksonville, Florida January 30, 2012. [REUTERS/Brian Snyder]
Millionaires.](http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lymtc0IXue1qmaoalo1_500.jpg)
Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney tosses bags of chips to members of the press on his campaign plane in Jacksonville, Florida January 30, 2012. [REUTERS/Brian Snyder]
Millionaires.
Someday there will be no more posts. There will be no more posts forever.
Let’s not think about that right now.
Whether you like the idea of “frictionless sharing” or not, Facebook has made a strong case for the service on stage at the Midem conference. Dan Rose, the VP of Partnerships for the company, says that over 5 billion songs have been shared on Facebook since last year’s f8 conference in September.
Facebook: 5 Billion Songs Shared Since September
Sure, but what does that really mean?
How many people are “sharing” what they listen to?
How many people “pay attention” to what their friends are listening to?
How many songs have been clicked on, and by how many people?
How many people block Spotify (and any other music sharing service on Facebook I am unaware of) altogether?
From the Times of India:
Sixty four years after his death, Mahatma Gandhi’s name today created a fresh world record in the Guinness Book as 485 underprivileged boys brought out a peace march dressed as ‘Bapu’.
Flaunting khadi attire and Gandhi caps, the group of boys wore round-framed spectacles and walked with sticks as they brought alive memories of Gandhi’s historic Dandi march.
Aged between ten and sixteen, the kids, most of whom are from single mothers, walked for half a kilometre distance at Mayo Road in central Kolkata during the peace march.
Gandhi was assassinated on this day in 1948 by Hindu nationalist Nathuram Godse.
Whenever journalists are arrested/detained for reporting the news, everyone’s freedom is at risk.
From ShortFormBlog:
KGO Radio reporter Kristin Hanes • Discussing her arrest late Saturday as the Occupy Oakland protests flared up. She and Gavin Aronson of Mother Jones were among the over 200 people placed into custody Saturday night, as the Oakland protests reached a new breaking point — including the burning of an American flag. Both mayor Jean Quan and the police were quick to pin negative attention on the protesters: “The Bay Area Occupy Movement has got to stop using Oakland as their playground,” Quan said in a statement. However, it’s important to keep in mind the nature of the police actions — including violence towards protesters and the use of tear gas grenades. An OpenSalon writer has a pretty informative first-person piece worth reading, which describes both the nature of the protesters (not as bad as reported) and why things flared up Saturday.
(source)
From the Daily, an arguable but well-done stop-motion video detailing the “most important events of 2011” in two minutes.
The New York Times (as measured by comScore, currently the most fashionable collector of digital evidence extant) had 44.8m unique visitors in December, while our own dear Daily Mail had 45.3m. Manhattan’s “grey lady” doesn’t rule the global web world any longer.
New York Times Overtaken By Mail Online
Current top story/headline at the Mail:
Greg Kelly and his accuser’s ‘marathon 48 hours of explicit texts that led to illicit meeting in bar covered in BRAS before alleged rape’
I hate to sound like such a pretentious asshole all the time, but c’mon. Sensational, exploitative stupidity rules the roost.
(link via shaneguiter)
And now, this PSA, brought to you by the Long Island Regional Poison Control Council, as well as the Flip Mode Squad.
(via jakefogelnest)
The Straw That Can Save Lives
Danish water purification company Vestergaard Frandsen’s latest development could very possibly save millions of lives of those who struggle to find and produce clean water.
Their invention is the LifeStraw, a low-tech, low-hassle personal water filter that enables the user to simply stick one end into a water source of questionable cleanliness, such as a river, and suck. Several layers within the straw manage to filter out 99% of bacteria and viruses. Previously, people of areas with little clean water would be forced to boil water to ensure its safety, using up other resources in the process. With this invention, little maintenance would be required, and it could last for a year or two.
In addition to the personal filter, the company has developed a LifeStraw Family, which uses gravity rather than suction to filter water. By hanging this up in their homes and filling it with water, families would be able to open the bottom for clean, safe water.
These products do, however, have their limitations. While 99% of pathogens are removed, the filter is unable to prevent Giardia Lamblia from entering the filtered water, as this particular parasite is too small for the filters. The company is diligently working on a solution to this problem. Another potential problem is availability, since Vestergaard Frandsen is a small, struggling company that cannot quite afford to give out too many handouts.
Hopefully these problems can be overcome, as this product, in its current state, and especially once perfected, has the potential for aiding many who need it most.
Martha Holmes / TIME & LIFE Pictures
Jackson Pollock and his wife, the artist Lee Krasner, in their kitchen in 1949.
In honor of the 100th anniversary of Pollock’s birth, TIME presents a gallery of the artist’s life. See more here.
Apple hit by boycott call over worker abuses in China
Apple, the computer giant whose sleek products have become a mainstay of modern life, is dealing with a public relations disaster and the threat of calls for a boycott of its iPhones and iPads.
The company’s public image took a dive after revelations about working conditions in the factories of some of its network of Chinese suppliers. The allegations, reported at length in the New York Times, build onprevious concerns about abuses at firms that Apple uses to make its bestselling computers and phones. Now the dreaded word “boycott” has started to appear in media coverage of its activities.
“Should consumers boycott Apple?” asked a column in the Los Angeles Times as it recounted details of the bad PR fallout.
The influential Daily Beast and Newsweek technology writer Dan Lyons wrote a scathing piece. “It’s barbaric,” he said, before saying to his readership: “Ultimately the blame lies not with Apple and other electronics companies – but with us, the consumers. And ultimately we are the ones who must demand change.”
From NPR:
About 300 people were arrested Saturday during a chaotic day of Occupy protests that saw demonstrators break into City Hall and burn an American flag, and police fire tear gas and use “flash” grenades to disperse hundreds of people after some in the crowd threw rocks and bottles and tore down fencing outside a convention center.
It was the most turbulent day of protests since November, when Oakland police forcefully dismantled an Occupy encampment.
