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Jason Alexander's Response to the Dark Knight Shootings in Colorado


πŸ”— a linked post to twitlonger.com » — originally shared here on

When it comes to gun control, I think this point by Jason Alexander is certainly valid to the knee-jerk reaction of "If X kills people, why don't we ban that?"

I'm hoping that right after they hit send, they take a deep breath and realize that those arguments are completely specious. I believe tomatoes and cars have purposes other than killing. What purpose does an AR-15 serve to a sportsman that a more standard hunting rifle does not serve? Let's see - does it fire more rounds without reload? Yes. Does it fire farther and more accurately? Yes. Does it accommodate a more lethal payload? Yes. So basically, the purpose of an assault style weapon is to kill more stuff, more fully, faster and from further away. To achieve maximum lethality. Hardly the primary purpose of tomatoes and sports cars.

I don't think there should be a permaban on all weapons. Obviously, there are good reasons the militia clause is in the constitution. I just really fail to see why anybody should be allowed to easily purchase assault rifles of that caliber.

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Capturing Libya: Through a Hipstamatic Lens


πŸ”— a linked post to storyboard.tumblr.com » — originally shared here on

To photojournalism purists, it was pure blasphemy: a prestigious prize, third place for photo of the year, granted to a New York Times photographer who’d used not a 35mm to document U.S. soldiers in Iraq, but simply, his iPhone β€” and an app called Hipstamatic. Immediately, traditionalists went berserk: β€œWhat we knew as photojournalism at its purest form is over,” one photojournalist lamented. Using Hipstamatic in a news report, another commentator proclaimed, was β€œcheating us all.”

I struggled trying to decide whether or not to put some iPhone photos in my portfolio. I decided that it was worth including them because 2012, as it has always been, the best camera is the one you have with you. I don't always need to use my SLR to capture photos that are meaningful to me and (hopefully) captivating to someone else.

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Get Rich Slowly


πŸ”— a linked post to foldedspace.org » — originally shared here on

The post which inspired the blog. I've been very into building a savings and preparing for the future, and this site combined with Mint have been indispensable in that quest.

If you want to buy a house, travel the world, pay off loans or retire some day, read this post, subscribe to the website, get Mint and start today.

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How well does music predict your politics?


πŸ”— a linked post to notes.variogr.am » — originally shared here on

Where does Neutral Milk Hotel fit on this spectrum?

Artists whose fans are most correlated to Republican

  1. Kenny Chesney
  2. George Strait
  3. Reba McEntire
  4. Tim McGraw
  5. Jason Aldean
  6. Blake Shelton
  7. Shania Twain
  8. Kelly Clarkson
  9. Pink Floyd
  10. Elvis Presley

Artists whose fans are most correlated to Democrat

  1. Rihanna
  2. Jay-Z
  3. Madonna
  4. Lady Gaga
  5. Katy Perry
  6. Snoop Dogg
  7. Chris Brown
  8. Usher
  9. Eminem
  10. Bob Marley

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Netflix's lost year: The inside story of the price-hike train wreck


πŸ”— a linked post to news.cnet.com » — originally shared here on

Some great behind-the-scenes insight behind the last year of Netflix.

It's interesting that 2 years ago, everybody absolutely had to have a Netflix subscription. Now, with rival services like Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime catching up to their instant watch selection, Netflix isn't as crucial anymore.

Jonathan Friedland, the new vice president of global corporate communications who had joined Netflix just a few months earlier, asked whether customers on tight incomes might object to the price hike, according to people at Hastings' meeting. Hastings argued that Netflix was a great bargain. He said he knew that some customers would complain but that the number would be small and the anger would quickly fade.

Hastings was wrong. The price hike and the later, aborted attempt to spin off the company's DVD operations enraged Netflix customers. The company lost 800,000 subscribers, its stock price dropped 77 percent in four months, and management's reputation was battered. Hastings went from Fortune magazine's Businessperson of the Year to the target of Saturday Night Live satire.

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Podcasts: An Introduction

originally shared here on

About a year and a half ago, on a trip to California with the boys of Koo Koo Kanga Roo, the duo and their manager were discussing podcasts.

Of course, I knew what a podcast was[1. And not just because I make one.]. I just really didn't understand the appeal of audio podcasts. I figured it was like talk radio: only old fogeys who don't like music listen to them.

But reluctantly, I downloaded a few episodes of The Nerdist and from there, the Music app on my iPhone was being used less and less compared to Instacast.

If you don't like talk radio but you enjoy getting into hour-long discussions on very nerdy topics like the intricacies of various calendar apps, the real cost of traveling to Mars and why the LIBOR scandal could get ugly quickly, then you are only fooling yourself: you actually like podcasts, but just don't know it yet.

In an attempt to make it easier for others to get into podcasts, here are a few of my favorite podcasts and why you would like them.

Build and Analyze Software Development, Self-Employment, Coffee, Babies A show for iOS developers hosted by Marco Arment, the creator of Instapaper and Tumblr, and Dan Benjamin, the creator of 5by5. Dan and Marco frame most of their discussions through the lens of Instapaper and 5by5, which is incredibly helpful for other developers or entrepreneurs in general. Show Website

StarTalk Radio Astrophysics Neil DeGrasse-Tyson, an astrophysicist and incredibly well-spoken man, teams up with guests to talk about everything related to the universe. Typically, the show features a co-host comedian, like Chuck Nice or Eugene Mirman, and a slew of experts in whatever field is being discussed, like astronaut Mike Massimino. Show Website

The Talk Show Apple, Technology The Talk Show, in its current iteration, features John Gruber of Daring Fireball with a different guest each episode. After a rough transition from its previous iteration (hosted by John and Dan Benjamin), the show is really starting to hit its stride. If you're a fan of Daring Fireball, there's no reason not to be listening to this show every week. Show Website

Planet Money Finance I've never really been interested in finance and how money works, but this show does a great job of presenting drab topics in a highly-engaging format. The episodes are quite easy to digest as well, most being around 15 minutes. Show Website

Running From the Law Endurance Sports, Small Business Law Combining two things that seemingly don't go together, Running From the Law splits their shows in half, giving equal footing to both of their main topics. The show is hosted by Erika Hall, co-founder of Mule Design Studio, and Gabe Levine, business lawyer. Show Website

Home Work Working from Home, Entrepreneur A relatively new show, Aaron Mahnke and Dave Caolo talk about the joys and agonies of being self-employed. The show goes beyond simply suggesting how to be more productive from home; they also discuss topics such as staying fit at home, staying educated in your field and communicating with the "real" world. Show Website

Freakonomics Radio Economics, Finance Hosted by the authors of the book, Freakonomics Radio picks up from where the book left off, where the authors use economics to show that what we consider "common sense" is sometimes anything but. Show Website

You Look Nice Today General Tomfoolery YLNT is the epitome of the general perception of the early days of podcasting: three guys sitting around microphones late at night, drinking and making stuff up. The difference? They actually do it well. Very well. Show Website

If you have any suggestions for me of shows to check out (especially any shows about video production), please drop me a line.



Def Leppard Recording 'Forgeries' of Old Hits To Spite Label


πŸ”— a linked post to billboard.com » — originally shared here on

The great part about this article isn't just the old guys spiting the "man"; the great part is the amount of detail going into these recordings:

"You just don't go in and say, 'Hey guys, let's record it,' and it's done in three minutes," [frontman Joe] Elliott notes. "We had to study those songs, I mean down to the umpteenth degree of detail, and make complete forgeries of them."

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The Dream Will Never Die: An Oral History of the Dream Team


πŸ”— a linked post to gq.com » — originally shared here on

This was when I was roughly 4, and yet I very vividly remember the buzz surrounding the 1992 Dream Team. This article is a great biography of the team and offers a ton of insider stories. According to the article, the Dream Team (consisting of the greats of that era, including Jordan, Bird, Barkley, Malone, Ewing, etc.) faced off for the first time together against a bunch of college players (consisting of future stars like Penny Hardaway and Chris Webber). In that game, the college guys upset the greats in the 4th quarter. A few days later, they had a rematch:

Charles Barkley: We sent them a little message.

Chris Webber: We didn't score a point. Not one point. Not a point on a free throw, not a point in the game. We were the perfect wake-up call for them, and they were the perfect reality check for us.

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Physicists Find Elusive Particle Seen as Key to Universe


πŸ”— a linked post to nytimes.com » — originally shared here on

Like Omar Sharif materializing out of the shimmering desert as a man on a camel in β€œLawrence of Arabia,” the elusive boson has been coming slowly into view since last winter, as the first signals of its existence grew until they practically jumped off the chart.

This is major, major news. If you don't know what the Higgs boson is, this article gives a great summary of what it is and the history of its discovery.

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