A Tumblog By David

reuters: U.S. Presidential Candidates 2010 Tax Returns Follow...

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 06:20:53 -0500

U.S. Presidential Candidates 2010 Tax Returns

Follow the road to the White House with Reuters Election 2012

guardiancomment: • Today it was confirmed that the war...

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 03:59:51 -0500

• Today it was confirmed that the war correspondent Marie Colvin has died in the Syrian city of Homs. In November 2010 Colvin gave the following speech on the importance of war reporting. This is the text of a speech Marie Colvin gave at St Brides Church, Fleet Street, London

Your Royal Highness, ladies and gentlemen, I am honoured and humbled to be speaking to you at this service tonight to remember the journalists and their support staff who gave their lives to report from the war zones of the 21st century. I have been a war correspondent for most of my professional life. It has always been a hard calling. But the need for frontline, objective reporting has never been more compelling.

Covering a war means going to places torn by chaos, destruction and death, and trying to bear witness. It means trying to find the truth in a sandstorm of propaganda when armies, tribes or terrorists clash. And yes, it means taking risks, not just for yourself but often for the people who work closely with you.

Despite all the videos you see from the Ministry of Defence or the Pentagon, and all the sanitised language describing smart bombs and pinpoint strikes, the scene on the ground has remained remarkably the same for hundreds of years. Craters. Burned houses. Mutilated bodies. Women weeping for children and husbands. Men for their wives, mothers children.

Our mission is to report these horrors of war with accuracy and without prejudice. We always have to ask ourselves whether the level of risk is worth the story. What is bravery, and what is bravado?

Journalists covering combat shoulder great responsibilities and face difficult choices. Sometimes they pay the ultimate price. Tonight we honour the 49 journalists and support staff who were killed bringing the news to our shores. We also remember journalists around the world who have been wounded, maimed or kidnapped and held hostage for months. It has never been more dangerous to be a war correspondent, because the journalist in the combat zone has become a prime target.

I lost my eye in an ambush in the Sri Lankan civil war. I had gone to the northern Tamil area from which journalists were banned and found an unreported humanitarian disaster. As I was smuggled back across the internal border, a soldier launched a grenade at me and the shrapnel sliced into my face and chest. He knew what he was doing.

Just last week, I had a coffee in Afghanistan with a photographer friend, Joao Silva. We talked about the terror one feels and must contain when patrolling on an embed with the armed forces through fields and villages in Afghanistan … putting one foot in front of the other, steeling yourself each step for the blast. The expectation of that blast is the stuff of nightmares. Two days after our meeting, Joao stepped on a mine and lost both legs at the knee.

Many of you here must have asked yourselves, or be asking yourselves now, is it worth the cost in lives, heartbreak, loss? Can we really make a difference?

I faced that question when I was injured. In fact one paper ran a headline saying, has Marie Colvin gone too far this time? My answer then, and now, was that it is worth it.

Today in this church are friends, colleagues and families who know exactly what I am talking about, and bear the cost of those experiences, as do their families and loved ones.

Today we must also remember how important it is that news organisations continue to invest in sending us out at great cost, both financial and emotional, to cover stories.

We go to remote war zones to report what is happening. The public have a right to know what our government, and our armed forces, are doing in our name. Our mission is to speak the truth to power. We send home that first rough draft of history. We can and do make a difference in exposing the horrors of war and especially the atrocities that befall civilians.

The history of our profession is one to be proud of. The first war correspondent in the modern era was William Howard Russell of the Times, who was sent to cover the Crimean conflict when a British-led coalition fought an invading Russian army.

Billy Russell, as the troops called him, created a firestorm of public indignation back home by revealing inadequate equipment, scandalous treatment of the wounded, especially when they were repatriated – does this sound familiar? – and an incompetent high command that led to the folly of the Charge of the Light Brigade. It was a breakthrough in war reporting. Until then, wars were reported by junior officers who sent back dispatches to newspapers. Billy Russell went to war with an open mind, a telescope, a notebook and a bottle of brandy. I first went to war with a typewriter, and learned to tap out a telex tape. It could take days to get from the front to a telephone or telex machine.

War reporting has changed greatly in just the last few years. Now we go to war with a satellite phone, laptop, video camera and a flak jacket. I point my satellite phone to south southwest in Afghanistan, press a button and I have filed.

In an age of 24/7 rolling news, blogs and Twitters, we are on constant call wherever we are. But war reporting is still essentially the same – someone has to go there and see what is happening. You can’t get that information without going to places where people are being shot at, and others are shooting at you. The real difficulty is having enough faith in humanity to believe that enough people be they government, military or the man on the street, will care when your file reaches the printed page, the website or the TV screen.

We do have that faith because we believe we do make a difference.

And we could not make that difference – or begin to do our job – without the fixers, drivers and translators, who face the same risks and die in appalling numbers. Today we honour them as much as the front line journalists who have died in pursuit of the truth. They have kept the faith as we who remain must continue to do.

Photograph: Arthur Edwards/WPA Pool/Getty Image

washingtonpoststyle: Today, in two images. Rosemarie Colvin...

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 03:58:46 -0500

washingtonpoststyle:

Today, in two images.

Rosemarie Colvin holds a photo of her daughter Marie Colvin, a journalist who was killed today while reporting in Syria.

Photo by Kathy Kmonicek (AP) | 2007 portrait by Bryan Adams

usagov: Image description: This brain-controlled modular...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:46:30 -0500

usagov:

Image description: This brain-controlled modular prosthetic limb (MPL) is controlled by surface electrodes, which pick up electric signals generated by the muscles underneath the skin. The electrodes then convert those patterns into a robotic function.

Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, along with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Labratory and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), developed the limb for military veterans who lost limbs in action.

The arm is the first to be created and has the same dexterity as a natural arm, including independent movement of the fingers.

On January 24, 2012, Air Force Tech Sgt. Joe Delauriers was the first patient to use the MPL. Delauriers was injured in an IED blast in Afghanistan where he lost both his legs and part of his left arm. With the help of the MPL, Delauriers is able to live off base, drive a car and hold his infant son without worrying about infections.

Amputees go through training before being fitted for the MPL. The training records muscle movements and collects data before the MPL is fitted.

Those involved in the program are hopeful about the future of the MPL and creating more limbs for those in the military and hopefully eventually for the public.

Image from the U.S. Navy.

Photo

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:38:20 -0500

How Forbes Stole A New York Times Article And Got All The Traffic

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 04:19:00 -0500

How Forbes Stole A New York Times Article And Got All The Traffic:

nostrich:

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but how much is a title worth? If the story that proceeds is any indicator, a title is worth over 6700 words and months of research. It all began Friday when the New York Times published an article “How Companies Learn Your Secrets“. It was an extremely long article which discussed how large companies like WalMart and Target collect data about your individual consumption patters to figure out how to most efficiently make you happy. It was a great piece but there was one problem: it didn’t have the title it deserved.

The original title was “How Companies Learn Your Secrets”. Kashmir Hill, a writer at Forbes, realized this and quickly developed a condensed version of the article with a far more powerful title: “How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did“. It cut out the crap and got to the real shocker of the story. As of the writing of this story, the New York Times article has 60 likes and shares on Facebook versus 12,902 which the Forbes article has. The Forbes article also has a mind boggling 680,000 page views, a number that can literally make a writer’s career.

Forbes did some journalism this weekend.

adhibition: Creative way of Google to show the function street...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:58:51 -0500

adhibition:

Creative way of Google to show the function street view, but in a real setting!

Google Tracked iPhones, Bypassing Apple Browser Privacy Settings

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 11:37:21 -0500

Google Tracked iPhones, Bypassing Apple Browser Privacy Settings:

parislemon:

At first glance, this sounds really bad. I mean, really bad. The Wall Street Journal essentially sets it up as Google (and other, smaller advertising players) purposefully circumventing the web browsing privacy controls on the iPhone in order to track users’ browsing habits.

And when they got caught, Google stopped doing it. Which is usually not a good sign.

But my initial reaction is that John Battelle is right. This is much more nuanced than a simple black and white argument. Mobile Safari does have stricter privacy controls than other browsers, which is likely a very good thing for most users, but it also benefits Apple because it essentially destroys Google’s business.

And it’s a business that you could argue is helpful to some people for a number of reasons (all the free services Google is able to provide as a result, for example).

I just don’t believe this is as big of an “evil” Google thing as WSJ may have us believe. But having said that, if this really is mainly about Google+, that’s very poor form on Google’s part. You can argue that Google web ads are useful in certain situations and that data Google gets from cookies on the web makes them better. But the whole +1 junk is forced at best.

One thing is certain: Apple is not going to like this one bit. This seems like the kind of thing Steve Jobs would have gone ballistic over. This will undoubtedly escalate the war between the two sides.

Update 2/17: Not Tracking, Just Lying

nationalpost: ‘Vikileaks’ cyberfoe aims to embarrass Vic Toews...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 10:55:59 -0500

nationalpost:

‘Vikileaks’ cyberfoe aims to embarrass Vic Toews with tweets of his private life

A similar scheme is being pushed in the UK, in our case by the spooks, the Telegraph reports today.

source2012: Meet the bundlers … where you can A new infographic...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 10:53:44 -0500

source2012:

Meet the bundlers … where you can

A new infographic by the Center for Responsive Politics reflects the latest information about the elite fundraisers collecting millions of dollars for presidential candidates.

On the Democratic side, we know that 444 bundlers have collected at least $72.4 million for President Barack Obama. On the GOP end, we don’t know much. That’s because no Republican candidates have volunteered any information about their bundlers beyond what they have to.

Fore more information on presidential bundlers, visit the OpenSecrets Blog.

I'm new to Tumblr. So I read this.

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 10:31:42 -0500

I'm new to Tumblr. So I read this.:

It’s a complete introduction to using Tumblr. Now I need to spend some time curating links to top examples of how hacks are using it. Hmm.

"I think people passing a law against people wearing sagging pants is a waste of time. Any public..."

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 10:12:31 -0500

““I think people passing a law against people wearing sagging pants is a waste of time. Any public official that is worrying about sagging pants probably needs to spend some time focusing on the real problems out there. Having said that, brothers should pull up their pants.””

- President Barack Obama (2008)

guardian: From the archives: MI5 opened a file on Charlie...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 09:33:27 -0500

guardian:

From the archives: MI5 opened a file on Charlie Chaplin in 1952 after the FBI asked them for help. Here’s how the Guardian reported on the United States’ treatment of the star at the time

droppingsnowflake: Osaka City 2011 Photos | City Pictures 2011...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 08:03:18 -0500

droppingsnowflake:

Osaka City 2011 Photos | City Pictures 2011 City new pictures city photos city on world on We Heart It. http://weheartit.com/entry/23331256

snow-under: Itsukushima main shrine on Flickr.

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 08:02:51 -0500

snow-under:

Itsukushima main shrine on Flickr.

getoutoftherecat: gangstache: meme-meme: 1 hour of the...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 08:01:42 -0500

getoutoftherecat:

gangstache:

meme-meme:

1 hour of the dubstep cat. You’re welcome. Check out also the original.

This is fucking mesmerizing.

you don’t really need to watch the whole hour…just the first 10 seconds.

Photo

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 17:28:59 -0500

getoutoftherecat: get out of there cat. they aren’t going to...

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 15:30:37 -0500

getoutoftherecat:

get out of there cat. they aren’t going to send you to a child in need. kids need shoes, not cats. well, kids would probably like cats too. but you won’t help them get to school.

www.toms.com

Photo

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 13:43:18 -0500

horizoninverted: This guy is amazing! go now and give him love,...

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 13:17:55 -0500

horizoninverted:

This guy is amazing! go now and give him love, click the source below