ShortFormBlogMarch 2, 2012

» You get what you pay for: Really, guys? Thirteen times in a year? This means NASA gets hacked more often than I pay my phone bill. But maybe that’s to be expected when you spend so little on cyber security. This is all based on testimony from the agency’s inspector general, Paul Martin, and the rest of his testimony is quite terrifying. For example, Martin says that hackers working through Chinese IP addresses were able to gain full system access to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, steal user credentials from over 150 NASA employees, and modify system logs to cover up their tracks. Let’s hope it was just a couple of bored middle schoolers.

Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

cause Last week, a Georgetown law student, Sandra Fluke, testified in front of Congress on the Jesuit school’s policy on contraception, an issue which has drawn many emotions of late.
reaction Many on the right attacked Fluke for her testimony, but none as harshly as talker Rush Limbaugh, who called her a “slut” and a “prostitute” on his radio show. Yeah, that’s not cool.
result Limbaugh’s comments drew strong reactions from the left especially. Republican House Speaker John Boehner criticized Limbaugh. The president even called her up today. Really. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

» Why? Because of this, of course. Really, we’re surprised that any advertisers offended by this weren’t offended by anything else Limbaugh’s said over the last twenty years. Regardless, advertisers aren’t the only ones reacting negatively to Limbaugh’s comments.

Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

Rush’s attempt to increase his ratings and get noticed again do hurt Republicans…beating up on a college student is not good optics.
A senior Republican strategist • In response to Rush Limbaugh’s calling a pro-contraception college student a “slut” and a “prostitute” earlier this week. What we find interesting is that the speaker in question is identified by the Washington Post as “a senior party strategist granted anonymity to speak candidly out of wariness of crossing Limbaugh publicly.” This speaks not only to the enormous power Limbaugh wields amongst the Republican base, but also the sense of legitimacy that the GOP establishment continues to bestow upon him by refusing to denounce his statements publicly. To his credit, Rick Santorum, who’s as anti-contraception as anybody, called Limbaugh’s comments “absurd.” source

Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

Some people can only handle so much Ryan Gosling. The sudden rise of Pinterest, which surged in popularity around the first of the year (as this chart illustrates perfectly), seems to have caught some off guard, with many questioning the phenomenon much the same way Twitter initially got criticized for being about nothing. But with the site already the subject of copyright questions (in one case making a lawyer and Pinterest fan totally freak out), it was only a matter of time before the deep-thought hand-wringing began. A couple of notable samples we’ve seen recently:

one MacLean’s writer Lisan Jutras criticizes it for being strongly feminine, but only on the surface: “This domain is sort of like a girls-only clubhouse, but it’s not about expressing innermost desires, just surface desires—for hair, shoes, nail art, a boyfriend that exists in soft-focus black-and-white.”
two Thought Catalog narrows down the appeal of the service in a single damning line: “It’s the first Nora Ephron movie that you have to log into, and yep, you guessed it, there’s a wait list to join.” Their problem is stated plainly in the headline: “Pinterest: The depths we will go to not read.”

» A couple quick thoughts of our own: It’s possible that the success of Pinterest may reach a little bit of a plateau at some point because of the shape it’s already taken. It’s growing quickly, but the best social networks are formless in terms of the content. Anything goes on Tumblr for the most part, for example; same with Twitter and Facebook. With Pinterest, the culture has kind of limited what can work there, at least for now. It feels like, even if it hasn’t been spelled out, the parameters have been partially defined. And for businesses, minus a few obvious verticals (say, you sell clothes or artwork) Pinterest is not necessary or even desirable for building a strong brand. It could be, though, if it was repositioned slightly. These are some of the things the site will struggle with as it tries to grow. if we were them, we’d figure out ways to encourage shapelessness, so as not to scare new users off.

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

» And they’re being open about it: Unlike China and other countries that have national internet censorship policies, Pakistan is discussing the issue openly, going so far as to take proposals to build a wall and putting ads in the country’s newspapers. It’s drawn a lot of controversy, however, partly as a result of the ads. “The authorities here are big fans of China and how it filters the Internet,” said Sana Saleem of the activist group Bolo Bhi. “They overlook the fact that China is an autocratic regime and we are a democracy.”

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

Maybe more supporters than Santorum? Andrew Card, the former chief of staff for George W. Bush, said this earlier this week: “I have the perfect candidate — Jeb Bush. But he’s not running.” Even Democrats believe that Bush could be a threat if he uses his sway with middle-class and Latino voters. Could the former Florida governor with an impressively presidential bloodline be the Republican Party’s ace in the hole? Or will he wait until 2016? source

Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Mar 2012 20:16