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14 Feb 2012 10:30

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U.S.: Pew study: Millions of voter registrations have significant errors

  • 1/8 of all voter registrations in the U.S. contain errors, Pew says
  • 24M voter registrations contain major errors, according to Pew
  • 2.7M people have current voter registrations in multiple states
  • 1.8M registered voters have one slight problem: they’re dead source
  • » Is this a sign of voter fraud? Not really, Pew says. The bigger problem, they claim, is that outdated methods are being used to sign voters up. They recommend a more centralized voting system that utilizes online registration — similar to the one eight states (Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Virginia and Washington) are already working on. They suggest such a system will save money by preventing duplication and cutting down on form usage.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Feb 2012 21:17

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Tech: To give you an idea of Tumblr’s massive scale, some quick numbers:

  • 500 million page views go through Tumblr every single day
  • 40k requests added each second at Tumblr’s peak usage hours; and it’s growing, too
  • 50GB of posts added each day; follower list updates are roughly another 2.7 terabytes daily
  • 1M number of writes made through the dashboard each second, and 50,000 reads per second source
  • » It’s tough to scale, too: According to Blake Matheny, Tumblr’s Distributed Systems Engineer, the service’s broad distribution makes it different from many other social networks, adding complexity that can stress the servers greatly. “It’s not just one or two users that have millions of followers. The graph for Tumblr users has hundreds of followers,” he writes. “This is different than any other social network and is what makes Tumblr so challenging to scale.” Matheny says that people will go back hundreds of pages on the dashboard to read content. And the network will only grow in complexity over time — the site is growing by 30 percent each month, and requires hundreds of servers to do what it has to do. If you’re technically-inclined, read High Scalability’s entire article — it’s super-fascinating.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Feb 2012 10:28

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Culture: Autopsy inconclusive: Coroner’s officials don’t know how Whitney died

Despite claims from TMZ that her death may have been an overdose, officials say it’s too early to tell if that was the case. She may have also drowned in the bathtub inside her hotel room. Officials say there were no signs of trauma. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Feb 2012 10:13

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Politics: Rep. Emanuel Cleaver: Obama’s budget a “nervous breakdown on paper”

  • This budget is a nervous breakdown on paper … We are still in a recession. We’re still struggling. Unemployment is still too high in every major city in the country. People are struggling.
  • Rep. Emanuel Cleaver • Offering a tough take on Obama’s forthcoming 2013 budget, which Cleaver suggests leans too heavily on spending cuts. Cleaver, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, says that while he disagrees with elements of the budget, the biggest problem Obama’s budget will face, however, is a broken Congress: “It’s going to probably have some difficulties over in the Senate. And it’s probably dead on arrival over at the House,” he told CNN this morning. “But that’s because of Congress is dysfunctional. The danger here is that we’re going to struggle around without addressing the major problems.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Feb 2012 10:02

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Politics: Three things you should know about Obama’s forthcoming budget plan

  • cuts While still leaning on the “Buffett Rule” that he’s been pushing for months and planning to end the Bush tax cuts for the super-rich, Obama’s plan would also cut $2.50 for each dollar raised from tax proposals affecting high income-earners.
  • jobs With the GOP blocking much of Obama’s job plan last year, he’s taking another try at it, offering up $350 billion in job-growth spending, which includes $50 billion to improve infrastructure and $60 billion to modernize schools.
  • defense Echoing the words of Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, the budget proposal would cut non-war spending. However, automatic cuts set to kick in next year will likely get replaced by a “balanced deficit-reduction package.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Feb 2012 11:51

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Politics: Forbes: Is Mitt Romney’s biggest problem his Facebook page?

  • Romney’s page on Facebook strikes me as particularly bad for a politician who needs to connect and for a campaign that is well aware of Obama’s social media pedigree. It’s almost as if the Romney team is not really trying.
  • Forbes contributor Haydn Shaughnessy • Suggesting that Mitt Romney’s real problem is his Facebook page, which, despite over a million fans, feels a little poorly-suited for its job. Shaughnessy got a couple experts on the beat to ask their opinions on Romney’s page, and their feeling was that he was lacking “genuine engagement” — focusing on broadcasting rather than communicating with readers. “If Romney or his team took 30 minutes each day,” claims social media expert Amy Porterfield, “thanking his supporters, commenting on their posts and listening to their concerns, he would not only have a keen understanding on what people are talking about, but he would also create solid, valuable relationships with Facebook users.” The advice here goes beyond hollow-seeming presidential candidates. It’s really good for anyone with interest in social media. (Edit: Per Josh Sternberg, Shaughnessy’s a contributor to Forbes rather than a staff writer.) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Feb 2012 11:17

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World: Japanese Emperor Akihito will undergo heart surgery next weekend

The Japanese monarch, 78, has reportedly had health issues of late, and as a result is up for his first surgery in nearly a decade after an examination showed worsening heart issues. He had surgery for prostate cancer in 2003. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

12 Feb 2012 10:45

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World: Libyan rebels-turned-prison-guards exacting revenge on Gaddafi backers

  • They told us that they planned to shift control of a few prisons this week, but it has not happened. … The government has to take over the prisons one by one by negotiating with the people who run it. It is not uniformly or automatically done.
  • A United Nations official, based in Tripoli • Discussing the situation with Libyan prisons, where conditions in the post-Gaddafi era have gotten quite bad, as rebel-sympathizing prison runners are using the prisons to exact revenge on people who supported the former Libyan leader during the revolution. Prison owners have tried to tell a different story, but some humanitarian groups have stopped helping Libyan prisons due to torture allegations. The United Nations has complained about the problem for months, noting that the government should be in control of the prisons to ensure fair treatment, not former rebels. Roughly 8,500 detainees, many sub-Saharan Africans suspected of fighting for Gaddafi, are being held in detention centers nationwide. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Feb 2012 18:48

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Politics: Mitt Romney wins Maine caucus, with Ron Paul at his heels

  • 39% Mitt Romney’s percentage in the Maine caucus, a momentum-building win after a tough week
  • 36% Ron Paul’s second-place percentage; he held tight to Mitt, but his first win again evaded him source
  • » The other candidates didn’t take part, really: With Rick Santorum scoring 18 percent and Newt bringing up the rear with 6 percent, Mitt’s victory in the non-binding primary wasn’t clean, but it was another win for him. The Maine caucuses are generally ignored by primary-watchers, but gained attention after Mitt kinda blew it earlier in the week.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Feb 2012 11:12

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Biz: Federal government, states agree to settle with mortgage industry

  • $26 billion “historic” settlement with the mortgage industry
  • $17B of that settlement is expected to help out more than 1 million homeowners — breaking that dow, that’s an average of $17,000 each
  • 50 states could sign on as part of the settlement, making it the largest multistate settlement since the big tobacco deal in 1998
  • $2,000 the amount some homeowners who already lost their homes to foreclosure could get as part of the long-planned settlement source
  • » But is all this enough? While some will say the settlement doesn’t go far enough in addressing the concerns homeowners have dealt with in the years since the housing bubble burst, officials suggest it could provide $40 billion in mortgage relief by reducing loan principals, which would make the dollars go further. Problem is, it’s estimated that homeowners collectively owe $700 billion more on their homes than they’re actually worth. So while the dollar number sounds high, it may only be a drop in the bucket comparatively.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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