Still Not Going To Do This Every Day

Mark at Tumblr

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:00:53 -0400

One of the perks of being an early employee at any startup is the email address, and for the past three years my nom de Tumblrmail has been mark@tumblr.com. David set the account up when I started—David did a little of everything in those days—and I count myself so fortunate to have been part of that time.

I’m giving up that email soon, along with some great friends and co-workers: I’m leaving Tumblr this month. It’s a a good time, with Tumblr moving into a new and even better stage with Yahoo, and though I’m happy about the decision and excited about new opportunities, it’s still bittersweet.

Not the least because I’ll no longer have the pleasure of working day-to-day with the folks in my Outreach Team: Rachel, who is just the best; she makes every Tumblr author feel like the brightest star on Tumblr. Jen, the Posh Spice of our group, sophisticated and the one person in the world you most want to have pick the restaurant. Nate, who is more of a rock star than the music people he works with. Max and Jeremy, honorary members who are just the nicest, smartest dudes you’ll ever meet. Liba, in whom even Heads of State confide, who everyone seeks out for advice. Valentine, who is somehow both unbelievably connected, unbelievably fashionable and unbelievably nice. Annie, whose youth we stole, who will outshine us all.

And I’ll no longer have the privilege of working with that original core of great people who make Tumblr such a great product—Peter, the design conscience of Tumblr, and his whole great team; Topher, who is the human embodiment of Tumblr; Megan, who kept us all happy and well-fed; Andrew, who doesn’t get the credit he deserves for a whole sleepless year spent as Tumblr’s entire Ops department; Thomas, who helped me so much from the Support team. The entire Support team, in fact, is best of breed and entirely underrated. The second wave of engineers—Michael, Mackenzie (he’s more than just the man behind TommyPom!,) Dallas, Chris (who’s not only just the best Android developer, but also has an ap that will change journalism—hit him up for more!).

As I leave, I’ll be joining a list of distinguished Tumblr alums—Marco, Matt, Josh, Marc, Meagan, Jacob, Andrew, Fredrik, Gina, Blake, Evan, Chris, Jessica and Sky just to name a few, as well as John, who brought me to Tumblr in the first place, and to whom I owe so much.

And thanks of course to David, for three of the best years.

Now, well, I’m a free agent, with a hungry baby to feed, so hit me up if you have any cool projects! From now on you can reach me at mark.coatney@gmail.com, and, for always, right here on Tumblr.

In which I wonder if it’s possible to get a restraining...

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 10:15:55 -0400

In which I wonder if it’s possible to get a restraining order for a Twitter follower.

"A Federal District Court judge in Manhattan ruled on Tuesday that Fox Searchlight Pictures had..."

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 20:49:55 -0400

“A Federal District Court judge in Manhattan ruled on Tuesday that Fox Searchlight Pictures had violated federal and New York minimum wage laws by not paying production interns, a case that could upend the long-held practice of the film industry and other businesses that rely heavily on unpaid internships. In the decision, Judge William H. Pauley III ruled that Fox Searchlight should have paid two interns on the movie “Black Swan,” because they were essentially regular employees. The judge noted that these internships did not foster an educational environment and that the studio received the benefits of the work. The case could have broad implications. Young people have flocked to internships, especially against the backdrop of a weak job market. Employment experts estimate that undergraduates work in more than one million internships a year, an estimated half of which are unpaid, according to Intern Bridge, a research firm.”

- Judge Rules for Interns Who Sued Fox Searchlight - NYTimes.com (via dendroica)

Oh Twitter analytics, sometimes you can be so cruel.

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 11:58:13 -0400

Oh Twitter analytics, sometimes you can be so cruel.

latimes: The vibrant photography of Alex Webb It’s the one-year...

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 10:44:19 -0400

San Ysidro, Calif., USA, 1979.

Bridgetown, Barbados, 1983.

Nuevo Laredo, Mexico 1996.

Istanbul Turkey, 2001.

Gouyave, Grenada, 1979.

latimes:

The vibrant photography of Alex Webb

It’s the one-year anniversary of Framework’s reFramed series, which highlights the perspective and work of top talents in the world of photography - and today’s subject is Magnum’s Alex Webb.

In a conversation with our own Barbara Davidson, Webb discussed his new book, “The Suffering of Light,” his tendency to photograph those on the outskirts of society and more:

Ultimately, I can’t fully explain why I have been drawn to borders and the edges of societies. Is it my fascination with uncertainty, tension, and complexity? Perhaps. That doesn’t, however, ultimately explain the obsession. After all, why should I be fascinated with such notions? What I do know is that I seem to come alive, photographically, in such places. The critic and photographer Max Kozloff once told me he thought I needed to be a little uncomfortable to photograph well.

I also wonder: If I fully understood my obsessions, perhaps they would cease to be obsessions?

See more of Webb’s work over at Framework.

Photos: Alex Webb, Magnum Photos

That first one is a movie I am dying to see.

financialtimes: Read for free: How much is your personal...

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 08:36:03 -0400

financialtimes:

Read for free: How much is your personal information worth? Find out using our interactive calculator: http://on.ft.com/14yj2Aa

While the multibillion-dollar data broker industry profits from trading
thousands of details about individuals, those bits of data are often sold for a fraction of a penny apiece, according to industry pricing data viewed by the FT: http://on.ft.com/14yj2Aa

The Snowden Effect

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 16:42:30 -0400

The Snowden Effect:

I am sorry, but this is the stuff of bad airport spy fiction. (“Rendered”? The Triads? Please.) The most likely outcome? China decides to extradite him because it has higher priority issues on which it needs to deal with the United States than the future of Edward Snowden. Which, I suspect, is when he and his sponsors will discover that Hong Kong’s “spirited committment to free speech and the right of political dissent’ — which may be the funniest line to emerge from this whole saga — is not what they believe it to be. But there are issues beyond Edward Snowden, and whatever comes next, and these are issues worthy of an open and national debate, and they should be examined in the light of day.

First of all, it’s past time to re-examine everything that was done in such a panic after 9/11. Daniel Patrick Moynihan was warning us about the NSA and secrecy three decades ago. Jim Bamford has made his living writing about the NSA. These problems are not new. This re-evaluation especially includes the Patriot Act, which keeps getting renewed by a Congress which long ago abdicated its oversight role in intelligence as thoroughly as it has abdicated its War Powers. (Senator Mark Udall is all over this, and good for him.) The answer, “Well, we stopped a bunch of attacks we can’t tell you about” ought not the be adequate any longer. Second, it’s time for the president to differentiate, clearly, himself from his predecessor. What did he do that you haven’t? What have you done that he didn’t? The attempt to pry these revelations loose from the history that led to the programs that are now being revealed guarantees that the discussion will slide into commonplace political argument, which will get us approximately nowhere in discussing the real problem, which is the place of privacy in a democracy that insists on surveilling itself to death. If this whole thing comes down to Obama-is-better-than-Bush vs. Obama-is-history’s-greatest-monster,and there’s too much of both right now, then the opportunity goes a’glimmering.

(Oh, and Senator Aqua Buddha, you’re a U.S. Senator. If you want to do something about this state of affairs, you have more serious means to which you can resort than a futile lawsuit, although that will add some names to your fundraising database for 2016. Grow the fk up, please.)

Unfortunately, the real test will come after the next terrorist attack that succeeds. It seems as though the surveillance stepped up in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing. I don’t recall anyone warning about that in the immediate aftermath. If you want to see what effect, if any, Edward Snowden’s revelations have had on the country, and on what it’s doing to itself, look for it there. I would almost guarantee you that you won’t like what you see. Fear is the new normal. I lived through the Church Committee hearings. That was the last time the secret state-within-a-state was revealed to this extent, and that was by an empowered congressional committee. Business as usual opened again in 1980. We are not the country we say we are. What we are arguing about is the distance between the two.

Capital New York: David Seifman to be named political editor of 'New York Post'

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 13:47:36 -0400

Capital New York: David Seifman to be named political editor of 'New York Post':

joepompeo:

capitalnewyork:

The New York Post is undergoing a seismic shift on its politics desk following a recent bloodletting that reduced the newsroom’s headcount by about two dozen.

David Seifman, the Post’s longtime City Hall bureau chief, is said to be in the process of transitioning to political editor at…

Breaking some news on Tumblr while Capital’s site is down.

heyveronica: langer: o_O DAMN hahahahaha

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 11:59:46 -0400

heyveronica:

langer:

o_O

DAMN hahahahaha

Be still, my reblog finger.

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 21:45:29 -0400

Be still, my reblog finger.

Watch One of the First Female Standups Own the Room on Live TV

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 10:31:27 -0400

Watch One of the First Female Standups Own the Room on Live TV:

broadcastarchive-umd:

This clip, of comedian Jean Carroll performing on television sometime in the 1950s, gives a glimpse of one of the first nationally famous female stand-up comedians in action.

"If Snowden had surrendered himself to U.S. authorities, he almost certainly would have faced charges..."

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 10:52:01 -0400

“If Snowden had surrendered himself to U.S. authorities, he almost certainly would have faced charges that carry penalties of decades in prison. He might have rationally feared being subject to years of pretrial detention and the kind of degrading treatment Manning faced. And if he had chosen to fight the charges, he would have risked spending decades in prison if he lost.”

- Has the US become the type of nation from which you have to seek asylum?

glowbugs: Broadcast Listener’s Number | Radio News Magazine,...

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 10:30:18 -0400

glowbugs:

Broadcast Listener’s Number | Radio News Magazine, June issue, 1923.

See? The NSA has been doing this sort of thing for years.

Oh, Tumblr, you never disappoint me.

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 20:49:19 -0400

Oh, Tumblr, you never disappoint me.

shortformblog: While some are claiming that the situation...

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 11:16:40 -0400

shortformblog:

While some are claiming that the situation involving metadata that phone companies are being forced to hand over to the NSA isn’t really as bad as it seems, the truth is, when combined with other information, that metadata can say a ton. Here’s an example in the form of an interactive graphic the German newspaper Die Zeit made of a Green Party politician, Malte Spitz, who sued his phone company to release his data to the newspaper. Die Zeit used the metadata gathered and combined it with publicly available information about Spitz. The results? Well … just click the link and hit play. (thanks Jessica Binsch)

royals: LoCain sends a gift to his friends in the KC...

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 11:05:35 -0400

royals:

LoCain sends a gift to his friends in the KC bullpen.

Reblogging because the loneliest job on the Internet must be the guy who makes gifs out of Royals home runs.

"…often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing..."

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 09:58:14 -0400

“…often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled. We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance.”

- Barack Obama (via azspot)

todaysdocument: General Mark Clark enjoys a warm Red Cross...

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 09:56:10 -0400

todaysdocument:

General Mark Clark enjoys a warm Red Cross doughnut on the soggy Italian Front for National Doughnut Day:

HEAVY RAINS SLOW ALLIED ADVANCE ON ITALIAN FRONT, 1944

From the “United News” Newsreels series from the Records of the Office of War Information.

Honestly, the National Archives has everything. I’m just picturing the meeting where someone said “A gif of Mark Clark eating a doughnut? Oh, yeah, I can get you that by 3.”

"It’s funny that we think of libraries as quiet demure places where we are shushed by dusty,..."

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 09:53:37 -0400

“It’s funny that we think of libraries as quiet demure places where we are shushed by dusty, bun-balancing, bespectacled women. The truth is libraries are raucous clubhouses for free speech, controversy and community. Librarians have stood up to the Patriot Act, sat down with noisy toddlers and reached out to illiterate adults. Libraries can never be shushed.”

- Comedian and author Paula Poundstone (via juliyeti)

Speaking of which: ALA calls for accountability and transparency in nation’s surveillance laws

(via libraryadvocates)

Reblogging because my mom was one of those librarians who stood up to the Patriot Act. Because the act required libraries to turn over the names of books patrons checked out, she led the way in encouraging libraries to stop keeping checkout records; it’s one of the many reasons I’m so proud of her.

"this is what happens when a society tacitly agrees that, while (theoretically, at least) its..."

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 17:19:27 -0400

“this is what happens when a society tacitly agrees that, while (theoretically, at least) its citizens have rights the government may not abridge, the government is free to subcontract that job to every other important institution that affects the lives of its people. Employers, for example, may drug-test employees without cause, and they may monitor the political and social media activities of those employees even when those employees are off the job. Your children lose their Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights — and most of their First Amendment rights — as soon as they walk through the schoolhouse doors. There have been, of course, no effective counterweights to any of this. Union protection in the workplace is gone. Schoolchildren have no effective lobby for their rights. Of course, Verizon cooperated with the government. Even if they hadn’t been ordered to do so, do you think there would have been 15 minutes of serious debate in the boardroom over the privacy rights of their millions of customers? How’s that no-call list thing working for you?
This is the surveillance state writ large, with large corporations and the government in close cooperation, and hallowed by a warrant from a secret court that was supposed to be the last line of defense against this sort of thing. (Even though the FISA court has been a rubber stamp for years, which was an argument back during the previous administration for why that administration should have gotten a warrant. Ah, thim was the days.) And because we are supposed to be a self-governing political commonwealth, we are complicit, too. All of the powers under which the NSA operated were approved, over and over again, by the Congress, the members of which we freely elect, and none of whom will ever win an election on issues like this because, all tricornered hats and the outrage of the Paul family aside, there is no electoral constituency for the Bill of Rights any more. All of the powers under which Verizon operated were approved, over and over again, by its customers, who now know what the company was doing, and who, I predict, will keep handing over the data. Given the dark, midnight nature of government secrecy, a lot of the infrastructure behind this current outrage was put in place in the daylight. The fault, dear Brutus…”

- Charles Pierce, Verizon Phone Record Scandal - Why Verizon’s Phone Record Scandal Is No Real Surprise

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves, that we are underlings.

William Shakespear, Julius Caesar

(via stoweboyd)