Oh, Obama. For so long you have come off as One of Us with your Vulcan salutes and bringing Wookiees to the White House. How could you possibly have confused Star Trek and Star Wars? We find your lack of nerd nuance … disturbing.

Oh, Obama. For so long you have come off as One of Us with your Vulcan salutes and bringing Wookiees to the White House. How could you possibly have confused Star Trek and Star Wars? We find your lack of nerd nuance … disturbing.

  • March 1
  • , 2013
shortformblog: In case you haven’t been keeping a close eye on the Mali conflict, The Washington Post’s Max Fisher has an extremely useful guide to what’s going on. “Mali, after all, has long been an obscure country to most Americans, little-known or -discussed even after its crisis began last year,” he explains. “But now that crisis is becoming more important. Some very bad people have taken over the entire northern half of a very big country. This weekend, the French military sent in troops and made bombing runs to halt the rebels’ advance. More countries are talking about getting involved.” Things everyone should know about.

shortformblog:

In case you haven’t been keeping a close eye on the Mali conflict, The Washington Post’s Max Fisher has an extremely useful guide to what’s going on. “Mali, after all, has long been an obscure country to most Americans, little-known or -discussed even after its crisis began last year,” he explains. “But now that crisis is becoming more important. Some very bad people have taken over the entire northern half of a very big country. This weekend, the French military sent in troops and made bombing runs to halt the rebels’ advance. More countries are talking about getting involved.”

Things everyone should know about.

  • January 17
  • , 2013
Congratulations, Barack Obama: You have prevailed in the nerdiest election in the history of the American Republic. If 2008 was about hope and change, 2012 was about data and memes. The unemployment rate. The effective tax rates. The 47 percent. The budget deficit projections. Of all things, the Reddit AMAs. Same goes for understanding the elections. Never mind the baby-kissing, the fish fries, the bus tours and the conventions. What mattered in 2012 was data, and the tools to process it — which were so abundant, you could thankfully tune out the pundits. If it could be quantified, it was collected. If it could be collected, it was memed. If it could be memed, it was disputed. The disputes were answered with more data. More @ Danger Room.

Congratulations, Barack Obama: You have prevailed in the nerdiest election in the history of the American Republic.

If 2008 was about hope and change, 2012 was about data and memes. The unemployment rate. The effective tax rates. The 47 percent. The budget deficit projections. Of all things, the Reddit AMAs.

Same goes for understanding the elections. Never mind the baby-kissing, the fish fries, the bus tours and the conventions. What mattered in 2012 was data, and the tools to process it — which were so abundant, you could thankfully tune out the pundits. If it could be quantified, it was collected. If it could be collected, it was memed. If it could be memed, it was disputed. The disputes were answered with more data.

More @ Danger Room.

(Source: Wired)

  • November 7
  • , 2012
You’ve ditched your cable box, booted your DVR, and canceled HBO. A cadre of sports apps keep you up to date on your favorite teams, but, still, something’s missing. You need news. In particular, you’re desperate to follow tonight’s election results. So how do you keep up on the electoral shenanigans in Ohio and the confused octogenarians in Florida? We’ve got you covered. We’ve already run through a list of political news apps to help you stay connected on the go. But if video’s your thing, here’s a list of streams, feeds, and apps that will keep you current during election day. And remember, AirPlay is your friend. Unless your guy loses. ABC News: Live election coverage starts at 7:00 PM ET on ABC’s YouTube channel. CBS News: Coverage begins at 7:00 PM ET on CBS’s UStream feed. NBC News: The feed begins at (surprise!) 7:00 PM ET on NBC’s XBox app, as well as on the network’s Democracy Plaza site. CNN: As of Tuesday afternoon, CNN’s start time for live coverage on live.cnn.com and the network’s various apps was TBD. But don’t worry. They’ll flood the zone. Fox News: Live coverage begins at 8:00 PM ET on the Fox News website. PBS NewsHour: Enjoy election coverage to the dulcet tones of Jim Lehrer. C-SPAN: Live streaming election coverage starts at 8:00 PM ET, and includes closed captioning. Univision: Spanish speakers can get their fix through Univision’s YouTube channel starting at 7:00 PM ET. The New York Times: The NYT is dropping its paywall for 24 hours beginning at 6:00 PM ET, and providing a livestream of the proceedings from inside the newsroom. The Wall Street Journal: WSJ has livestreams through YouTube, as well as its iPad and Android apps. The Washington Post: You can also follow along with WaPo’s dedicated UStream page. Politico: More streaming action from the Politico website, which makes the perfect companion to its iPad app.

You’ve ditched your cable box, booted your DVR, and canceled HBO. A cadre of sports apps keep you up to date on your favorite teams, but, still, something’s missing. You need news. In particular, you’re desperate to follow tonight’s election results. So how do you keep up on the electoral shenanigans in Ohio and the confused octogenarians in Florida? We’ve got you covered.

We’ve already run through a list of political news apps to help you stay connected on the go. But if video’s your thing, here’s a list of streams, feeds, and apps that will keep you current during election day. And remember, AirPlay is your friend. Unless your guy loses.

  • November 6
  • , 2012
The Presidential debate, sketched.

The Presidential debate, sketched.

(Source: Wired)

  • October 4
  • , 2012
With all the polarization surrounding the upcoming Presidential election in the U.S., Marvel has a write-in candidate that should appeal to everyone… Captain America!

With all the polarization surrounding the upcoming Presidential election in the U.S., Marvel has a write-in candidate that should appeal to everyone… Captain America!

(Source: Wired)

  • September 18
  • , 2012
He went by many names, the man who helped produce “The Innocence of Muslims,” the inflammatory video now roiling the Middle East: Matthew Nekola; Ahmed Hamdy; Amal Nada; Daniel K. Caresman; Kritbag Difrat; Sobhi Bushra; Robert Bacily; Nicola Bacily; Thomas J. Tanas; Erwin Salameh; Mark Basseley Youssef; Yousseff M. Basseley; Malid Ahlawi; even P.J. Tobacco. But his real name — the one he used when he was sent to prison for bank fraud —  was Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. More @ Danger Room.

He went by many names, the man who helped produce “The Innocence of Muslims,” the inflammatory video now roiling the Middle East: Matthew Nekola; Ahmed Hamdy; Amal Nada; Daniel K. Caresman; Kritbag Difrat; Sobhi Bushra; Robert Bacily; Nicola Bacily; Thomas J. Tanas; Erwin Salameh; Mark Basseley Youssef; Yousseff M. Basseley; Malid Ahlawi; even P.J. Tobacco.

But his real name — the one he used when he was sent to prison for bank fraud —  was Nakoula Basseley Nakoula.

More @ Danger Room.

(Source: Wired)

  • September 13
  • , 2012
Photographing the RNC through the eyes of a newcomer: Tristan Spinski has been covering the Republican National Convention for his newly-formed photo collective, GRAIN [along with co-founders Lexey Swall and Greg Kahn]. He wrote up the experience of for Raw File, telling us about what it’s like to cover a huge national event with fierce competition from other media outlets. Read it here!

Photographing the RNC through the eyes of a newcomer: Tristan Spinski has been covering the Republican National Convention for his newly-formed photo collective, GRAIN [along with co-founders Lexey Swall and Greg Kahn]. He wrote up the experience of for Raw File, telling us about what it’s like to cover a huge national event with fierce competition from other media outlets.

Read it here!

(Source: Wired)

  • August 31
  • , 2012
A new iOS game released this week lets players pit Barack Obama and Mitt Romney against each other in a cartoony slug-fest, using weapons ranging from rolled-up copies of the U.S. Constitution to lightsabers. If Vote!!! feels like the hit game Infinity Blade, that’s because it was developed by its creator, Chair Entertainment.

A new iOS game released this week lets players pit Barack Obama and Mitt Romney against each other in a cartoony slug-fest, using weapons ranging from rolled-up copies of the U.S. Constitution to lightsabers.

If Vote!!! feels like the hit game Infinity Blade, that’s because it was developed by its creator, Chair Entertainment.

(Source: Wired)

  • August 23
  • , 2012
Mitt Romney announced his vice presidential nominee, Rep. Paul Ryan, in front of the U.S.S. Wisconsin, an Iowa-class battleship on Saturday morning. But don’t interpret the backdrop to mean that the Romney/Ryan ticket is suddenly going to make national security a focus. Like the man at the top, Ryan is a fairly blank slate when it comes to national security, and his tech-policy record is a mixed one. Ryan just happens to be from Wisconsin, and the U.S.S. Wisconsin is moored in Virginia, a swing state. Ryan is chairman of the House Budget Committee, which has a say in shaping military spending. But he’s tended to focus more on the budget deficit and domestic policy than national security. Ryan tends to talk about defense policy choices less as a matter of national survival and more in the context of sensible budgetary choices. In the few public pronouncements Ryan’s made about foreign policy, he’s sounded less aggressive than many in his party, but his geopolitical views are a work in progress. Like Romney, Ryan didn’t serve in the military. On technology and civil liberties issues, Ryan has generally voted along party lines. Ryan opposed net neutrality bills; voted to extend the Patriot Act’s roving wiretaps and to immunize telecom companies from legal liabilities for cooperating with warrantless government surveillance. He co-sponsored a ban on internet taxes. Ryan initially approved of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which WIRED editorialized would “usher in a chilling internet censorship regime,” but backed down in the face of a pressure campaign from the internet-freedom supporters. Activists on Reddit cheered Ryan’s reversal on SOPA — and appear to have reactivated the Ryan thread now that Romney has tapped him to be vice president. Read more about why Romney’s VP Is a defense and tech policy n00b.

Mitt Romney announced his vice presidential nominee, Rep. Paul Ryan, in front of the U.S.S. Wisconsin, an Iowa-class battleship on Saturday morning. But don’t interpret the backdrop to mean that the Romney/Ryan ticket is suddenly going to make national security a focus. Like the man at the top, Ryan is a fairly blank slate when it comes to national security, and his tech-policy record is a mixed one. Ryan just happens to be from Wisconsin, and the U.S.S. Wisconsin is moored in Virginia, a swing state.

Ryan is chairman of the House Budget Committee, which has a say in shaping military spending. But he’s tended to focus more on the budget deficit and domestic policy than national security. Ryan tends to talk about defense policy choices less as a matter of national survival and more in the context of sensible budgetary choices. In the few public pronouncements Ryan’s made about foreign policy, he’s sounded less aggressive than many in his party, but his geopolitical views are a work in progress. Like Romney, Ryan didn’t serve in the military.

On technology and civil liberties issues, Ryan has generally voted along party lines. Ryan opposed net neutrality bills; voted to extend the Patriot Act’s roving wiretaps and to immunize telecom companies from legal liabilities for cooperating with warrantless government surveillance. He co-sponsored a ban on internet taxes. Ryan initially approved of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which WIRED editorialized would “usher in a chilling internet censorship regime,” but backed down in the face of a pressure campaign from the internet-freedom supporters. Activists on Reddit cheered Ryan’s reversal on SOPA — and appear to have reactivated the Ryan thread now that Romney has tapped him to be vice president.

Read more about why Romney’s VP Is a defense and tech policy n00b.

(Source: Wired)

  • August 11
  • , 2012