Friday is National Donut Day.
Ohmygod, I’d completely forgotten that my favorite holiday is coming up! I just got really excited. Who wants to hit up Sublime?
(Source: fuckyeahawesomefood)
Posted 18 hours ago
“What is the opposite of beautiful? Beauti-empty? Haha!”
- A thought I just had, which caused me to question why I am eligible to vote.
But can you ever just be beauti? Maybe in Europe? (How are either of us eligible to vote?)
Posted 3 days ago
We’re so young. We’re so young. We’re twenty-two years old. We have so much time. There’s this sentiment I sometimes sense, creeping in our collective conscious as we lay alone after a party, or pack up our books when we give in and go out – that it is somehow too late. That others are somehow ahead. More accomplished, more specialized. More on the path to somehow saving the world, somehow creating or inventing or improving. That it’s too late now to BEGIN a beginning and we must settle for continuance, for commencement.
When we came to Yale, there was this sense of possibility. This immense and indefinable potential energy – and it’s easy to feel like that’s slipped away. We never had to choose and suddenly we’ve had to. Some of us have focused ourselves. Some of us know exactly what we want and are on the path to get it; already going to med school, working at the perfect NGO, doing research. To you I say both congratulations and you suck.
For most of us, however, we’re somewhat lost in this sea of liberal arts. Not quite sure what road we’re on and whether we should have taken it. If only I had majored in biology…if only I’d gotten involved in journalism as a freshman…if only I’d thought to apply for this or for that…
What we have to remember is that we can still do anything. We can change our minds. We can start over. Get a post-bac or try writing for the first time. The notion that it’s too late to do anything is comical. It’s hilarious. We’re graduating college. We’re so young. We can’t, we MUST not lose this sense of possibility because in the end, it’s all we have.
This is beautiful, and the ironic tragedy just turns that beauty into heartbreak.
Posted 5 days ago
![mediamediamedia:
theatlantic:
How Google Can Beat Facebook Without Google Plus
Last year, Google, which had dabbled in official social-networking applications, released Google Plus. The site has all the things you’ve come to expect in a social network. There is a rich profile builder, a place for your photos, a nice videochat feature, a conversation feed, and, of course, “Circles,” which allow users to sort the people they know into different buckets. Word at the time was that Google’s full weight was behind this social push. The journalists who knew the company’s insiders best declared that Facebook was CEO Larry Page’s obsession.
I was bullish about Google Plus, even if it did feel like a Facebook clone. Google had built out a ton of infrastructure and was pushing Plus out through its major products. This had to be big!
But by most accounts and third-party research, the service is growing its number of users but not their engagement. People are “on” Google Plus, but they are not really ON Google Plus. The infrastructure is there. The street signs are there. People own plots of land. But there’s nobody actually visiting town.
Read more. [Image: Alexis Madrigal]
“Essentially, Google built a social “spine” for their services without building a service that developed into a compelling social offering. There is no meat on the social bone because Google thought of building a social network not as a means for you to connect with friends but as a means for you to connect with Google.”
But what if Google is my best friend?!
“You want every college kid in America to start engaging deeply with your social network? Make it easy for them to get their papers written.”
If FB had helped me write my papers in college, I would have become even MORE addicted to it than I already was.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4l178MkOH1qcokc4o1_500.jpg)
How Google Can Beat Facebook Without Google Plus
Last year, Google, which had dabbled in official social-networking applications, released Google Plus. The site has all the things you’ve come to expect in a social network. There is a rich profile builder, a place for your photos, a nice videochat feature, a conversation feed, and, of course, “Circles,” which allow users to sort the people they know into different buckets. Word at the time was that Google’s full weight was behind this social push. The journalists who knew the company’s insiders best declared that Facebook was CEO Larry Page’s obsession.
I was bullish about Google Plus, even if it did feel like a Facebook clone. Google had built out a ton of infrastructure and was pushing Plus out through its major products. This had to be big!
But by most accounts and third-party research, the service is growing its number of users but not their engagement. People are “on” Google Plus, but they are not really ON Google Plus. The infrastructure is there. The street signs are there. People own plots of land. But there’s nobody actually visiting town.
Read more. [Image: Alexis Madrigal]
“Essentially, Google built a social “spine” for their services without building a service that developed into a compelling social offering. There is no meat on the social bone because Google thought of building a social network not as a means for you to connect with friends but as a means for you to connect with Google.”
But what if Google is my best friend?!
“You want every college kid in America to start engaging deeply with your social network? Make it easy for them to get their papers written.”
If FB had helped me write my papers in college, I would have become even MORE addicted to it than I already was.
Posted 5 days ago
Richard Blais’s the Spence set to open this Memorial Day weekend
From the post:
Among the whimsical, very Richard Blais-like creations on the inaugural menu at the Spence include “simple and fun” appetizers like asparagus, duck egg, and black garlic ($7); bone marrow, tuna tartare, quail egg ($13); and General Tso’s sweetbreads ($11).
So many different types of eggs! (Said in my best Liz Lemon-speaking-German voice.)
Posted 1 week ago
Posted 1 week ago
Fractal pancakes? Yes, please! Just imagine the literary impersonation for Benoît Mandelbrot this lends itself to.
noms and knowledge!
Posted 2 weeks ago
Forbes Media chief products officer Lewis Dvorkin says he’s impressed but not surprised that, in almost every case, his cyber-stringers nail the essence of the company they’re reporting on. Major screwups are not unheard-of with flesh-and-blood scribes, but Dvorkin hasn’t heard any complaints about the automated reports. “Not a one,” he says.
Steven Levy, The Rise of the Robot Reporter - Wired
Ah, an error-less article. The true sign of a readable work of prose.
(via mediamediamedia)
It’s disturbing, but as a fellow journalist, also at the beginning of his career, I identify with and pity this artificial intelligence software. Let me take you under my wing and help you develop your career!
Posted 2 weeks ago
Over time, I found my eyes drifting to tweets from folks with the lowest Klout scores. They talked about things nobody else was talking about. Sitcoms in Haiti. Quirky museum exhibits. Strange movie-theater lobby cards from the 1970s. The un-Kloutiest’s thoughts, jokes, and bubbles of honest emotion felt rawer, more authentic, and blissfully oblivious to the herd. Like unloved TV shows, these people had low Nielsen ratings—no brand would ever bother to advertise on their channels. And yet, these were the people I paid the most attention to. They were unique and genuine. That may not matter to marketers, and it may not win them much Klout. But it makes them a lot more interesting.
Seth Stevenson, What Your Klout Score Really Means - Wired
I still want mine to go up. Oh, vanity. When will you learn?
(via mediamediamedia)
Blake Butler would not approve.
Posted 2 weeks ago
good:
Everett Steele is an Atlanta Braves fan. He goes to games, he wears Braves apparel, he tweets about the team to his 16,000-plus Twitter followers. He’s a big enough fan that when he started noticing people misspelling the team’s name as “Barves” online, he spent time and money making it a meme. Seems harmless enough, right? Not to Major League Baseball, it doesn’t.
SAVE BARVES!
It’s pretty awesome that this got the attention of GOOD. Go Barves!
I'm an idealist ... with a 
