CES 2013: Ultraviolet & Cloud-based Content
via Variety – Latest News http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118064275.html/?cmpid=RSS%7CNews%7CLatestNews
1600 Penn Will Screen at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
President Obama will host the cast and crew of NBC’s 1600 Penn for a private screening at the White House on Wednesday. Suddenly we’re no longer positive Barack read Matt Zoller-Seitz’s review, featuring the heavy-hearted proclaimation, “Ladies and gentlemen, I didn’t laugh once. And as anybody who’s ever read me knows, when it comes to dumb humor, I’m a cheap date.” The show stars Bill Pullman, Jenna Elfman, and Josh Gad, all of whose feelings will be hurt if the President doesn’t at least throw out some courtesy chuckles.
Read more posts by Zach Dionne
Filed Under:
tv
,1600 penn
,tv night at the white house
,president obama
via Daily Intelligencer http://www.vulture.com/2013/01/1600-penn-screen-at-1600-pennsylvania-ave.html
Any groups sending binders of women to the White House? Surely in next 4 years, Obama can find one woman to be chief-of-staff.
Any groups sending binders of women to the White House? Surely in next 4 years, Obama can find one woman to be chief-of-staff.
via Gabriel Snyder’s Stellar faves http://twitter.com/sullivanamy/status/288654376707440640
Closing the Heirloom Gender (and Gay) Gap
An only male (and gay) grandchild denied heirlooms thinks the traditional distribution of family treasures is unfair.
via NYT > Most Recent Headlines http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/booming/should-gay-grandson-get-some-of-the-china.html
Ten Coolest New Gadgets
A self-driving car. A device that tells you you’re eating too fast. Space-age innovations from the Consumer Electronics Show.
via The Daily Beast – Latest Articles http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/08/ten-coolest-products-from-2013-international-consumer-electronics-show.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thedailybeast%2Farticles+%28The+Daily+Beast+-+Latest+Articles%29
Journalists Go on Strike in Southern China
What outcome do the striking journalists want?
via NYT > Most Recent Headlines http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/journalists-go-on-strike-in-southern-china/
The Kilogram Put On Some Weight
The International Prototype of the Kilogram in three nested bell jars
(Photo: BIPM)
Did you gain a bit of weight after the holidays? Take heart, you’re not
the only one – even the kilogram itself has put on weight:
Using a state-of-the-art Theta-probe XPS machine — the only one of
its kind in the world — the team have shown the original kilogram is
likely to be tens of micrograms heavier than it was when the first standard
was set in 1875. […]The original kilogram — known as the International Prototype Kilogram
or the IPK — is the standard against which all other measurements of
mass are set. Stored in the International Bureau of Weights and Measures
in Paris, forty official replicas of the IPK were made in 1884 and distributed
around the world in order to standardise mass. The UK holds replica
18 at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL).But despite efforts to protect the IPK and its duplicates, industrialisation
and modern living have taken their toll on the platinum-based weights
and contaminants have built up on the surface.
ScienceDaily has more: Link
“The original shark, it turns out, rotted.”
Gold, Golden, Gilded, Glittering – The Unexpected Double History Of Banking And The Art World
In fact, we have long entrusted the task of representing our ideas of value to members of two professions that might seem to have little in common: banking and art. And, in the last seven hundred years or so, it has happened more than once that visual and financial inventors have come up with strikingly similar representations. There is more than a shadow of resemblance between the purchase of the Hirst skull in 2007 and the mortgage-backed-securities debacle that made of Lehman Brothers in the following year one of the great public pictures of vanitas we’ve had. And, when you look further into these intersections, you often find that what is really at stake is a change in the way we feel and understand time.
Steven Cohen, owner of Damien Hirst’s (previously) famous The Physical Impossibility Of Death In The Mind Of Someone Living, is under investigation for insider trading.
How Larry Gagosian Is Like Goldman Sachs: short answer, by representing both buyer and seller.
Slate: Why The Art World Is So Loathsome
via MetaFilter http://www.metafilter.com/123590/The-original-shark-it-turns-out-rotted
Bloomberg Had Several Successors in Mind, None of Whom Were Christine Quinn
When it was reported last month that Mayor Bloomberg called Hillary Clinton to urge her to run for mayor in 2013, Hizzoner was highly offended that people would believe a story the New York Times corroborated with only three anonymous sources. That’s probably why the paper was sure to include confirmation from several of the other high-profile figures courted by Bloomberg in its latest piece on the mayor’s search for the perfect successor. The Times reports that in addition to Clinton, who received Bloomberg’s most formal solicitation, “conversations have occurred over dinners and by telephone, in tones both serious and playful,” with Senator Chuck Schumer, billionaire Daily News publisher Mort Zuckerman, former Bloomberg deputy Edward Skyler, and former mayor of Philadelphia and governor of Pennsylvania Ed Rendell. While it’s long been presumed that Bloomberg planned to endorse City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, it seems he doesn’t feel she possesses wealth and fame required to hold such an incredibly important position. Rendell sums up Bloomberg’s predicament nicely: “The mayor believes he is special,†he says. “He wanted somebody at a very high level to come in to do a job he has often said to me — and he’s not the only person who says it — is the second most difficult job in the country.â€
Clinton, Schumer, and Skyler, who is now an executive at Citigroup, had no comment on the matter, so we may never know why they turned down an opportunity to spend their days squabbling with local lawmakers. While Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson denied the claims that Bloomberg encouraged Schumer or Zuckerman to run, the media mogul said otherwise. “A lot of people have talked to me about that possibility,†Zuckerman said. “He’s not the only person.†He added that he would love to be mayor, and joked, “If I could be appointed, I’d probably be serious about it.†The major stumbling block to Rendell’s candidacy is the fact that he lives in Pennsylvania and is only familiar with Manhattan, where he grew up. “I’m not sure how many times I’ve stepped foot in Brooklyn,†he said. “I have no understanding of Queens and no understanding of the Bronx.â€
Bloomberg may be overlooking another potential candidate standing right next to him (not his sign language interpreter, though he’s asked nearly everyone else). While it seemed that after months of dancing around the idea Ray Kelly had decided not to run, the Times reports that the police commissioner’s allies “are again discussing the idea of his entering the race as a Republican.” There’s still hope that the real election will be more interesting than the race involving Bloomberg’s fantasy team.
Read more posts by Margaret Hartmann
Filed Under:
the third terminator
,michael bloomberg
,christine quinn
,2013 mayoral race
via Daily Intelligencer http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/01/bloomberg-courted-many-high-profile-successors.html
Obama Criticized for Packing Cabinet With White Guys
Chuck Hagel, Obama’s nominee for secretary of Defense, has already been called a homophobe and a foe to Israel, and now some have found another fault with the president’s recent picks: They’re all white men. With the recent nominations of John Kerry for secretary of State and John Brennan for director of the CIA, as well as a short list for Treasury secretary that doesn’t appear to include any women, the Washington Post notes that Obama may wind up with a group that’s less diverse than the Cabinet in his first term, or even George W. Bush’s Cabinet. When questioned about the increasingly homogenous national security team, White House press secretary Jay Carney said the president “insists on diversity on the lists that he considers for the job” but “in the end he’ll make the choice that he believes is best for the United States.†Apparently he resisted the urge to point out that Obama’s attempt to nominate another woman to replace Hillary Clinton didn’t go over too well.
Read more posts by Margaret Hartmann
Filed Under:
barack obama
,love and war
,comings and goings
,chuck hagel
,susan rice
via Daily Intelligencer http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/01/obama-criticized-for-packing-cabinet-with-men.html