interesting things
The actress, who stars in this Friday’s “Celeste and Jesse Forever,” was confounded by her NBC comedy’s awards disappointment.
via Hollywood Reporter http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/rashida-jones-parks-recreation-emmy-snub-358173?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thr%2Fnews+%28The+Hollywood+Reporter+-+Top+Stories%29
From PolitiFact.com:
Six members of the Walton family appear on the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans. Christy Walton, widow of the late John Walton, leads the clan at No. 6 with a net worth of $25.3 billion as of March 2012. She is also the richest woman in the world for the seventh year in a row, according to Forbes. Here are the other five:
No. 9: Jim Walton, $23.7 billion
No. 10: Alice Walton, $23.3 billion
No. 11: S. Robson Walton, oldest son of Sam Walton, $23.1 billion
No. 103: Ann Walton Kroenke, $3.9 billion
No. 139: Nancy Walton Laurie, $3.4 billion
That’s a grand total of $102.7 billion for the whole family.
Sylvia Allegretto, a labor economist at the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics at the University of California-Berkeley, compared the Waltons’ cumulative net worth with that of the overall population, as cited in the Survey of Consumer Finances. (She used the Waltons’ wealth from 2010, which was valued at $89.5 billion.)
Allegretto found that in 2007, the wealth held by the six Waltons was equal to that of the bottom 30.5 percent of families in the U.S. In 2010, the Waltons’ share equaled the entire bottom 41.5 percent of families.
That 41.5 percent represents nearly 49 million families, notes Josh Bivens at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. While median family wealth fell by 38.8 percent, Bivens wrote, the wealth of the Walton family members rose from $73.3 billion in 2007 to $89.5 billion in 2010, or about 22 percent growth.
More here.
via 3quarksdaily http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2012/08/walmart-heirs-own-more-wealth-than-bottom-40-percent-of-americans.html
8 Photographs of Olympic Swimmers taken from below the swimmers.
Previously: “Derp” fast frame shots of Olympic divers facial expressions.
The NY Times did a small piece on the techniques and technology that make this kind of photography possible.
Enjoy.
via MetaFilter http://www.metafilter.com/118536/Underwater-Photographs-of-Olympic-Swimmers
Nate Jones was disappointed about how women’s Olympic beach volleyball has been photographed at the Olympics so he decided to show us what other sports look like through the lens of women’s Olympic beach volleyball photographer’s lens. The results are hilarious.
(via ★mathowie)
Tags: Nate Jones  Olympic Games  photography  sports  volleyball
via kottke.org http://kottke.org/12/08/what-if-every-olympic-sport-was-photographed-like-beach-volleyball
Despite saying on Thursday that he hadn’t yet decided on a running mate, Mitt Romney gave a possible hint on Friday that he’s nearing a decision: Three of his top strategists accompanied him on a flight from Aspen, Colo., to Las Vegas.
The trio included Beth Myers, who is leading his vice presidential selection process, as well as former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie and senior campaign adviser Kevin Madden.Â
Later on Thursday, Romney met with some of the possibilities at a meeting of the Republican Governors Association near Aspen. Among the governors present were New Jersey’s Chris Christie and Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal, both of whom have been the subject of running-mate speculation.Â
via Homepage http://www.nationaljournal.com/2012-presidential-campaign/is-romney-getting-closer-to-picking-running-mate–20120803
@elliottjustin: NYC declines to defend Occupy pepper-spray cop in court http://t.co/1LhTKSrx
@geoffreykloske: It’s hard to read anything now without some smartypants trying to get in the word “derecho” : The New Republic http://t.co/ZslRLW9w
@nirajc: Said in a strip club: “When you’re rich, you want a Republican.” RT @politico Jenna Jameson rooting for Romney http://t.co/bIVzTihv
@edithzimmerman: I learned a lot of new things to do with ice. RT @NYTmag: How Cosmo Conquered the World http://t.co/xs02ifU1
Craigslist says it can use the classified ads written by its users as the basis for copyright lawsuits. The claim is a legal longshot at best and the latest act of aggression from a site once known for its idealism.
In case anyone missed, Craigslist last month sued PadMapper, a popular site that helps people find apartments by showing listings (including ones from Craigslist) on a map. This week, Craigslist clamped down further on potential rivals by changing its terms of services.
As reported by the blog Baligu, Craigslist has made the unusual decision of telling users it has an exclusive license to the copyright in their listings. In practical terms, this means that if you decide to sell your bike on Craigslist and another website picks up that listing, Craigslist can sue the other site.
The problem here is that Craiglist doesn’t have much of a legal leg to stand on. According to law professor Richard Gold, an intellectual property scholar at McGill University, it’s difficult to assert copyright over the simple facts in a classified ad:
“There are only a few ways to advertise a given object and copyright cannot be used to prevent the listing of the same object on another service. Since the wording of the ad will inevitably be very similar, the copyright protection would be thin.â€
Gold adds, “There are obviously anti-trust concerns here as well.â€
So why is Craigslist going on a limb with such a shaky legal claim? The best guess is that it’s a bluff intended to scare off other small companies that tap into its listing.
In the short term, the legal stick might frighten people into letting Craigslist keep tight control of its listings. But in the longer term, it seems certain to exacerbate the ill-will building up towards the site and its founder, Craig Newark (who today published a meditation about remaining serene in the face of online insults).
(Image by CREATISTA via Shutterstock)
via paidContent http://gigaom.com/2012/08/02/craigs-big-bluff/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+pcorg+%28paidContent%29
