Tag: Recently Read

A.D. Harvey, the academic at the heart of this unbelievable (in the best way) Times Literary Supplement article from April, has finally broken his silence to The Guardian. (Read the Times Literary Supplement piece first; it’s worth it.)

via Gawker http://gawker.com/a-d-harvey-the-academic-at-the-heart-of-this-unbeliev-742910165

The disclosure came as Washington treads a careful line, neither welcoming Mursi’s removal nor denouncing it as a “coup,” saying it needs time to weigh the situation.

via NYDN Rss Article only http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/u-s-delivery-f-16-fighter-jets-egypt-mursi-ouster-officials-article-1.1395797?localLinksEnabled=false

Justin Bieber was singing a different tune to Bill Clinton on Wednesday evening.

via POLITICO – TOP Stories http://www.politico.com/blogs/click/2013/07/bieber-calls-apologizes-to-bill-clinton-168041.html

A federal judge’s antitrust finding against Apple on e-book prices underscores how much the book industry has changed and bolsters the advantage held by the online retail giant, David Streitfeld reports in The New York Times.

via NYT > Most Recent Headlines http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/11/daily-report-apple-ruling-strengthens-amazons-powerful-hand/

The weak yen was the last straw for Potato Snack, the 25-year-old Japanese cracker, to the dismay of die-hard fans.

via WSJ.com: Lifestyle http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323689204578573151024866028.html?mod=WSJ_GoogleNews

Through her filibuster, Texas State Sen. Wendy Davis managed to delay and publicize a bill winding through Texas’s House of Representatives that would severely restrict that state’s abortion access. But she and her fellow Democrats couldn’t kill it. On Tuesday, the House of Representatives provisionally approved the bill by a vote of 98 to 49, along party lines, following a 10-hour debate flanked by activists on both sides. As The New York Times reports, the bill “sailed out of committee after thousands of people registered their positions and more than 500 people testified until 1:45 a.m. on Tuesday.” A final, formal vote is scheduled for Wednesday, the AP reports, and it’s expected to pass, then go to the Republican-majority Senate, where it will likely pass as well.

The two camps demonstrating outside the House were easy to distinguish as supporters of the bill wore blue and opponents wore orange. Some House Democrats and female Republicans opposed to the bill carried coat hangers with them to the podium to speak against it, symbolizing the dangerous at-home abortions they say will take place if abortion clinics close.

The bill would “require doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, only allow abortions in surgical centers, dictate when abortion pills are taken and ban abortions after 20 weeks,” the AP reports. The restrictions “essentially would shut down most abortion clinics in Texas,” according to the Fort Worth Star Telegram, which added that final approval in the House could come as early as today.

Read more posts by Adam Martin

Filed Under: politics
,oh texas
,shmashmortion
,wendy davis
,love and war

via Daily Intelligencer http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/07/texas-house-approves-the-bill-wendy-davis-fought.html

EXCLUSIVE: Style Media has signed a development deal with the guys behind the Twitter-to-Web series Sh*t Girls Say to take their wide-eyed, brunette star and have her explore the worlds of fashion, beauty and lifestyle. In case you’ve been living under a flat rock: Sh*t Girls Say started out as a Twitter account poking fun at the way two guys — photographer-filmmaker-director Graydon Sheppard and writer/graphic designer Kyle Humphrey — observe women talking to friends, strangers, co-workers, and themselves. All comments come out of the mouth of the one girl — played by Sheppard. Humphrey drew the short straw and plays the boyfriend. First tweet: “Could you pass me that blanket?” debuted on April 7, 2011. Nearly 2 million Twitter followers, a four-episode web series with nearly 36 million views, one Sh*t Girls Say book, and thousands of parodies later, they’ve hooked up with Style and StyleNetwork.com — owned by NBCUniversal, and targeting women 18-49 “seeking to fuel their insatiable appetite for looking great and living stylishly.” (Style network’s telecasts Tia & Tamera, Jerseylicious and Giuliana & Bill to 76 million subscribers.)
“Even as she finds herself in outrageous comedic situations, ‘The Girl’ represents our core audience — a passionista who loves fashion and entertaining,” said Style’s SVP Original Programming and Development Sarah Weidman. Anyone else hoping “passionista” makes its way into the … Read More »

via Deadline.com http://www.deadline.com/2013/07/sht-girls-say-style-network-developement-deal/

As Silicon Valley apartment complexes go, the Crescent Village in North San Jose is fairly normal. It’s got swimming pools, tennis courts and a fitness center, a gaming room and 23-seat movie theater, and roughly 1,750 apartments, spread over five buildings, that rent for between $1,880 and $3,375 a month. Since it opened last year, it’s been a quiet place, filled with young families and busy commuters from nearby tech companies like Adobe and Cisco.

But that has changed this summer, as hundreds of Google’s summer interns moved in to company-sponsored apartments in the complex and began disturbing the peace. Residents of Crescent Village are up in arms about the Google interns’ loud parties, late-night hot tubbing sessions, and other un-neighborly behavior.

In previous years, Google – like most large tech companies – gave its summer interns housing stipends and instructed them to find their own places to live. But this summer, they gave interns the option of living in shared apartments in Crescent Village, with rent paid for by the company. Google wouldn’t say how many of its interns took them up on the offer, but a closed Facebook group called “Crescent Village Google Interns” had nearly 400 members as of last weekend.

“The Internship,” a Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson film that came out in June, depicts a Google internship as a nonstop parade of free food, cushy perks, and material comfort. It’s not far off. Google interns are paid roughly $6,000 a month, taken on luxury boat trips and outings to area museums, and given free laundry services, gym membership, and dancing lessons. At night, many of them are shuttled back to their living quarters on cushy corporate buses.

Residents of Crescent Village noticed the flood of incoming interns in June, but weren’t told who they were.

“At first I thought it was summer camp, but then I noticed that the kids were too old,” said Rochelle Fisher, a 46-year-old resident of the Tresoro building. Fisher lives in a top-floor apartment, which reduces the noise she hears at night, but said that her neighbors on lower floors had been complaining about loud parties and other “crazy” behavior from the Google interns.

“They dart out into the middle of the street,” she said. “They jaywalk all the time. I have to be very careful when I’m driving.”

The interns seem fond of Crescent Village. On Facebook and Google+, they’ve posted photos of parties, scenes of the pool and the large, open-air foyers to each building, and the interiors of their apartments, which are outfitted with two beds, spacious kitchens, and enough room to host a few friends. “Such a nice place,” wrote Joseph Choi, whose Facebook page lists him as a Google software engineering intern, on one photo. “And all paid for by Google!”

Residents of Crescent Village have been taking to Yelp to voice their frustrations with the Google interlopers. Resident Osborne R. wrote, “The situation is pretty bad. There are a lot of parties even in the middle of the week and security is unable to do anything.” Resident Huan L. wrote, “[It’s] like a dorm now. I could hear a lot of noise, people talking and singing even in the middle of the night. The sound-proof is pretty good if I close the windows, but it’s summer time, I want some fresh and cool air.“

Late last month, Crescent Village’s management placed a flyer in the doors of all complex tenants. The flyer reminded tenants to “be considerate of your neighbors” and “keep voices to a minimum,” and to avoid letting unaccompanied guests in the pool area. Google interns weren’t specifically mentioned, but Fisher says it was “written as if it were in response to a specific incident.” In recent weeks, one of the complex’s pools has been closed indefinitely, with no explanation given to residents.

A Crescent Village representative declined to comment about Google’s interns, saying “We don’t talk about our tenants,” before hanging up abruptly. Google wouldn’t comment on what is happening in Crescent Village, but a spokesman said, “We’ve reminded our interns to be respectful of the community.”

That was several weeks ago. Several Crescent Village residents, who declined to be named, said the noise problems had improved somewhat of late. But they still wished for more peace and quiet, especially on weekdays.

One afternoon last week, shortly after a charter bus had dropped off several dozen Google interns at the center of the complex, a Yahoo intern named Pat, who was waiting for his friend, a Google intern, on a bench outside the complex, said that he’d been to numerous events at Crescent Village in recent weeks, all “sort of normal college parties.” He said that Google interns typically commandeer the in-ground hot tubs at night, and have been holding parties four or five nights a week.

“It’s pretty fun,” he said.

A Google intern, seated by the pool at the Milano building, admitted that there have been “a lot of noise complaints” from neighbors. He said that his friends aren’t the partying type, but he wasn’t surprised that others were.

“You put a bunch of 20-year-olds in the same place, and what do you expect?”

Read more posts by Kevin Roose

Filed Under: tech disruption
,business
,tech
,google
,crescent village

via Daily Intelligencer http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/07/google-interns-are-terrorizing-their-neighbors.html

A source tells Zap2it that James Franco will appear in the Veronica Mars movie as himself. (Franco’s IMDb credits as Actor: 85; as Self: 78.) While it may take a minute for the report to prove true or false, we’ve at least got our hands on a bit of plot detail in the process: Franco would play “one of several celebrities in the movie who have been victims of a hidden camera scam … where someone hides cameras in famous people’s houses and tries to sell the videos.”

Read more posts by Zach Dionne

Filed Under: movies
,casting
,james franco
,veronica mars

via Vulture http://www.vulture.com/2013/07/james-franco-veronica-mars-movie.html

The resurrection of the TV crime drama “The Killing” shows how Netflix is shaking up Hollywood, spurring media companies to experiment with new ways of doing business and altering the economics of some shows.

via WSJ.com: Lifestyle http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324251504578581330740965110.html?mod=WSJ_GoogleNews