Matt Lehrer

"A northern Mississippi school district decided Wednesday not to host a high school prom after a..."

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:21:12 -0500

“A northern Mississippi school district decided Wednesday not to host a high school prom after a lesbian student demanded she be able to attend with her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo.”

- Mississippi Prom Canceled After Lesbian Date Requested

I get it, a lot of people hate the gays. What I don’t get is that this town hates this one girl enough to cancel prom? I am sure she probably already feels pretty crummy being an out lesbian in the bible belt and now she’s responsible for ruining the most magical night of her classmates’ lives. Adults can really be the worst. Also, does the tuxedo issue REALLY matter?
(via amandalynferri)

Happy birthday, foursquare.

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:38:49 -0500

foursquare:

It was exactly a year ago when Naveen and I flipped the switch on foursquare. It was the day before we headed down to SXSW - back when we were still feeling 50/50 on whether people would think the “let’s turn real life into a game!” idea was really interesting or whether they’d laugh us out of Austin.

We took separate flights. I remember walking down the tarmac into the plane still on my laptop fixing the database. Naveen landed in Austin and texted me something along the lines of “its still alive!”. We made it though the weekend with a bunch of hiccups but nothing disastrous (special thx to friends in NYC who were keeping an eye on the melting database).

And so here we are one year later. It’s amazing how far we’ve come…

Over 500,000 users
Over 1,000,000 badges have been awarded
Over 1.4 million venues with 1200 offering specials
Over 15.5 million checkins

… and last Friday we had our biggest day ever, weighing in at 275,000 checkins over the course of the day.

And here we are again. I’m about to get on a flight out of JFK. Naveen’s about to get on one out of Newark. We’re now at 16 employees (!!) and a whole foursquare entourage is flying down tomorrow. And I feel much better about the server being up and running when we land :)

I can’t tell you how psyched we are to see you all again in Austin this weekend. It’s been an amazing year and thanks to everyone who’s pitched in to help and support us along the way. We’ve got a lot planned and we owe you all a beer (or a temporary tattoo or ten).

See you in Austin,

-team foursquare

ps: Party on Monday (w/ Brizzly & Katalyst). 8pm @ Cedar Street Tavern. The best way to skip the line? Be wearing some foursquare tattoos :)

"[W]hile settling seems like an enormous act of resignation when you’re looking at it from the..."

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:24:39 -0500

“[W]hile settling seems like an enormous act of resignation when you’re looking at it from the vantage point of a single person, once you take the plunge and do it, you’ll probably be relatively content. It sounds obvious now, but I didn’t fully appreciate back then that what makes for a good marriage isn’t necessarily what makes for a good romantic relationship. Once you’re married, it’s not about whom you want to go on vacation with; it’s about whom you want to run a household with. Marriage isn’t a passion-fest; it’s more like a partnership formed to run a very small, mundane, and often boring nonprofit business. And I mean this in a good way.”

- Lori Gottlieb
An honest, daring, interesting read.

Matthew Yglesias » Chart of the Day This is what happens...

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:22:47 -0500

Matthew Yglesias » Chart of the Day

This is what happens when everyone watches a big hockey game and goes to pee between periods.

Tree Railing | Design You Trust

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:21:21 -0500

Tree Railing | Design You Trust

Tron Legacy Billboard #3 | /Film

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:16:00 -0500

Tron Legacy Billboard #3 | /Film

Biking directions added to Google Maps

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:25:00 -0500

Biking directions added to Google Maps

David M. Cutler: Health Reform Passes the Cost Test

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:49:18 -0500

David M. Cutler: Health Reform Passes the Cost Test:

Many people are worried that the health-care reform proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats will fail to bend the “cost curve.” A number of commentators are urging no votes because of this, and Republicans have asked the president to start health reform over, focusing squarely on the issue of cost reduction.

These calls overlook the actual legislation. Over the past year of debate, 10 broad ideas have been offered for bending the health-care cost curve. The Democrats’ proposed legislation incorporates virtually every one of them. Here they are:

anyclip: Going to SXSW? You’re Invited! Sunday, March 14th,...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:49:15 -0500

anyclip:

Going to SXSW? You’re Invited!

Sunday, March 14th, from 10pm - 2am, we’re cohosting a Digital Speakeasy with our very good friends at blip.tv

RSVP here.

The party is sponsored by the fine folks at PepsiCo (@pepsico), and will take place at Cedar Street Courtyard (the same place where Tumblr had their smashing party last year).

$9.99 March Madness iPhone App Live Streaming Will Work Over 3G...

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:21:14 -0500

$9.99 March Madness iPhone App Live Streaming Will Work Over 3G And Wi-Fi This Year

"What happened was the director and I had a bad difference over the direction of the film that..."

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:32:41 -0500

“What happened was the director and I had a bad difference over the direction of the film that resulted in a lawsuit that has settled amicably out of court. But there have been all these events around the Oscars, and I wasn’t invited to any of them. And he’s not speaking to me. So we weren’t even able to discuss ahead of the time who would be the one person allowed to speak if we won. And then, as I’m sure you saw, when we won, he raced up there to accept the award. And his mother took her cane and blocked me. So I couldn’t get up there very fast.”

- Elinor Burkett - The story behind Oscar’s “Kanye moment”
Salon got his side of the story also.

letthemeatmeat: As long as humans keep “loving one [dogs &...

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:48:53 -0500

letthemeatmeat:

As long as humans keep “loving one [dogs & cats] and eating the other [farm animals],” the “other” will stop at nothing to fool us into loving them too. As The Daily Mail tells it, this chicken was so desperate to save her own hide that she concocted what is sure to go down as one of the most hair-brained schemes of the 21st century — pretending to be a dog!

Well played, ma’am, well played.

The irony is that the owners always wanted to keep this chicken as a pet anyway and never intended to slaughter her, so Chicken Little here is betraying her own species and making a fool of herself for nothing.

therealjanelle: another photo by gillian bostock Jackie...

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:43:00 -0500

therealjanelle:

another photo by gillian bostock

Jackie Treehorn’s house! Compare:

Waterstudio.NL’s Floating Star Shaped Resort Islands for...

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:15:00 -0500

Waterstudio.NL’s Floating Star Shaped Resort Islands for the Maldives:

The tiny island nation of the Maldives is under serious threat from rising sea levels caused by climate change. No part of the 1200 islands which make up the Maldives is more than six feet above sea level, so as sea-levels rise (as they will if rampant climate change is not stopped), the entire nation will be under water. Because of this, the Maldives government is pulling out all the stops in the fight against climate change. Not only has the entire country gone carbon neutral, educated all of their children in environmental science and furiously built retaining walls around every island, but the government is buying up land in nearby nations as a place to retreat to when the Maldives disappears. Now it appears that the intrepid Maldivians have come up with a new strategy to fight the rising tide: creating mini floating islands!

This reminds of this stupid question on bash. How will these floating islands be anchored, i.e., what will be the mechanism that allows them to move further from the ocean floor as the sea level rises?

"The insurance commissioners in 11 states are elected. Under the Supreme Court’s Citizens United..."

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:41:32 -0500

“The insurance commissioners in 11 states are elected. Under the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, insurers will now be able to finance the election campaigns of those who will be their regulators. Among other powers these state insurance regulators have authority over rates and policy forms.”

- Letter to the New York Times

Stop What You Are Doing & Install This Plug-In:...

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:59:48 -0500

Stop What You Are Doing & Install This Plug-In: Rapportive:

Cambridge UK startup Rapportive has released a Firefox and Chrome extension that will replace the ads in your Gmail with photos, biographic data and social media links, including a live display of recent Tweets, for whoever you’re corresponding with by email. It’s fantastic and takes about 2 minutes to set up.

"[The] pesky preferential method for best picture slowed the usual quick rate of return; in previous..."

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:14:00 -0500

“[The] pesky preferential method for best picture slowed the usual quick rate of return; in previous years, the majority of ballots were returned within 10 days of receipt. The ballot listed nominees in only 19 of the 24 categories. Academy members were required to attend screenings if they wished to vote for foreign-language film, documentary features and shorts, and animated and live-action shorts.”

- Gold Derby
“Pesky preferential method” = ranking the ten nominees instead of just picking one out of five.

(via nextf9)

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:25:00 -0500

(via nextf9)

The FAA has no sense of humor.

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:25:18 -0500

The FAA has no sense of humor.

China has started exploring how to reap economic and strategic benefits from the ice melting at the Arctic due to global warming.

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:46:37 -0500

China has started exploring how to reap economic and strategic benefits from the ice melting at the Arctic due to global warming.:

How interesting is it that the country with the most (?) capitalist mindset is communist?