Author: Brett

Desperately Seeking Mitt (Ari Shapiro Mention)

Brett

They say Mitt Romney is a robot. They say he is an unusually handsome cyborg. They say if you opened up his chest, you’d see a pile of crackling circuitry or maybe a bale of old straw. And as we prepare (finally!) to crown him the Republican nominee in Tampa, Florida, this month, there is but one real question on everyone’s mind: Is there anything behind the mask? Wells Tower spends five months on the campaign trail in search of the man inside the man who would be president.

 

http://www.gq.com/news-politics/politics/201208/mitt-romney-wells-tower-gq-august-2012?printable=true

For Jennifer Sultan, a Dot-Com Bust

Brett

OF the five members of a purported crime ring who appeared in court last month, Jennifer Sultan could not help but stand out. She seemed to have little in common with those said to be her accomplices: among them, a police officer charged with stealing his colleagues’ guns to support a painkiller habit and two unemployed young men from Brooklyn and Queens charged with selling guns and drugs.

 

Choose and Lose: MTV Plays Games With Politics

Brett

I’m probably going to sound like the stereotypical old guy in the room here, but bear with me.

The first time I voted for president was in 1992 and, like many my age at the time, I voted for Bill Clinton. The reason should be obvious to anyone who lived through the presidential election of 1992: Clinton and his optimistic vision for America spoke to me as a young adult; he was the first president in my lifetime to truly reach out to the youth in a meaningful way and value their involvement in the political process and in building the country’s future.

Later, of course, we’d find out that the hand he was extending to the female youth of America was aimed mostly at their breasts, but it’s not like I knew that at the time. Clinton got me excited about politics, about America, and about my role in our democracy in a way that no one had before; he made me believe that I mattered; that the course the nation would take depended on me and those my age; that I indeed had a voice and a responsibility to use it — and so I rewarded him with my support and my vote.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chez-pazienza/mtv-fantasy-election-2012_b_1760306.html?view=print&comm_ref=false

Gold Medalist Swimmer: I Cheated (And So Does Everyone Else)

Brett

http://olympics.yardbarker.com/blog/olympics/article/gold_medalist_swimmer_i_cheated_so_does_everyone_else/11398090/

If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’. So says many a NASCAR driver. Or NFL
coach (just not publicly).

Not surprisingly, we are reminded every four years, you can add Olympic athletes to that list. Swimmer Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa, specifically. Somewhat refreshingly, the gold medal winner told a newspaper in Australia he did indeed slip in a few extra “dolphin kicks” (whip-like motions you see swimmers make after they turn) on his way to a world record in the 100-meter breaststroke Sunday in London.

“If you’re not doing it, you’re falling behind,” the South African told the Sydney Morning Herald. “It’s got to the sort of point where if you’re not doing it you’re … giving yourself a disadvantage so everyone’s pushing the rules and pushing the boundaries, so if you’re not doing it, you’re not trying hard enough.”

Under the rules, breaststroke swimmers are allowed one dolphin kick after they turn. On video, van der Burgh is shown doing three. While it’s pretty clear he violated the rules during Sunday’s event, there is no underwater judge, and officials do not watch that video during the Olympics.

The guy who finished second Sunday is Christian Sprenger, his Australian rival, who van der Burgh said also takes advantage of the situation. Hence the interest of the Australian media.

Two years ago judges were watching footage from an underwater, van der Burgh said. And— surprise— the extra kicks were not an issue.

“It was really awesome because nobody attempted it,” he explained. “Everybody came up clean and we all had peace of mind that nobody was going to try.”

Implementing that technology at the Olympics would be welcome by the gold medalist. But until that happens, don’t expect him to stop taking advantage of the fact nobody who could penalize the swimmers is watching.

“I’m really for it. If they can bring it, it will better the sport. But I’m not willing to lose to someone that is doing it.”

VRP – Hump Film Festival

Brett

The HUMP! annual film festival in Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, initiated in 2005, showcases home-movie erotica, amateur sex cinema, and locally produced pornography.Films are rated by the audience, and awards are given. The films are then destroyed before the live audience at the final showing of the festival, by the master of ceremonies, Dan Savage.

 

HUMP encourages filmmakers to produce entries specifically for HUMP itself, however, the recognition has become so significant that several films which had premiered at HUMP! have been re-released and achieved significant commercial success, most notably among them the gay feature “Lawnboy” and Gloria Brame’s short mockumentary, “How To Get A Leg Up In Porn.” In 2007 the short film which won “best hardcore” was produced by Two Big Meanies and starred Ms. Leather Washington State, Miss Candy, titled “Lauren Likes Candy.” Some HUMP films are entered from out of state, for instance 2010’s Twincest was produced by the Atlanta group Le Sexoflex. However, most are produced by anonymous locals. For instance, 2010’s Best in Show “Hi I’m Pon” was produced by anonymous artists at Capitol Hill‘s 419 Boylston.

 

VRP Hump Film Festival

‘Capital Girls’ a sort of ‘Gossip Girl’ crossed with ‘Pretty Little Liars’

Brett

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/capital-girls-a-sort-of-gossip-girl-crossed-with-pretty-little-liars/2012/08/06/af145b6a-d5b8-11e1-a9e3-c5249ea531ca_story.html?hpid=z13

Their children left for college. And then Maz Rauber and Amy Reingold launched a project capitalizing on their strongest areas of expertise: Teenage girls and the U.S. capital.

Imagine “Gossip Girl,” but Washington-ized. Imagine if the power of “The West Wing” mated with the sleaze of “Jersey Shore” and the money of “Real Housewives of New York” — and the resulting offspring looked like “Pretty Little Liars,” but the falsehoods in question could derail the U.S. government. Imagine how oozy-rotten addicting that would be for your brain.

When Rauber and Reingold first pitched the idea to an agent, she sighed. “Five years ago,” in the fatter days of book publishing, she said, “I could have sold that on concept alone.”

But no. Rauber and Reingold’s new series “Capital Girls” had to happen now. It’s primed for this time of low approval ratings, of government stink eye — this time when the only way to get elected to go to Washington is to talk about how much you hate Washington.

It’s equally primed for this era in young adult literature when it seems like heroines are either master archers fighting in post-apocalyptic death matches or master back-stabbers fighting in post-adolescent grapples to get to the top of the social ladder (a marginally different kind of death match).

St. Martins Press bought the series in a three-book deal, published under the pseudonym Ella Monroe. The WB has already optioned a television adaptation.

The first book, “Capital Girls,” released Tuesday, introduces Jackie, the daughter of the chief of staff to the U.S. president. She’s dating Madame President’s son, Andrew, but sneaking into well-appointed offices with a handsome, older Hill aide. This dalliance leaves the door open for her friend Laura Beth, a Republicenne who fantasizes about a party-crossed love match with Andrew herself. Both girls mourn Taylor — a member of their clique who died in a mysterious car accident the year before — and suss out the motives of Whitney, the new-girl daughter of a gossip columnist who seems like she’s out to get them. Probably because she is out to get them.

With Live Streaming and New Technology, BBC Tries to be Everywhere at the Olympics

Brett

While some American television viewers are grumbling about the retro feel to NBC’s London Olympics coverage, with tape-delayed broadcasts of the opening ceremony and other events, audiences in Britain are getting a more contemporary — even futuristic — TV Games.

here, BBCis providing marathon coverage — 2,500 hours of programming during the more than two weeks of the Games. At the touch of a button on their remote controls, viewers can choose among as many as 24 live feeds of various events, whether basketball or fencing.

“We wanted to give people every venue, from first thing in the morning to last thing at night,” said Roger Mosey, director of BBC’s Olympics coverage.

London Olympics have provided a variety of television firsts. The last such Games, in 1948, were the first to be televised to people’s homes, for example.

This time, BBC and NHK, the Japanese public broadcaster, are testing a new technology — so-called Super Hi-Vision television, which they describe as providing 16 times the resolution of conventional high-definition television.

Super Hi-Vision is not available in homes yet and may not be until 2020 or so, executives say. But the technology is being used for a number of events with closed-circuit broadcasts on giant screens in London and Bradford, England; Glasgow; and Tokyo and Fukushima in Japan. A feed has also been provided to NBC for a screen in Washington.

“It’s better than 3-D,” Mr. Mosey said. “It’s like looking through a glass window at an event.”

Such broadcasts, which have been around for a few years, are the only ones among BBC’s Olympics offerings that have not lived up to expectations, Mr. Mosey said. Viewer numbers for other services have been strong, though there have been some missteps: technical problems that BBC attributed to the Olympics organizers’ broadcast services marred coverage of a cycling event.

Google Buying Social-Media Startup Wildfire

Brett

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TEC_GOOGLE_WILDFIRE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-07-31-18-15-56

NEW YORK (AP) — Google is buying a company that specializes in social media marketing as it intensifies competition with Facebook for ad dollars and attention.

The company, Redwood City, Calif.-based Wildfire, helps businesses such as Cirque du Soleil and Spotify manage social media efforts across the Internet.

It’s an important area for Google as people spend more time on social networks such as Facebook and as advertisers follow them. Google’s social network, Google Plus, hasn’t had the traction that Facebook Inc. enjoys. Wildfire will let Google play a role whether the ad campaign is on Google Plus, Facebook, Twitter or elsewhere.

Wildfire’s co-founders and other staff will join Google Inc. The deal’s financial details were not disclosed.

In recent months, Oracle Corp. and Salesforce.com Inc. also have reached deals to buy similar startups.

Why the Irish Times Fancies Itself as a Startup Incubator

Brett

http://paidcontent.org/2012/08/01/why-the-irish-times-fancies-itself-as-a-startup-incubator/?utm_source=General+Users&utm_campaign=a0f948b260-c%3Acln%2Cmob%2Ctec%2Cvid%2Ccld%2Capl%2Ceur+d%3A08-01&utm_medium=email

What can a 153-year-old news publisher teach five tech startups? Digital expertise may flow both ways as Ireland’s newspaper of record offers desk space and funding to new companies whose products it hopes to adopt.

BBC Worldwide is not the only Big Media organisation to host and mentor new tech startups at its headquarters this summer.

The Irish Times also just started its Digital Challenge – an eight-week programme in which it is giving desk space to and getting to know five fledgling ideas.

  1. MyIFli.com – a simple mobile website creator
  2. Storyflow – visualises news story events
  3. PicTurk – amateur photography contest platform
  4. KnockOn.ie – grassroots rugby community
  5. GetBulb – data graphics creator

Irish startup incubator NDRC LaunchPad is running the project with the 153-year-old newspaper’s new chief innovation officer Johnny Ryan. Arthur Cox and KPMG are each providing €10,000 in legal and consulting fees. Each startup will get to pitch at Dublin Web Summit and receive advice from a range of outside personalities.

The winning startup will receive Irish Times marketing worth €10,000 and, perhaps most importantly, a convertible loan note for €50,000 investment from DFJ Esprit.

 

Qwiki Nabs Time Inc. Exec

Brett

http://www.adweek.com/news/press/qwiki-nabs-time-inc-exec-142454

Another traditional media executive is making the leap to digital startup. Last month, Say Media named Time publisher Kim Kelleher president to focus on expanding brand and publisher relationships. On Thursday (Aug. 1) , Qwiki, a New York-based digital media startup, nabbed Time.com’s director of business development, Sonya Penn, to oversee partnership adoption strategies for the company.

Qwiki, the winner of TechCrunch Disrupts 2010 Cup, has turned some heads by inking partnership with the likes of ABC News, which uses Qwiki’s set of digital publishing tools to create interactive video experiences using images, social media, video clips, animation and voiceovers. The move to bring on Penn, who spent five years at Time Inc., is a clear signal that the company is aiming to rack up more lucrative partnerships with traditional and online publishers, a must if Qwiki is to move out of its nascent startup stage.

“I’ve spent a lot of time in the online video space and thinking about how traditional media companies can move ahead,” Penn said of her tenure at Time. “The beauty of Qwiki is that big and small companies can use it quickly to create online video presentations. I’ll be working on developing partnerships and monetization strategies, while using feedback from publishers to help continually develop our technology.”

Penn insisted her departure from Time was amiable. However, her exit marks the second Time staffer move to a non-legacy company in as many months. Time Inc. has had a rough go of it the past few months; just yesterday the company announced another lackluster quarter with revenue down 9 percent and operating income down 43 percent.

Penn said her move is simply a natural byproduct of an ever-changing media landscape. “Traditional media has evolved and continues to evolve,” she said. “I loved being here [Time], but we also see things down the road that are exciting. It’s a change and it’s different.”