217“Below is a remarkable document. It’s a memo circulated by Jan van Lohuizen, a highly respected Republican pollster, (he polled for George W. Bush in 2004), to various leading Republican operatives, candidates and insiders. It’s on the fast-shifting poll data on marriage equality and gay rights in general, and how that should affect Republican policy and language. And the pollster’s conclusion is clear: if the GOP keeps up its current rhetoric and positions on gays and lesbians, it is in danger of marginalizing itself to irrelevance or worse.
Read the bluntness of this. This is the GOP establishment talking to itself. And the Republican pollster who arguably knows more about the politics of the gay issue than anyone else (how else to explain the Ohio campaign of 2004?) is advising them in no uncertain terms that they need to evolve and fast, if they’re not going to damage their brand for an entire generation” – Andrew Sullivan
h/t Huskerred
In which the GOP starts to realize that gay rights isn’t coming off the table anytime soon.
63Yesterday evening, while researching a throwaway analogy, I learned that in the original book, Horton heard a Who on a specific date: May 15th.
Later last night it occurred to me to create a national movement encouraging people to make their voices heard on May 15th — Who Day — by writing, calling, and emailing their elected representatives about, well, whatever’s on their mind. The idea being to create one day a year when the voices of citizens are heard over the voices of lobbyists, fat cat campaign donors, and the media.
But May 15th is next Tuesday — not much time to spread the word. If I were one of those gifted graphic designer types the internet seems rife with, I’d create a snazzy poster and try to get it to go viral over the weekend. I may still.
Anyway, I’m convinced this is a great idea so I’m putting it out there.
Looking to get some Tumblr analytics, but sick of waiting for Tumblr to offer it? Check out Numblr. It will tell you all sorts of interesting things about your site. »
145For example, our notes-to-posts ratio is 113:1, based on an early sample. Also, we have over 12,000 posts on Tumblr. Which is a pretty useful to know, right?
Did you know that some publishers won’t sell eBooks to libraries?
I think that’s ridiculous! Why limit your readership? Why not distribute to a channel which your audience already uses?
Sign the petition here: http://ebooksforlibraries.com/
I am glad I was asked to help out with this campaign.
How the House Republican budget hurts kids.
(via colincurtis)
796“ A college degree is only as useful as you make it. I work with incredibly rich and creative folks who majored in a lot of the ones on this list. Their ambition and passion made them a success, not a string of characters on a piece of paper. ”
pancake bits: The 13 Most Useless College Majors (As Determined By Science) (via newsweek)
(via newsweek)
18220
The real life ad agency behind Jaguar mails SCDP a letter of condolences in their losing the account. Smart AND sassy.
(via gatsbylives)
7
41So, these were people’s answers when Pew did a study two years ago asking participants to identify the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
I’m sure SEO gremlins the world over are shrieking in horror at my timing on sharing this, but I’m traveling this week and wanted to get the next Makearoo Thing out there before I go off to make the world a safer place by placing everyday hygiene items into tiny bottles before boarding an airplane.
This week: More homework, lots more ‘uh’ and ‘um,’ terrible transitions, viewer mail from my friend John who is neither my wife nor a wife, and (of course) donkey buttholes.
Thank you Toni for doing what you are doing and helping the rest of us do what we decide to do.
Can Twitter Replace the Newswire? »
10The telegraph became mainstream in the 1830s thanks to Samuel Morse and immediately changed society. The communications technology broke space and time; people no longer waited months for messages to be transmitted. The beginnings of a democratized mass media took place as the telegraph enabled newswires to exist, transmitting information instantaneously across the world. Can Twitter, the modern telegraph, upend newswires?
Traditional newswires, like the Associated Press or Reuters, provide publishing partners with short bursts of information, as well as intensive reporting where outlets are under-sourced or may not even have staff. Newswire content has long filled the gaps for newspapers. But with the advent of the 140-character social network, newswires find themselves, like many other traditional models, disrupted by the Internet, looking down the barrel of a gun. The choices seem obvious. Either adapt to the speed of real-time communication and use Twitter as a complementary tool to help with reporting or face irrelevancy as Twitter and other social networks tap into the power of the ultimate free resource, people with an Internet connection and desire to share what they see.
Click through to read the rest.
We have a tiny little thought in this. On a side note, we were playing with Prismatic today and it’s pretty good at combining philosophies on news wires and Twitter accounts.
