business-and-politics
Happy Birthday, Stock Ticker: You Made Buying and Selling Inhuman
Right now in the space of a few clicks, I as just some jerkoff with a checking account and poor judgement, could purchase shares in the likelihood that the US or Israel will attack Iran before the end of the year on InTrade. After another cup of coffee...
Thousands of iPad Minis Were Stolen from the Airport Hangar in Goodfellas
If your'e going to steal an iPad, do it right. Don't gank one of an unsuspecting subway passenger or stash it in your pants before sprinting out of an Apple store. Go to the airport hangar where the expensive little devices are kept after they arrive...
A $4.5 Billion Fine for Deepwater Horizon Is a Win for BP
Attention seekers of justices, destroyers of evil, lovers of birds: BP is going to pay. Two-and-a-half years after its Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded 50 miles off the Louisiana coast, pissing 206 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico...
Angry Celebrities Aside, Facebook's Promoted Posts Are Its Path to Redemption
Facebook has been getting a lot of flack lately over EdgeRank, its algorithm that decides who will see your latest post show up in their Newsfeed. After the formula was rejiggered in September, some have seen their reach plummet as much as 50 percent...
John McAfee, Silicon Valley's Greatest Villain, Is Trapped in Paradise
Forget Julian Assange and his WikiLeaks high horse, and Hollywood victim Kim Dotcom and his attempts to rebrand himself as an Internet freedom crusader. This is John McAfee, the perfect anti-hero. This is the man whose name we know because of the anti...
It's Impossible to Keep a Secret These Days
Let's have a little talk about secrets. There are all kinds of secrets out there in the world: personal secrets, state secrets, secret recipes, secret sauces, top secrets, secret levels in video games, Victoria's Secret. The list goes on. But as we're...
Gold Is Now Congo's Top Conflict Mineral
How much gold could you cram into a pocket? Or into a briefcase?
In Defense of Ai Weiwei's Terrible "Gangnam Style" Video
Ai Weiwei, the dissident artist, comes in for lots of criticism, from the government and from many of his fellow artists. Now he's taking flak from everyone, not for his politics but for his weak parody of Gangnam Style, a video he calls 草泥马 Style, or...
"Dreams from My Real Father" Is Kind of a Tin-Foil Hat "Innocence of Barack Obama"
In recent weeks, conservative operatives have been audience-testing a new Obama documentary that purports to the the _real_ truth about the president's background. ""Dreams From My Real Father: A Story of Reds and Deception"":http://www...
With Booming Profits, Facebook Tells Doubters to Eat Crow
From zero to hero, the freshly minted public company just had its best day ever, beating estimates with its third quarter earnings report sending its stock price soaring over 20 percent to heights not reached since July. Much of the hoopla hung on the...
The Controversial Technology Behind the Romney Tan
Not sure if you noticed or not, but Mitt Romney's rocking a pretty suspicious October glow. It's that rich guy look that former private equity executives pick up on weekend trips to the Caymans, where they go to visit their money. It's also the best...
With the iPad Mini, Tim Cook Has Rebuilt Apple in His Image
“Make no mistake about it. This is the year for Windows,” Steve Ballmer "said in New York in September":http://www.forbes.com/sites/connieguglielmo/2012/09/05/microsofts-ballmer-touts-the-year-for-windows-says-its-greatest-opportunity-for-developers...