Tumbling Through Life

well played

flavorpill:

Yes.

sunfoundation:

Is the filibuster unconstitutional?

Washington Post’s Ezra Klein busts on the filibuster. Gone are the days of Mr. Smith when invoking the filibuster was seen to serve a greater purpose. The filibuster has its roots in Ancient Rome, and apparently even then it had its critics.

Is the filibuster unconstitutional?

Washington Post’s Ezra Klein busts on the filibuster. Gone are the days of Mr. Smith when invoking the filibuster was seen to serve a greater purpose. The filibuster has its roots in Ancient Rome, and apparently even then it had its critics.

Source: flowingdata.com

npr:

Gangsta kitty.
theatlantic:

The Tao of Shutterstock: What Makes a Stock Photo a Stock Photo?

There are not many occasions when one will find oneself seeking an image of a cat in smart clothes with money and red caviar on a white background. But there may well be one occasion when one will find oneself seeking an image of a cat in smart clothes with money and red caviar on a white background. This being the Internet, actually, there will probably be two or three.
For such occasions, when they arise, your best bet is to turn directly to an image service like Shutterstock. The site, as the documentation for its upcoming IPO makes clear, is a web community in the manner of a Facebook or a Twitter or a Pinterest, with its value relying almost entirely on the enthusiasms of its contributors. But it’s a community, of course, with an explicitly commercial purpose: Shutterstock pioneered the subscription approach to stock photo sales, allowing customers to download images in bulk rather than à la carte. Shutterstock is e-commerce with a twist, and its success depends on its contributors’ ability to predict, and then provide, products that its subscribers will want to buy. The site is pretty much the Demand Media of imagery — and its revenues, for both the company and its community, depend on volume. […]
Shutterstock has a team of reviewers charged with ensuring editorial consistency and quality — and in 2011, only 20 percent of applicants who applied to become Shutterstock contributors were approved, Scott Braut, Shutterstock’s VP of content, says. And less than 60 percent of all the images uploaded by those approved contributors were ultimately put up on the site. For each download their photos receive, photographers will get about $0.25 U.S. — and more if they’re oft-downloaded contributors and/or the purchaser has a high-level subscription.
Read more. [Image: Shutterstock]

npr:

Gangsta kitty.

theatlantic:

The Tao of Shutterstock: What Makes a Stock Photo a Stock Photo?

There are not many occasions when one will find oneself seeking an image of a cat in smart clothes with money and red caviar on a white background. But there may well be one occasion when one will find oneself seeking an image of a cat in smart clothes with money and red caviar on a white background. This being the Internet, actually, there will probably be two or three.

For such occasions, when they arise, your best bet is to turn directly to an image service like Shutterstock. The site, as the documentation for its upcoming IPO makes clear, is a web community in the manner of a Facebook or a Twitter or a Pinterest, with its value relying almost entirely on the enthusiasms of its contributors. But it’s a community, of course, with an explicitly commercial purpose: Shutterstock pioneered the subscription approach to stock photo sales, allowing customers to download images in bulk rather than à la carte. Shutterstock is e-commerce with a twist, and its success depends on its contributors’ ability to predict, and then provide, products that its subscribers will want to buy. The site is pretty much the Demand Media of imagery — and its revenues, for both the company and its community, depend on volume. […]

Shutterstock has a team of reviewers charged with ensuring editorial consistency and quality — and in 2011, only 20 percent of applicants who applied to become Shutterstock contributors were approved, Scott Braut, Shutterstock’s VP of content, says. And less than 60 percent of all the images uploaded by those approved contributors were ultimately put up on the site. For each download their photos receive, photographers will get about $0.25 U.S. — and more if they’re oft-downloaded contributors and/or the purchaser has a high-level subscription.

Read more. [Image: Shutterstock]

Source: The Atlantic

9-bits:

Say Hello to Octicons

GitHub describes their process in creating and using a custom @font-face for icons throughout the site. Beyond these spiffy new icons, the entire design at GitHub seems to get iterated and improved upon constantly.

Source: github.com

theatlantic:

What Straight Allies Need to Understand About Gay Marriage and States’ Rights

Too many people whose marriages are not up for debate have been griping that President Obama’s announcement was too little, too late. He’s endorsing federalism, argued Adam Serwer in Mother Jones. He’s championing state’s rights, complained left-of-center blogger Digby: “This is the essence of retrograde, reactionary politics and there’s a long history of these ‘sovereign’ states exercising their ‘rights’ to deny minorities their freedom.” Even House Assistant Minority Leader Jim Clyburn was upset with the president’s approach. “I depart from the president on the state-by-state approach. If you consider this to be a civil right, and I do, I don’t think civil rights ought to be left up to a state-by-state approach,” he said Monday.

Such critics of Obama are wrong. They are wrong about what the administration has done and said, wrong on the politics of gay marriage, and — most important — they are wrong on the law.

Read more. [Image: Reuters]