Adrianne Jeffries explains how to steal bitcoin (Spoiler: it's incredibly easy!). And Quinn Norton asks a really good question: "...does it make sense for the internet to invent a money? What, exactly, is the internet's poverty? What is cyptocurrency better at sharing than the internet is? My answer would be that the internet has a poverty of things that can't be copied--a scarcity of scarcity--so bitcoin is weirdly both the marker and the thing being represented, but that's just one idea. Regardless, Dogecoin will win, you mark my words.
A couple of responses to Sam Youngman's Politico essay about how difficult it is to be such a sexy, tough reporter in DC: Dave Weigel sorta calls him out in Slate but not really because he's being nice. Jonathan Chait has no such compunctions in NYMag: "'I Moved to Kentucky to Get Away From Bourbon' would be a strange basis for a confessional essay." Both of them, at least, point out that authenticity is a fucked concept.
Pierre Omidyar announced that his new thing is called First Look Media. That's kind of a boring name, but I guess it's the company, not the publication? Jay Rosen delves a bit into the tools-company-subsidizing-nonprofit-journalism structure, which sounds interesting and makes me wonder why Vox isn't already organized this way.
Poynter rounds up the best media mistakes of the year. Blooper reels are always a good time.
Hunter Walk on "The Inormation" and why maybe there's value in what gets left out.
Books: Lois Beckett has finally produced the first worthwhile review of "The Circle," by comparing it with dinosaur erotica. The New Yorker looks at the queasy embarrassment that is the modern book trailer.
Writer Pro is out from the folks who made iA Writer (which is great, I'm writing this with it). The promo videos look like a parody though. "Writer Pro does three things, so it has three typefaces." Lol dude, no, stop.
If there's something stupid to be said you can bet your ass Bobby Jindal and Ted Cruz will hop up and say it, so it's no surprise they're standing up for the racist homophobe TV beard guy. In case you needed it explained why Robertson never heard any of those "happy blacks" complain in his youth, Ta-Nehisi Coates makes it perfectly clear. Also in white men being oppressed.
VC Tim Draper, who recently left the fund he co-founded, is diversifying from grim forced hilarity into insane state partition schemes. Best of luck to him on that!
Today in Bots: Mistledrone? More like MistleBROne amirite? Hazlitt wraps up the year in robotic seduction. If a teen can't tell that she's talking to a bot, does that mean the bot is conscious? Or the teen isn't? Or the bot is a teen? Modern philosophy is confusing, yo. Anyway the insanely creative and prolific Darius Kazemi collected all his 2013 projects in one place to make the rest of us feel lame. And you may not have seen his newest game yet but I think it's going to be awesome.
Bonus Tab For Nerds: Regex, the game.
Grantland has a great, quasi-existential writeup of a Dads taping. Vulture has the definitive oral history (HA!) of the Baby Got Back video. LA Review of Books has Alexis Coe on the contributions of Nazi women to genocide. One of these things is not like the others.
I want to be better than this, but look, I'm just not. 51 Times In 2013 Jennifer Lawrence Proved She Was Master Of The Universe. Just deal with it ok? Also don't miss JLaw telling Conan an anecdote about butt plugs.
IT'S FRIDAY HERE ARE YOUR PUPPIES!!!!!111eleven!!
~One of the disadvantages of tabs is that they make a man mistake words for thoughts.~
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