This week, we’re super excited that our project This Is Your Rep On Guns was nominated for a Data Journalism Award in the Data-Driven Application category.
As we wrote about a couple of times on this blog, we have been tracking all 530+ representatives’ positions on gun control, updating it when news happens, and publishing their statements automatically via our Twitter robot @YourRepsOnGuns.
It’s been a very fun project and one we hope that has been informative. We’ve received a number of emails from readers tipping us off to local articles and they’ve sent in letters from their rep explaining their position on gun control.
If you want to help us be able to do more projects like this, there’s a People’s Choice component of the awards where you can vote for us.
If you like the project and want to give us your vote, you can find us here. We’re only 70 votes away from first place! (Sometimes the site asks you to also log in to Facebook, but nothing gets posted from your account, we’ve checked.)
Thanks for the help these past few months!
-Michael
Hey look, our team got nominated for an data journalism award!
Here’s the original interactive (seriously, check it out). And here’s where you can vote for us!
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First Listen: Music From Baz Luhrmann's Film 'The Great Gatsby' : NPR -
The soundtrack to The Great Gatsby, Baz Luhrmann’s latest high-end refurbishing of a lived-in classic, doesn’t try to re-imagine Jazz Age tunes in a modern context. Instead, it attempts to transplant the sensibility of the 1920s to the hip-hop era, with genre-busting collaborations overseen by Jay-Z.
What do y’all think?
“We bought $75,000 worth of sex toys to stock the sex-toy warehouse. I could have filmed the crew coming in that day because they’d stop and see these things—anatomically correct vajayjays and this butt (everyone would touch the butt because it felt real)—and it was hysterical. We were going to return all the sex toys to get three-quarters of our money back, but they started disappearing. We were like, “Who is taking the sex toys?” —
Michael Bay is returning to his ‘Bad Boys’ roots with ‘Pain and Gain’. Also buying sex toys?
Read the interview in Newsweek.
Here’s what happens to your polling numbers when you vote against background checks for guns.
Oh hey, just wanted to share a little home news that—ahem—WE WON A WEBBY FOR BEST NEWS WEBSITE!!! We defeated other smaller niche blogs some readers may have heard of like the New York Times, the BBC, NPR, and The Huffington Post.
Our editor-in-chief Tina Brown notes in an email, “This is the 2nd time we have won for news coverage against outlets with far more resources, a real token of hard work, huge energy and flair!”
Excuse us while we go celebrate with mimosas at the morning edit meeting.
(Super super super thanks everyone for reading The Daily Beast!)
In this week’s SI, Jason Collins comes out of the closet as the first openly gay player in a major American team sport. (Kwaku Alston/SI)
(via braiker)
The Official White House Tumblr: The White House, Tumbling Things -
We see some great things here at the White House every day, and sharing that stuff with you is one of the best parts of our jobs. That’s why we’re launching a Tumblr. We’ll post things like the best quotes from President Obama, or video of young scientists visiting the White House for the science…
Oh hi! (Make this a photo post next time!)
EDIT: OMG, totally didn’t read the part of the graphic that says GIF (HARD G IN ALL CAPS)!!! All is right.
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Later y’all
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Reblog. Every. Year.
Gwyneth Paltrow is selling bikinis for girls ages 4-8 on her website – which has critics up in arms. But actually it’s the conversation about ‘sexualizing’ kids that’s harmful.
As someone who has taken multiple kids to the bathroom during pool time, two piece suits are easier and less messy.
i really dont give a damn about gwyneth paltrow (she can still go fuck herself because she thinks that she can use the n-word because she has Black friends )
but fuckin really
people need to reflect upon themselves and see WHY they think a little girl wearing a two-piece swimsuit is sexualization
tbh it’s creepy as shit whenever somebody even makes that argument in the first place
This is kind of silly though. Bikinis are impractical and uncomfortable and their main purpose is to look good and look sexy. That’s true when they are on adults and it’s logically true that putting the same kind of impractically revealing outfit on a child is sexualizing that child.
And I militantly anti-bikini in general but especially on children. If an adult chooses to to go the beach for the purpose of lying around and getting a tan and looking good, I think that absurd, but their life their choices and I’m sure I do things that other people think are absurd.
But on a child it is not okay. Just like Victorian era corsets you are putting clothing on a child that prevents her from getting physical exercise while the equivalent outfit for boys allows them. Look at that thing! A kid can’t swim in that! She can’t push herself to swim further and faster, or try to turn cartwheels in the water, dive down to the bottom and grab seashells. It’s too likely that one of the many, many strings tying her suit together will come untied or the covering will slip in such a way that it’s revealing and she’ll be embarrassed. And this can easily define the experience of swimming for a girl: that going to the beach is about feeling self-conscious about how good you look instead of reveling in your physical abilities. The expectation that young girls will perform fashion or sexiness instead of doing athletic things is fucking horrible. It’s starting so young to say girl child needs to be LOOKED AT instead of DOING SOMETHING.
This kind of impractical string bikini bullshit being marketed to little girls is just one example of how we hamper girls ability to truly love their bodies and the things their bodies can do.
i didn’t think about it from this point of view at all! i was thinking “what’s wrong with a simple top and bottom, kinda like undies”, but never realizing the impracticality of a string bikini, and especially how it’s designed in that picture.
this probably comes from my knowledge of only wearing one-pieces, which were always extremely uncomfortable for me when i put them on. i thought bikinis were more freeing (never worn one, just assumed), but i hadn’t thought about the “coming undone” part.
when it comes to both practicality and being a little girl, would a swim top be a good idea in general if someone puts them in swim trunks? something that kinda fits tight like a sports bra? or just one pieces? i really know next to nothing of dressing properly for swimming. also have no clue if people glare if little girls are just in swim bottoms, like boys. it’s been that long since i’ve went swimming in public!
up until kiddo was about 3 I just had her in swim bottoms because she was in swim diapers anyway
the above pictured bikini looks impractical simply because, yes, it’s a tied string bikini which will make it harder for the child to go to the bathroom but also runs the risk of getting caught or snagged and coming undone.
Kiddo wears two pieces, but it’s a swim top and swim shorts. No fancy strings, buttons, or fasteners. It’s a short sleeve top that covers her shoulders and back so as to avoid sunburns, but it still keeps her cool. The shorts are just your usual swim bottoms and they are easy for her to get off and on for potty purposes.
I agree the above bathing suit just would not work for my kid. She needs something that can hold up to running, splashing, jumping, etc. but also protect her from the sun.
this design just doesn’t make sense for younger kids. It’s not that’s somehow inherently sexual, it’s that it’s not designed for what little kids do in the pool.
A couple different and interesting takes on this article from our followers.