Want To Enjoy A Joint After The Shooting Range ? These States Allow It

Guns And Pot: Which States Are Friendly To Both?

 

 

 

 

” A Reddit user recently posted a graphic called “The Venn Diagram of Cultural Politics,” showing which states allow at least some citizens to use marijuana, which states recognize gay marriages, and which do both. The chart got us wondering: Which places embrace the personal freedoms beloved by the left and the right? Where can you buy both a vibrator and a Big Gulp? Where can a gay couple not just marry but avoid a high sin tax on the cigarettes they smoke after sex? Where can you carry a gun while passing a joint?

  The image below tackles that last question. If you include states that have legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes only, there are now 24 states that permit pot. There are 42 states where an adult non-felon’s right to carry a concealed gun is either unrestricted or subject only to permissive “shall issue” laws. Sixteen states fall into both categories.

  If you narrow the question, though—limiting yourself to places that allow marijuana even without a prescription and concealed carry even without a permit—the intersection shrinks to contain just one state. The Guns and Dope Party has found its regional base.”

 

Reason

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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NY Times Baghdad Bureau Chief : Obama Has Ignored Iraq Since 2011

I’m Tim Arango, Baghdad Bureau Chief For The New York Times. Ask Me Anything.

 

 

 

” … it’s not my job to rate the obama administrations actions in iraq. but i will tell you that after 2011 the administration basically ignored the country. and when officials spoke about what was happening there they were often ignorant of the reality. they did not want to see what was really happening because it conflicted with their narrative that they left iraq in reasonably good shape. In 2012 as violence was escalating i wrote a story, citing UN statistics, that showed how civilian deaths from attacks were rising. Tony Blinken, who was then Biden’s national security guy and a top iraq official, pushed back, even wrote a letter to the editor, saying that violence was near historic lows. that was not true. even after falluja fell to ISIS at the end of last year, the administration would push back on stories about maliki’s sectarian tendencies, saying they didn’t see it that way. so there was a concerted effort by the administration to not acknowledge the obvious until it became so apparent — with the fall of mosul — that iraq was collapsing. “

 

 

 

 

   From Allahpundit at Hot Air:

 

” Is “ignorant” really the best word to describe willful blindness to a politically inconvenient truth? Obama got elected promising to bring the troops home; the only way he could do that without major domestic headaches was to claim that Iraq didn’t need them anymore. So he did, the truth notwithstanding. Imagine how many low-information voters will watch tonight’s speech and wonder where this bolt-from-the-blue known as ISIS came from. Last they heard, Iraq was doing just fine.

  You guys know better, though. I’ve linked it more than once before but it’s worth re-reading Peter Beinart’s post from a few months ago about Obama’s history of malign neglect in Iraq. He had one Iraq goal as president — to get out, come what may, just as he promised voters he would do in 2008. ” 

 

 

 

Read it all 

 

 

 

 

 

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GIF Of Presidential Voter Turnout By State Since 1980

This GIF Depicting Voter Turnout By State In Presidential Elections Is Cooler Than You’d Expect

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

” The GIF at the top of this story is fascinating if you enjoy maps, politics or scanning for patterns.

  It depicts voter turnout by state in presidential elections from 1980 to 2012.

 It’s an impressive graphic. It caught my eye on Reddit, and I watched it repeatedly while writing this story. I even took some time and checked the numbers against Census Bureau data to be sure it’s accurate. (Note: the legend is a bit small, but red stands for low turnout and green for high turnout — and the colors are on the spectrum following the ROYGBIV pattern we learned in secondary school.) “

 

 

 

Washington Examiner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

—

 

 

Here’s 170 Years Of American History In One Amazing GIF

In Case You Slept Through High School

 

 

 

 

 

” This fantastic gif tells the story of how America came to be. Since the Constitution took effect on March 4, 1789 until the U.S. added the 50th state of Hawaii in 1959, a quick look at this gif shows us how a nation was formed.

If you want to see each slide as a stand-alone, that is available as well. One of the great things about this map is that it doesn’t just show us where, it tells a story about how the United States of America came to be like it is today.”

 

Independent Journal Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Today Is “The Day We Fight Back”

Tech Companies And Activists Unite To Protest The NSA

 

 

 

 

” Get ready for another day of internet-wide activism. This is billed as “The Day We Fight Back,” with sites across the web joining a campaign to end mass surveillance programs from the National Security Agency.

  The campaign was organized by public advocacy groups such as Demand Progress, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Fight for the Future, working alongside tech companies such as Reddit, Namecheap, and Tumblr. With the protest, activists hope to not only push public opinion even further against the NSA, but also defeat the FISA Improvements Act, a bill sponsored by California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein. Demand Progress executive director David Segal says that although the bill is touted as reform legislation, it would actually codify many of the surveillance practices that activists oppose — practices that have received added attention in recent months after ex-government contractor Edward Snowden began sharing NSA secrets with the press.

  At least in spirit, today’s protest resembles a successful 2012 campaign to stop the SOPA and PIPA anti-piracy bills, which critics argued were over-broad and would have allowed the government to censor the web. But it also honors the memory of Aaron Schwartz, the political activist and co-founder of both Demand Progress and Reddit, who took his life last year.”

 

Wired has more

 

 

 

 

 

 

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They Were Worried About The Dog Meeting Their Newborn Baby …

… What Happened Is Priceless

” A lot of parents are concerned with how their family dog will react when they bring a newborn baby home. We read horrifying stories of dogs turning on helpless children, so it’s a legitimate concern.

  In the case of Reddit user banpeiSF, he was worried about how his Corgi, Wilbur, would handle the arriving of their little one. I think these photos perfectly answer that question.”

    Ever the faithful herder , Wilbur watches over his baby sister like a hawk . See the rest of the charming pictures at Viral Nova .

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Time to Speak Up Against the NSA’s Mass Spying

Join EFF & The Stopwatching.us Coalition In DC On October 26th

 

 

 

 

” This summer, some of our worst fears and suspicions about the NSA have been confirmed. We now have evidence that the NSA is actively undermining the basic security of the Internet. It iscollecting millions and millions of phone records of individuals not suspected of any crime. It issurveilling journalists.

The NSA’s overreaching surveillance is creating a climate of fear and chilling free speech. Its addiction to secrecy makes real accountability impossible

But there’s a movement forming to change all of this. And we’re about to take the next step.

On the weekend of October 26 — the 12th anniversary of the signing of the USA PATRIOT Act — thousands of people from across the political spectrum will unite in Washington, D.C. to take a stand against unconstitutional surveillance. Please join EFF in D.C. for a day of grassroots training and citizen lobbying on October 25^th and a historic rally and petition delivery on October 26^th.”

 

Join us in Washington.

— RSVP on the event page (privacy policy here): https://rally.stopwatching.us
— RSVP for the lobby day here: https://rally.stopwatching.us/lobbyday.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Fantastic Graphic Of “Supercontinent” Pangea Populated With Today’s National Borders

 

Here’s What Pangea Looks Like Mapped With Modern Political Borders

 

 

 

” Pretty wild, right? It’s a map of Pangea — a supercontinent that formed roughly 300 million years ago — mapped with contemporary geopolitical borders.

Redditor LikeWolvesDo, who posted the image last week, stumbled across this particular interpretation of Pangea at this roundup of Pangea Maps. Unfortunately, the source link is dead, so neither of us was able to find the map’s true provenance. At the bottom corner of the image however, is a name – Massimo Pietrobon – and an email address; so, for the time being, we’re going to assume he’s the creator. We’ve reached out to Pietrobon, but have yet to receive a response. We’ll let you know if and when we do.

Edit: As ukuleledan points out in the comments, Pietrobon does, in fact, appear to be the map’s creator“

 

 

The graphic has numerous interactive features and can be enlarged with a mouse-click so view it at the source.

 

 

 

HT/Instapundit

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Google Earth – Crime Fighting Tool ?

Did Google Maps Capture A Grisly Murder?

 

 

 

 

 

” A pixelated image in Google Maps appears at first glance to show a man in the act of dragging a bloodied corpse down a pier and over the edge, leaving a telltale stain of red behind him.

While the coordinates of the map—posted in aReddit thread by a dumbfounded resident of the affected Netherlands area—is only a few days old, the image seems to be dated from 2009. That wouldn’t stop Dutch cops from prosecuting. (There’s no statute of limitations for murder.)

However, it seems unlikely that the image actually is a body being thrown into the water.

It wouldn’t be the first time a death caught on Google maps turned out to be a false alarm. But stranger things have happened, and it’s not as if Google Maps hasn’t had a connection to grisly murder before.

Here are four times Google Maps did have a part in solving crime (and one time it played a tragic part in it being committed).

 

1) The murder of Dennis and Merna Koula

2) The murder of Nancy Cooper

3) Google Maps brings justice to 14-year-old bike owner

4) The murder of Patricia Thompson

5) The killing of Santosh Kumari

Bonus: 5 more crimes on Google Maps

 

 

Click here to read the rest and follow the links

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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An Aerial View Of West, Texas Devastation

 

From Reddit

 

 

 

Click the link for full size .

 

 

 

 

 

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Reddit Suffers Major DDoS

 

Reddit Slammed By Massive Online Attack

 

 

 

 

” Reddit suffered a massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack Friday that stretched into the afternoon.

At 6:02 A.M., the Reddit status twitter account tweeted that the website was working to recover from what appeared to be a DDoS. A DDoS is when a botnet is sent out to cripple a server or to steal information from it. The source of the attack has not yet been announced.

A Reddit admin that goes by the username Alienth stated on an AskReddit thread that the person or people attacking the site have “a lot of time and bandwidth on their hands.” Alienth posted a graph a of Reddit’s server load, claiming that none of the admins had ever seen an attack at this scale.

“All we know is it is blatantly malicious,” says a Reddit representative, according to the Huffington Post.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Grisly Post-Mortem Photo Of Tamerlan Tsarnaev Shows Up Online

Hospital Denies Involvement In Leak Of Grisly Post-Mortem Photo Of Boston Marathon Bomb Suspect

 

 

 

 

” A grisly post-mortem photo of one of the suspected Boston Marathon bombers appears to have been taken early today after medical personnel turned the body over to law enforcement officials.

The image of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, began circulating online this afternoon after it was posted on popular web sites like Reddit and 4chan. The source of the photo remains unclear.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Swartz Prosecutorial Misconduct … Holder Praises Prosecutors

Aaron Swartz Lawyers Accuse Prosecutor Stephen Heymann Of Misconduct

 

 

 

” WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutor Stephen Heymann engaged in prosecutorial misconduct by withholding key evidence from the defense team of Aaron Swartz, the late Internet activist’s legal team alleged in a letter to an internal Justice Department ethics unit.

Heymann took the lead in the much-criticized effort to imprison Swartz, who committed suicide in January, and was the attorney who handled the case on a day-to-day basis, reporting to U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz. Swartz’ attorney Eliot Peters has filed a complaint with the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility, a step that indicates just how egregious the defense team considers Heymann’s professional behavior. A redacted version of the letter was obtained by The Huffington Post.

In the document, Peters argues that Heymann withheld exculpatory evidence. At issue was whether the federal government had properly obtained a warrant to search Swartz’ computer and thumb drive. Peters argued that the government failed by waiting more than a month to obtain the warrant. Heymann countered that he couldn’t get a warrant because he didn’t have access to the equipment. But an email in Heymann’s possession, which was written to Heymann himself, showed that assertion to be untrue.”

 

 

 

Attorney General Eric Holder: Prosecutors In Aaron Swartz Case Did A Great Job

 

 

Related articles

• Aaron Swartz’s Girlfriend Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman Slams Eric Holder’s Claims (intellihub.com)
• Secret Service accused of misconduct in Aaron Swartz case (rt.com)
• Misconduct All Around …. A Justice Department Specialty (youviewed.com)
• Stephen Heymann Involved in Swartz Investigation before Arrest (emptywheel.net)
• Anonymous To Hold Boston Rally In Honor Of Aaron Swartz Tomorrow (Friday 1/25) (thephoenix.com)
• Sign now, get the US Attorney who hounded Aaron Swartz fired (boingboing.net)
• ‘Fire Steve Heymann’ Petition Reaches Threshold, Must Be Answered By White House (huffingtonpost.com)

 

 

 

 

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Misconduct All Around …. A Justice Department Specialty

Secret Service Accused Of Misconduct In Aaron Swartz Case

 

 

 

” The former girlfriend of computer hacker Aaron Swartz is lashing out at the US Justice Department after Attorney General Eric Holder defended the prosecution that some say drove the prodigy into committing suicide.

Swartz took his own life in January while waiting to stand trial in a federal computer fraud case that could have ended with him serving upwards of 35 years in prison. Earlier this week, Attorney General Holder said the suicide was a“tragedy” but that the prosecution was indeed by the books.

 

“Eric Holder and the Department of Justice are clearly trying to mislead the Senate and the public,” she says. “Holder claims that Aaron was only facing months in prison while [Assistant US Attorney Stephen] Heymann and [US Attorney Carmen] Ortiz were actively pursuing a penalty of seven years if the case went to trial. If you believe you’re innocent, you should not be coerced into accepting a plea bargain that marks you as a felon for life, just because prosecutors want to boast about taking a scalp.” “

Related articles

• RT: Secret Service accused of misconduct in Aaron Swartz case (aworldchaos.wordpress.com)
• AG Holder’s Defense of Swartz Prosecution is Troubling (lawprofessors.typepad.com)
• Eric Holder: Aaron Swartz Case ‘A Good Use Of Prosecutorial Discretion’ (huffingtonpost.com)
• US Attorney General defends handling of Aaron Swartz case (networkworld.com)
• Aaron Swartz Faced Max Jail Time of 3-5 Months (mashable.com)
• Eric Holder Makes it Clear DOJ’s Culture – Not the Prosecutor – Is the Problem in Swartz Case (reason.com)
• US Attorney General says Aaron Swartz case was a “good use of prosecutorial discretion” (slashgear.com)

 

 

 

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Aaron Swartz Another Victim Of Government Abuse Of Power

 

 

 

Why You Should Care About the Death of Internet Activist Aaron Swartz, The Internet Remains Free in Large Part Because of His Efforts

 Video At The Link

 

 

 

“Aaron’s death is not simply a personal tragedy. It is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach.”

Aaron led the way in the effort to stop SOPA. Every single person in the world who values the free flow of information on the Internet, and the free market of ideas owes this young man a debt of gratitude.”

Related articles

• Hacktivist: Swartz’ Death Symbolizes ‘Prosecutorial Overreach’ in US (voicerussia.com)
• RIP Aaron Swartz Legacy (thehackersmedia.blogspot.com)
• Aaron Swartz keynote – “How we stopped SOPA” . . . please take the time to read the Intro below the video . . . ~J (jhaines6.wordpress.com)
• ‘Anonymous’ hacks DOJ website to avenge Aaron Swartz (bizpacreview.com)
• Aaron Swartz stopped SOPA, his persecution political – Kim Dotcom to RT; WikiLeaks confirms relationship with Aaron Swartz (jhaines6.wordpress.com)
• Jerry Brito on How the Threat of Draconian Punishment Drove Aaron Swartz to Suicide (reason.com)
• Anonymous hacks MIT websites after Aaron Swartz’s death (go.theregister.com)
• Internet freedom activist Aaron Swartz hounded to death (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)

Anonymous Strikes Again

Hackers Take Over Gov’t Website To Avenge Swartz

 

 

” The website of the commission, an independent agency of the judicial branch, was taken over early Saturday and replaced with a message warning that when Swartz killed himself two weeks ago “a line was crossed.”

The message read in part:

Citizens of the world,
“Anonymous has observed for some time now the trajectory of justice in the United States with growing concern. We have marked the departure of this system from the noble ideals in which it was born and enshrined. We have seen the erosion of due process, the dilution of constitutional rights, the usurpation of the rightful authority of courts by the “discretion” of prosecutors. We have seen how the law is wielded less and less to uphold justice, and more and more to exercise control, authority and power in the interests of oppression or personal gain.”The hackers say they’ve infiltrated several government computer systems and copied secret information that they now threaten to make public.”

 

 

Related articles

• Anonymous takes down US Sentencing Commission website (guardian.co.uk)
• Hacktivists strike government web site, threaten massive exposure of secret U.S. documents (wgntv.com)
• Hackers take over gov’t website to avenge Aaron Swartz (cbsnews.com)
• Anonymous hacks US agency website (bbc.co.uk)
• Hackers take over gov’t website to avenge Swartz – CBS News (cbsnews.com)
• Hackers take over sentencing commission website (kansascity.com)

A Caswell Victory Over “Asset Forfeiture”

Triumphant Motel Owner Slams Carmen Ortiz

 

 

 

” A Tewksbury motel owner who just beat back U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz’s three-year bid to seize his business has become the latest critic to accuse the Hub’s top fed of prosecutorial bullying.

“I don’t think she should have the power she has to pull this stuff on people,” Russ Caswell, owner of the Motel Caswell, told the Herald last night after a judge’s ruling in his favor.

The feds first tried to grab Caswell’s property in 2009 under drug seizure laws, citing numerous drug busts at the motel. Caswell’s defense team argued that he was not responsible for what guests did. And his lawyers found there was actually more drug activity at nearby businesses, and theorized the government was going after Caswell, who has no criminal record, because his mortgage-free property is worth more than $1 million.

“It’s bullying by the government. And it’s a huge waste of taxpayer money,” said Caswell, whose father built the motel in 1955. “This has been a huge financial and physical toll. It’s thrown our whole family into turmoil. You work for all your life to pay for something and these people come along and think it’s theirs. It’s just wrong. The average person can’t afford to fight this.” ”

 

 

   Ironic that the Federal judge in the Caswell case , Carmen Ortiz , is the same one that has been thrust into the spotlight as the prosecuting attorney in the late Aaron Swartz’s case . Swartz , it should be recalled is the internet pioneer , co-founder of Reddit that was facing up to 35 years in jail and $1 million in fines when he took his own life several weeks ago . 

Related articles

• Carmen Ortiz’s Sordid Rap Sheet (whowhatwhy.com)
• Tewksbury motel owner wins battle against feds in high-profile property seizure case (bizjournals.com)
• Triumphant motel owner slams Carmen Ortiz (bostonherald.com)
• Judge Dismisses Government Seizure Attempt Of Tewksbury Motel (wbur.org)
• Mass. motel owner wins fight to stop forfeiture (sfgate.com)
• Owner wins court battle against feds trying to seize his Tewksbury motel (boston.com)
• AFP PODCAST: U.S. Gov’t Loses High-Profile Civil Forfeiture Case (americanfreepress.net)
• Swartz didn’t face prison until feds took over case, report says (oddonion.com)
• New Questions for Aaron Swartz’s Prosecutor, Whose Career Is Filled with Cases of Picking on the Weak (alternet.org)

Anonymous Strikes MIT

Anonymous Hacktivists Target MIT Websites Over Aaron Swartz Suicide

 

 

 

” Hackers claiming affiliation with Anonymous, a loose-knit group of internet activists, defaced pages on MIT websites, calling the case against Mr Swartz “a grotesque miscarriage of justice”.

“Whether or not the government contributed to his suicide, the government’s prosecution of Swartz was a grotesque miscarriage of justice, a distorted and perverse shadow of the justice that Aaron died fighting for – freeing the publicly-funded scientific literature from a publishing system that makes it inaccessible to most of those who paid for it – enabling the collective betterment of the world through the facilitation of sharing – an ideal that we should all support,” it said.

“Aaron’s act was undoubtedly political activism; it had tragic consequences.”

The message, labelled “in memoriam”, was posted on at least two hacked MIT web pages, but the hackers said they did not “consign blame or responsibility upon MIT for what has happened”. ”

 

 

Related articles

• Anonymous hacks MIT web site after death of web activist Aaron Swartz (venturebeat.com)
• Anonymous hacks MIT web pages in tribute to Aaron Swartz (thenextweb.com)
• Anonymous hacks MIT after Aaron Swartz’s suicide (news.cnet.com)
• MIT website hacked after pledge to investigate Aaron Swartz case (wired.co.uk)
• MIT Probes Role in Case Leading to Web Activist’s Death – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
• RIP Aaron Swartz (youviewed.com)
• Anonymous replaces MIT websites with Aaron Swartz memorial, calls for copyright reform (theverge.com)

RIP Aaron Swartz

Reddit Co-Founder Commits Suicide

 

 

Picture of Aaron Swartz (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

” The Internet genius behind the popular Web site Reddit.com committed suicide at his Brooklyn home today, police sources and friends said.

Cops discovered Aaron Swartz unconscious at 9:30 a.m. and are now investigating whether he hanged himself, law enforcement sources said.

Swartz helped create Reddit and drafted an early version of the RSS format, a “Web feed” that syndicates popular headlines.

Friends yesterday called him a prolific intellectual — and a computer geek legend — who had long suffered from depression.

“We have lost someone today who had more work to do — and who made the world a better place,” his pal Cory Doctorow wrote on the blog Biong Boing.

Swartz was also an avid Internet activist, who pushed to make web files open to the public. He opposed the “Stop Online Piracy Act,” which keeps hackers from swiping web content such as music and movies. “

Related articles

• Co-Founder Of Reddit.com Commits Suicide (losangeles.cbslocal.com)
• Former Reddit Co-Owner and Internet Activist Aaron Swartz Commits Suicide (gizmodo.com)
• Aaron Swartz, co-founder of Reddit, dead at 26 (thestar.com)
• Tech Prodigy and Internet Activist Aaron Swartz Commits Suicide (business.time.com)
• Aaron Swartz Commits Suicide (news.slashdot.org)
• Hacker and Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz dies (theverge.com)

Photo of Ridiculously Photogenic Homeless Guy

Goes Viral

  ” Internet meme generators have found a new subject for the ongoing Ridiculously Photogenic meme series, 30-year-old Rafael Nunes. A photo of The Ridiculously Photogenic Homeless Guy from Brazil has gone viral online.

The Ridiculously Photogenic meme series began with the “Ridiculously Photogenic Guy,” moved on to the “Ridiculously Photogenic Girl,” and then on to the “Ridiculously Photogenic Puppy.” Now we have the Ridiculously Photogenic Homeless Guy.

The Huffignton Post reports that according to the Portuguese language website Reidaverdade.com, the photo of Rafael Nunes was snapped by a tourist in the Brazilian town of Curitiba. The photo has gone viral on Facebook, Imgur and Reddit.”

Related articles

• Do you guys remember “Ridiculously photogenic homeless guy”? Well, i’m from his town and we started a campaign to get him off the streets. This morning we got him on a 8 month crack re-hab program. (imgur.com)
• Ridiculously Photogenic Homeless Guy Snapshot Goes Viral (news.softpedia.com)
• Top 5 Funniest Internet Meme Costumes (techeblog.com)
• The Ridiculously Photogenic Football Player Meme (buzzfeed.com)
• Most Photogenic Dog on the Internet (savingbenji.com)
• The life of New Zealand’s latest criminal celebrity: the ridiculously photogenic Daniel Tohill (Lohill) (ridiculouslyinteresting.com)
• How to Use YouTube, Email, and Facebook to Make $10,000 (blogs.constantcontact.com)