Linked List: February 13, 2015

Friday, 13 February 2015

The Talk Show: ‘Rats in the Lobby’ ★

Merlin Mann returns to the show to talk about movies and shit.

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Google, Yahoo, Facebook CEOs to Skip Obama Technology Security Summit ★

Bloomberg:

The top executives of Google Inc., Yahoo! Inc. and Facebook Inc. won’t attend President Barack Obama’s cybersecurity summit on Friday, at a time when relations between the White House and Silicon Valley have frayed over privacy issues.

Facebook Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, and Google’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt all were invited but won’t attend the public conference at Stanford University, according to the companies. Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook is planning to be at the event, where Obama is scheduled to give the keynote speech and have a private lunch with a select group of attendees.

I don’t get it. How do you skip an opportunity like this?

A Journalist at the Center of the Sweet Spot ★

A.O. Scott, remembering his colleague David Carr:

He managed to see the complexities of digital-age journalism from every angle, and to write about it with unparalleled clarity and wit. His prose was a marvel of wry Midwestern plainness, sprinkled with phrases his colleagues will only ever think of as Carrisms. Something essential was “baked in.” Someone was always competing to be the tallest leprechaun.

That was how David would say he felt when he was singled out for praise. Not that he was modest. He knew his gifts, and was competitive in the way that many of us are — eager for the scoop, the juicy assignment, the front page or the front of the section. But no one was more generous in praise of his colleagues, or happier in their success.

David Carr, New York Times Critic and Champion of Media, Dies at 58 ★

I can’t say I was friends with David, but I knew him. We talked a few times a year on the phone. When he wrote about Apple he sometimes ran ideas past me. So sharp, so astute, such a good writer, and a generous, big-hearted man. What a devastating loss. My heart breaks for his family, friends, and colleagues. I miss him already.