As far as technophiles seeking political office go, Jack Dorsey is taking the opposite approach from Sheryl Sandberg.

Ms. Sandberg’s new book may read like the source material for a campaign platform, but on a recent 60 Minutes appearance, she evaded questions about leaning in to the White House. Mr. Dorsey, on Read More

Those kinds of self-interested parties have been circling around the tech scene for years. But perhaps the downward turn in startup financing is bringing back the sharp elbows that didn’t serve as well in a “party round” atmosphere. 
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Less importantly, but no less indicative about the direction this country is heading, the inauguration also elevated the “selfie” onto the political stage. Literally.
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Through an intuitive search bar, users can easily sort all that data buried in “About” sections or deep the Timeline archives. Yelp can’t tell you which Indian restaurants your friends from India like. And, try as Search Plus Your World might, it wouldn’t be able to help you fill a Google+ circle with librarian friends who also like Beyoncé.
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The post claimed that CNET’s editorial staff, which votes on the award, crowned Dish Network’s Hopper set-top box device the winner. But before the staff could reveal its decision, CBS–CNET’s parent company–interceded because of litigation filed by CBS and other networks over the Hopper’s ability to skip past commercials.
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Unfortunately, the story is a write-around, which means Mr. Blodget didn’t get access to Mr. Zuckerberg–natural during the quiet period. And if you’ve read David Kirkpatrick’s The Facebook Effect, seen Zuck sweat on stage with Kara Swisher, perused Ken Auletta’s excellent profile of Sheryl Sandberg, or can name the founders of Andreessen Horowitz, there isn’t much news to report.

We did, however, enjoy Mr. Blodget’s opaque nod to that time he got banned for life from the securities industry for pumping up stocks in public, while he was bad-mouthing them in private:  Read More

“They murdered my dog in cold blood,” he told told News Channel 5 in Belize, adding that 30 armed officers from GSU showed up at his home, took his passport, and arrested him all for a trumped up weapons charge. “It began, innocently enough, with my refusal to donate to the local political boss of the district where I lvied [sic],” he claims. Read More

That’s the nightmarish world depicted by Kickstriker, a hoax built by a group of NYU grad students from the Tisch School’s ITP program for Clay Shirky’s tech communications class. The object of the fake site is to get people to think about “how a world of crowdfunded warfare might not be so far away,” reports Wired.  Read More

Mr. Ellis via Kickstarter

The last time we checked in on The Canyons, the micro-budget noir written by Bret Easton Ellis and directed by Paul Schrader, Mr. Ellis was talking up your girlfriend's favorite porn star James Deen to play one of the film's leads. A very Post-Empire move, if you ask him. (Not familiar with Mr. Ellis's theory? Here's a good rule of thumb: The Hills is Empire, Jersey Shore is post.)

The movie's financing strategy, however, might be even more low-brow, brilliant. A few hours ago, Braxton Pope, the film's producer, formerly of Lionsgate, posted a fund-raising campaign for The Canyons on Kickstarter with the goal of raising $100,000.

Kickstarter, which is having something of a moment, has been kind to the movie industry. Recently, cofounder Yancey Strickler revealed that Kickstarter had funded 4,500 films since it launched, seventeen of which premiered at Sundance this past January. A few were even nominated or short-listed for an Oscar. But we don't recall hearing anyone of Mr. Schrader's stature trying out the site. In case you missed entire swaths of the seventies and eighties, Mr. Schrader wrote Taxi Driver and Raging Bull and wrote and directed American Gigolo.

In the few hours that it's been on Kickstarter, The Canyons has already raised almost $5,000 from more than 40 backers. The perks sound like any fanboy's, or Tisch student's, dream. Pledge $5,000 or more and Mr. Ellis will read and review your novel, "and have that review appear on an international blog or website. (TBD)." Way cheaper than an MFA! But be careful what you wish for. Mr. Schrader is offering a similar package for the same price. "Have your script covered by Paul Schrader: -- Notes to be delivered in person (NY or LA) or skype." Sorry, Iowa! But they saved the real prize for one lucky person who pledges $10,000: a moneyclip autographed by Robert DeNiro and given to Mr. Schrader on the set of Taxi Driver, as well as "dinner with Paul," hopefully not consumed via video chat.

In our profile of Mr. Deen, Mr. Ellis talked about disavowing the standard big-budget development process. Mr. Ellis and Mr. Schrader had also collaborated in a shark horror flick called Bait, which was shut down after five years even though a crew had been hired, a boat had been found, and Emmy Rossum and Anton Yelchin had signed on the project--all because funding fell through. "The reason why [The Canyons] came about was our frustration over the development process in Hollywood and just how we’re never going to go through it again," Mr. Ellis told us in February.

According to the movie's Kickstarter page, Mr. Ellis, Mr. Schrader, and Mr. Pope are personally financing part of the film themselves through Mr. Pope's new company Sodium Fox, "in order to maintain complete creative control of the distinct source material."

If you think you could do justice to the tale of "five twenty-somethings quest for power, love, sex and success in 2012 Hollywood," check out the open auditions. As for casting the affably kinky Mr. Deen, no decision has been made, Mr. Ellis told The Observer in early April. "Paul is looking at everything that's being uploaded to Letitcast and wants James to tape an audition which we are waiting for," he said by email.

We'd like to humbly suggest another potential prize to add to their arsenal: the name of the third person who almost participated in a "coked-up" threesome with Mr. Ellis and Rielle Hunter on 13th Street "somewhere in the late 1980's," according to Mr. Ellis's oh-so-Post-Empire Twitter.

Correction: Just kidding, Pop Chips PR representatives just confirmed to Betabeat that the Forbes report was wrong. The ad went out in both markets simultaneously. The Forbes blogger merely read the UK dates wrong. And yes, as you suspected, no one is going to come out of this looking good. Including bloggers!

Yesterday, Pop Chips unveiled its latest advertising campaign. It involved having spokesman Ashton Kutcher play a variety of characters, including an Indian immigrant named “Raj,” for which Mr. Kutcher painted his face brown and affected an over-the-top accent. Last night, shortly after Anil Dash pointed out that using brownface to hawk bags of potato chips in 2012 was a sign of ingrained racism–and criminally cheeseball–Pop Chips founder and CEO Keith Belling issued an apology on the company blog.

“our team worked hard to create a light-hearted parody featuring a variety of characters that was meant to provide a few laughs,” Mr. Belling wrote in all-lower case. “we did not intend to offend anyone. i take full responsibility and apologize to anyone we offended.” Read More