In journalism, there has always been a tension between getting it first and getting it right.

Ellen Goodman (1941 - )

Ars Technica:

The Transportation Security Administration is reanalyzing the radiation levels of X-ray body scanners installed in airports nationwide, after testing produced dramatically higher-than-expected results.

They say that the difference in the radiation levels is due to a calculation error, but that the scanners are still safe and will remain in operation, for now.

From an engineering standpoint, I have to agree the radiation levels involved seem to be safe with a comfortable margin (1,000 scans are equivalent to one standard chest X-ray). But still, that is not the issue here. The issue is that the TSA has deployed an insufficiently researched technology, without any kind of medical studies backing it up. This so-called “calculation error” could have been much higher, and we only would have found out now, many months after they started operating.

From a personal standpoint, though, I don’t like those scanners one bit.

So good.

Via @kissane.

Great article by Paul Carr on how AOL didn’t actually ask TechCrunch to “tone down” their post about the marketing strategy behind the movie Source Code:

Apparently someone at Summit didn’t like the “snark” in Alexia’s post. They passed on their concerns to their Moviefone contact in the hope that, as an AOL sister site, Moviefone would be able to lean on Alexia to tone it down. Sure enough, someone at Moviefone emailed Alexia…

All in all, a great read. Paul’s honest-to-god assessment of the situation and criticism of AOL are praise-worthy:

Actually, Patricia, you only have two loyalties: one is to your readers and one is to the company that signs your paychecks. That’s it. You do not – emphatically _do not_ – have a responsibility to “stay on good terms” with movie studios. On the contrary, when a movie company asks you to try to strong-arm a college into dialing down her editorial voice, it’s in your best interests as a professional editor to tell them to go fuck themselves.

Amazing triad of ads from Mercedes-Benz: Passion, Paint and Music. Don’t forget to click through on all three of them to watch them full-size.

Via shawnblanc.net

The earthquake hit while I was working on the first floor of one of their stores.  As the entire building swayed, the staff calmly led people from the top 5 floors down to the first floor, and under the ridiculously strong wooden tables that hold up the display computers. 7 hours and 118 aftershocks later, the store was still open.  Why? Because with the phone and train lines down, taxis stopped, and millions of people stuck in the Tokyo shopping district scared, with no access to television, hundreds of people were swarming into Apple stores to watch the news on USTREAM and contact their families via Twitter, Facebook, and email.

Impressive story. People seize every opportunity to criticize Apple and the way it milks their customers’ money, but there is so much more to Apple than that. It is a company ran by people, for people; and their culture influences everything they do, not just what they sell:

Because the trains and phones were down, almost everyone who worked in Tokyo was stranded deep in the city. All the hotels were booked, the roads were jammed, so hundreds of people were instantly homeless. Apple told all of their staff - Retail AND Corporate - that they could go sleep at the Apple stores. The Senior managers at the stores had been notified earlier and unbeknownst to us, had gone out to stock up on food and drinks after the very first quake hit.

As Steve himself would say, “It’s in Apple’s DNA to act like this”.

Via @mantia.

Microsoft is not planning on releasing any further Zune devices. Instead, the company plans to focus on Zune software for smartphones.

Further proof that technology by itself is not enough, it needs to be aimed at humans. Microsoft never really understood that with the Zune. From what I’ve heard, they’re trying to change course with Windows Phone 7, and they seem to be on the right track.

Rothenberg is out as head of product for Flickr. He [tweeted](http://twitter.com/#!/mroth/status/47413775799812096) the news himself earlier today. He had been on the team for five years, dating back to when original co-founders Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake were still running the ship. They left long ago, but Rothenberg stuck around. And for the past two years, he’s been the guy in charge.

This comes right on the heels of the decision of moving Delicious on to the Sunset.

I swear, just yesterday I was this close to signing up for a Flickr Pro account. Now I guess I’ll give it some more thought and see how it plays out. Yahoo’s track record of handling its purchases is not very reassuring, to say the least.

The time to stop talking is when the other person nods his head affirmatively but says nothing.

Henry S. Haskins (1875 - 1957)

The New York Times:

What would have happened if you had decided to purchase Apple stock, which is at around $350 a share Thursday, instead of buying the company’s products when they were announced?

Really great. The huge growth of Apple’s stock, viewed as product purchases. We could all be millionaires today.

You don’t have to go too far back to see some impressive numbers. For reference, my original MacBook (Core Duo 2.0 GHz), which cost me $1,499 in 2006, would be worth $6,248 today if I had bought Apple stock instead.

Ouch.