The Metro, a chain of commuter tabloids handed out free in New York City (and other places), this morning led with a macabre story – the discovery of the skeleton of a woman missing since late 2008. Laura Garza was last seen alive on December 3, 2008, leaving a nightclub in the company of a convicted sex offender. The discovery of her body near Scranton is, of course, as bad an ending as such stories can have.

On Monday, finalists for the Mirror Awards — the Newhouse School’s annual honoring of excellence in writing about journalism and the media — were announced, featuring some of the best writers and thinkers in our industry, including our own Philip Bump.

The work of the finalists is excellent. One of our writers was nominated. So why do you sense that there’s a “but” coming?

Sigh. Because there is. Actually, two.

Yesterday was a rather historic day in the world of social media: Facebook unveiled Open Graph, efforts to build a true social web infrastructure that provides metadata everything: websites, photos, anything with a fan page – everything will have an array of likes, friends, and recommendations that are stored within what Facebook calls the social graph. It also shows how Facebook is pushing people outside of their comfort zones.

Kweli was in You don’t mess with these hip-hop dudes. Melbourne Saturday doing a show with Jean Grae. The next day, trouble. But not for the forces of justice, thanks to Twitter, Facebook, and an innate respect for OPP.

We first noted that Dale Robertson was quoted as saying that he had never seen racial slurs at a Tea Party event, even though he had been photographed holding one. Robertson then alleged that the photo must have been faked, although our expert disagreed. Since posting that article, however, numerous sources have contacted me with admissions by Robertson that the photo is real. After the jump, an arsenal of smoking guns.

Last week we reported on a photograph of self-proclaimed Tea Pary founder Dale Robertson holding a sign featuring a racist (and misspelled) slur. In an exclusive interview with Mediaite, Robertson claims that the sign had been digitally altered. Mediaite’s own Philip Bump, an expert on Photoshop takes an in-depth analysis of the claim of forgery.

A colleague (who is handsome and wise) recently discovered an old Media Metrix report delineating “World Wide Web Audience Ratings” for December 1998. It’s a remarkable study, categorizing thousands of sites and conglomerated web companies. all of the component elements, but it’s unrecognizable. As though they’re all brands made up for movies.

Governor Paterson’s favorite person in New York these days is probably Hiram Monserrate, the former New York State Senator whose political path has gone…awry. A few weeks ago, the Times’ J. David Goodman looked at Monserrate’s 2008 campaign website, which was still allowing comments. (The comments he was receiving were not particularly flattering.) In the piece, Goodman asked an interesting question: How many orphaned campaign sites litter the Internet? That, of course, was a challenge.

Within minutes of the earthquake just off of Chile’s coast early this morning, the US Geological Survey had it pegged – an 8+ on the Richter scale, ten times as strong as Haiti’s 7.0. A short time later, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration presented a map of expected energy distribution throughout the Pacific Ocean. [...]

I recently stumbled on a little antique market and, there, a 1977 issue of New York magazine. In this particular issue: Seattle Slew’s chances in the Triple Crown (good), the opening of Studio 54 (bananas), and a shocking review of Annie Hall. But check out the inspirational cover story for our friends in the media industry. For if you’re struggling every day to publish magazines and newspapers that, unfortunately, probably won’t be along much longer (or websites that, unfortunately, will) – at least you’re not making $23,200 a year.*

For some fairly inexplicable reason, the 2010 Census – that Constitutionally-mandated accounting of the American population that has happened every ten years since 1790 – has become a whipping boy for anti-government activists. Michele Bachmann, a member of said government, told Fox News that she wouldn’t fill out her form because of how “intrusive” it [...]

Everything I know about Chatroulette I learned in the 80s from Pretty in Pink.

As you may have heard, the government released numbers indicating that the unemployment rate dropped to 9.7% in January. Hooray! You may also have heard that the country lost 20,000 more jobs. Um, boo? Your natural reaction (as was mine) might be: how does that happen? How do we lose jobs, but still have reduced unemployment? It’s not that swine flu, is it?

I came into the lobby of my building a few weeks ago, and stumbled upon 1974. There, in a brick cube about three feet per side, were the brand new Manhattan white pages. Just off the press, wrapped in plastic, sitting and waiting for people to spirit them away. Which, of course, no one did. It’s 2010. It may as well have been a pile of typewriter ribbon or ticker tape. Even if the Internet didn’t exist (which it does) (meta!), who has a landline any more? I haven’t had a landline since I had to get one for my DSL – in 1999.

“Is that trouble or not?” That’s the question posed by Florida optometrist Jack Moss, who captured this previously unseen footage of the 1986 Challenger explosion. Watching this video so many years later has been gripping, despite the fact that the Challenger launch was broadcast live, an images of the explosion have reached near-iconic status — [...]

the fate of newspaper comics is uncertain, but guessable. Their entertainment value had already been supplanted before the Internet eviscerated their delivery mechanism. But the Internet may also be the cartoon’s salvation – from Dilbert (likely the first and last major cartoon to jump from the Internet to newsprint) to XKCD to Penny Arcade to Cyanide and Happiness, cartoons are flourishing online.

We come here not to praise the new cartoon, however, but to eulogize its predecessor.

The reason conflicts of interest are disclosed isn’t to give carte blanche for writing about things in which you have a vested economic interest – it’s to assure that, in the event a conflict is inescapable and may color a reader’s view of the piece, it isn’t ignored. Check Washington Post op-ed bylines carefully — authors may be closer to their subjects than they appear.

There’s an interesting subtext to today’s replacement election in Massachusetts for the seat vacated by Ted Kennedy: the Senate’s two best-represented demographics are facing off: a woman and a white man. How does today’s battle between Republican Scott Brown and Democratic Martha Coakley? In more ways than one might think.

In yesterday’s Sunday’s Arts section, the New York Times has an interesting piece about the role of graphic design in xenophobic public policy campaigns. It’s a slightly wonky piece, the kind that appeals to those with blended interests in politics and design. Like myself. Unfortunately for the New York Times, I’m also a bit of [...]

In 2008, Governor Sarah Palin brought in $125,000 (not counting a clothes allowance from some friends). Last year, presumably about half of that. This year, she could be on track for a whole lot more. For example, if she can keep landing cushy deals like her current cover photo for In Touch Magazine, which Page Six reports grossed her a flat $100,000. And we’re only halfway through January!

On Wednesday night, while watching 360‘s earthquake coverage, I was taken aback by Anderson Cooper‘s stopping, in the middle of his reporting, to read a name off of a sheet of paper. (That report is at left.) He explained that it had been handed to him earlier that day, from a Haitian who wanted to [...]

In forty years, even pop culture data analysis will be simple. By then, Conan’s fan base will be retired, shaking their fists at the foolish shenanigans of someone who hasn’t even been born yet. But until then, there’s Wolfram Alpha.

it’s hard to see this as a victory. Google sought, by partnering with the Chinese government, to avoid a Cold War of information. Their model was more perestroika than appeasement. In the end, they concede, their trust and optimism was defeated by the hard realities of state power.

Check out these maps of the U.S. comparing where same-sex marriage is legal vs. where it’s legal for cousins to marry – vs. where it’s legal for 13, 14, 15 yrs olds to get married. Creepy double standard much?

A big day for Brooklyn’s own Boxee: in addition to revealing more details about the previously announced Boxee Box, the company’s existing software transitioned into a public beta. Therefore, we should probably answer this question: the f*ck is Boxee?