The Associated Press reports that facial recognition technology being considered for the upcoming 2012 Olympic Games in London is being tested by police in the aftermath of Britain’s riots. The AP’s Paisley Dodds and Raphael Satter write officers are “feeding photographs of suspects through Scotland Yard’s newly updated face-matching program” in an attempt to identify those who were responsible for the wave of riots that began in North London and quickly spread. “A law enforcement official tells The Associated Press that facial recognition is one of many tools police are using to hunt suspects still at large.”

As the relatively recently-formed Aol / HuffPo hybrid prepares to fold Aol News into the Huffington Post, the company has revealed that it will replace Jai Singh with longtime “HuffPostian” Nico Pitney as the sites’ managing editor.

Aol / HuffPost wants freelancers with professional journalism backgrounds to come on board as staffers. According to TechCrunch, the company does not view the ability to blog – not even about adorable kitten antics – as synonymous with journalism. Who’da thunk?

The post-Super Bowl news drop that AOL and the Huffington Post were merging into the most bizarre internet media conglomerate in recent memory took most of those in the news world by storm, and the Fox News Watch panel appeared as confused as anyone else. While many questioned the size of the merger and the potential impact on content already part of the AOL media network, the main question for the Fox News Watch team concerned Arianna Huffington‘s recent comments on objectivity– namely, that she practices it.

Wow. The rumors are true: AOL is buying TechCrunch, and it’s going down at TechCrunch Disrupt right now, with TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington and AOL CEO Tim Armstrong taking the stage to announce the purchase.

More details TK. In the meantime, here’s the press release announcing the purchase: (yoinked from MediaMemo)

Here’s the thing: A headline on TechCrunch reading: “Women in Tech: Look Around the World and Stop Complaining” is meant to be inflammatory. I get it. I certainly would not have clicked on just the URL: http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/14/how-did-i-get-more-bullish-on-chinese-innovation-than-kai-fu-lee. No offense to Kai Fu Lee, but that’s not sexy, controversial, muscle-flexy, bird-flippy. HEY YOU UNGRATEFUL WOMEN, STOP [...]

Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz is known for telling it like it is. For those wondering, that means she drops the F bomb a lot. Good for her. If only more CEOs used gutter talk instead of PR talk, the world would probably be a much better place. It’s no surprise then that a discussion between Bartz and TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington in New York today ended up getting a little blue.

Some programmers have created a website to show just how low the online presence of the “most trusted name in news” has fallen. The creators of WTF CNN have made the simplest criticism ever. They let the website speak for itself, side by side with other news sites and, guess what, CNN.com doesn’t look that good.

Earlier today we reported that the NY Times got punked by a law blogger’s April Fools trick and now, it seems, they also just didn’t get or enjoy another one that was about themselves. Yesterday, the science and technology blog TechCrunch pulled a few pranks for the holiday. Their final one included posting an article about the Times announcing their iPad app. The joke was though, that the post was actually a reprinting of the Times ‘ own article from 1996 touting their first web site appearing on that “World Wide Web” thing that was so hot back then.

The oft-discussed “cataclysmic shift” in print and digital publishing circles has mostly been hyperbole. Until now. With the imminent launch of Apple’s iPad, and the numerous slick demos that have been revealed for any or all tablet versions in the last few months, that cataclysmic shift is upon us, and if there is any consensus in the publishing world, it’s that it’s all very much a work in progress. Case in point: what is the function of an magazine cover for an iPad?

Yesterday, an Italian court convicted three high-ranking Google executives of violating the privacy of an autistic child. The three were given suspended sentences of six months’ imprisonment.

This week, TechCrunch fired Daniel Brusilovsky, an intern in the throes of his Senior year of high school, for requesting a Macbook Air in exchange for writing a post about a start-up–after he’d already received one computer for the same thing.

This morning, TechCrunch stumbled across a time capsule: a brand-new video promoting Friendster, touting its upgrade that, it appears, makes it function like the MySpace of eight years ago. They miss, though, the Secret Hidden Message™ of the video. That being: Asians only, please.

Twitter has been declared the most popular word of 2009 meaning, I presume, that in less than 12 months the act of Twittering has gone so mainstream that even your parents know what you’re talking about. It also means that this is how a whole lot of people are getting their breaking news these days — from the collective voice of God, as it were.

Apparently shifting the media landscape in record time isn’t enough to keep you busy — there’s free time to plan somewhat elaborate pranks on one another! Yesterday TechCrunch‘s Jason Kincaid noticed a “fax” icon on the photos on his Facebook account and, after confirming with this new feature with his cohorts, he promptly filed a post titled Facebook Now Lets You Fax Your Photos. I Have No Idea Why Anyone Would Want To Do This. Turns out that it was a joke!

TechCrunch reports that “Facebook grew twice as fast as Twitter in July;” To back this up, they produce an official-looking Comcast chart which documents Facebook’s impressive climb (below). The story was quickly picked up by The Washington Post and HuffPo among others, but did anyone stop to consider the premise that it makes sense to compare Facebook and Twitter at all?

In a fascinating Washington Post column this week, TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington described how AOL is scooping up some of the best print reporters from short-sighted print publications. Is racking up writing talent part of Tim Armstrong’s vision for preparing the massive online entity for spin-off?

The newest addition to the raging debate over “how can we save media!” is Michael Arrington’s suggestion today that the New York Times top journos should wise up, depart the (sinking) mother-ship and launch their own Politico-esqu news organization. But isn’t he missing the point?

Media mogulet (mogulito?) Michael Arrington has chimed in on Sun Valley’s ongoing, Illuminati-esque gathering of media panjandrums — and the result is more or less a geyser of envy and vituperation. Pity the poor TechCrunch founder peering over the windowsill, one thumb hooked thorough the shoulder of his overalls, wanting nothing more than to go [...]