Brandon Flowers Comments on Las Vegas Shooting

The Killers
Jason Tate

Brandon Flowers of The Killers has released a statement about the Las Vegas shooting:

I’m a Vegas boy. I always have been and — even though I just moved my wife and kids to Utah — I always will be. This past Sunday on a flight home from Australia, I flew over my hometown. Forehead to the window I looked down on Las Vegas and felt a prick of nostalgia. I thought about my mother buried below, I thought about my friends in Henderson, and I even traced Flamingo road down to where it meets the 95 and pin pointed my high school, Chaparral. I could see the city as a whole, but I couldn’t look close enough to see what was about to unfold. It’s hard to believe it’s real. My prayers go out to those whose lives were taken and to everyone else affected by this nightmare. I’m devastated for my community and for all of the people who gather together to see live music. Some of the happiest moments of my life have happened at concerts. They are a rite of passage, a holy communion, or just the kind of escape from the stress and the grind of daily life that so many people need. My heart swells when I hear the stories of people putting their lives on the line to help each other — defying the stereotypes of what people say Las Vegas is all about. We’re all long lost brothers and sisters. I miss my town, I miss my mom, I miss these victims I didn’t even know, but I look forward to getting together with you real soon to keep their memory alive.

Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. Were Close to Being Charged With Felony Fraud

Legal
Jason Tate

ProPublica:

In the spring of 2012, Donald Trump’s two eldest children, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., found themselves in a precarious legal position. For two years, prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office had been building a criminal case against them for misleading prospective buyers of units in the Trump SoHo, a hotel and condo development that was failing to sell. Despite the best efforts of the siblings’ defense team, the case had not gone away. An indictment seemed like a real possibility. The evidence included emails from the Trumps making clear that they were aware they were using inflated figures about how well the condos were selling to lure buyers.

This country is being run by the the worst people.

Dropbox Unveils New Logo and Brand

Dropbox
Jason Tate

Dropbox have announced a new logo and “brand” (and the website feels like it was written by hipster Don Draper):

Our old logo was a blue box that implied, “Dropbox is a great place to store stuff.” The new one is cleaner and simpler. And we’ve evolved it from a literal box, to a collection of surfaces to show that Dropbox is an open platform, and a place for creation.

Armin, over at Brand New (no, not that one), has a good run-down on the changes:

While there is something exciting about all the individual identity elements, concepts, and executions of each, perhaps there is too much to each of them and when they come together, it’s hard to tell what we are supposed to take away from it. Right now, you can see the new identity on this Dropbox area of their website and it all feels kind of random, from the color of the logo to the background colors to the co-creation image. I feel like I should like this more than I do and perhaps it’s my hesitation to accept Dropbox not just as file-storage but as a tool that enables and empowers me to be more creative… because it is not. It would be like saying that my portable 1 terabyte hard drive allows me to come up with ideas. It does not. The same way Dropbox does not. Which is fine as I am not expecting or looking for a product like Dropbox to inspire me.

The logo looks fine, the type looks great, but I don’t know why all the other stuff is needed. I still love me some basic Dropbox though. A folder that syncs. That’s all I want.

The NBA All-Star Game Gets an Overhaul

Basketball
Jason Tate

The NBA All-Star game is getting an overhaul. Paolo Uggetti, writing at The Ringer, describes the changes:

Instead of an East vs. West matchup, teams will be picked based on playground rules, with two captains selecting from the remaining pool of players, according to an announcement by the NBA on Tuesday.

The initial All-Star voting process will remain the same as last season: five players (two guards and three frontcourt players) from each conference will be selected by votes from fans, players, and media, and the remaining 14 players will be chosen by NBA head coaches. But now the top fan-vote-getters in each conference will be enlisted to choose, fantasy-draft style, who among the remaining 22 gets to play for which team.

Seems like a needed fix when most of the All-Stars are now in the western conference. Hopefully it makes the games a little more fun as well.

Hayley Williams Launches New “Poser Paste”

Jason Tate

Hayley Williams’s hair product company, goodDYEyoung, has launched a new styling gel called “Poser Paste.” The company describes the product:

Poser Paste is an obnoxiously beautiful styling paste in the brightest, boldest colors. Poser Paste is wear and wash – express yourself!

Poser Paste’s colors are buildable and mixable to create custom shades. Crafted with high-quality pigments, the colors will stand out on even the darkest hair colors.