Venture Capitalist Tries to Drum Up Support for Splitting California Into Six States

“An opportunity to be awesome.”

Sims: March on Washington

There’s certainly something to be said about the assumptions, say, Civilization builds into its simulations. Look at its winstates and what they value — technological progress, military conquest, economic superiority, and cultural domination. You don’t win by eliminating hunger or poverty or by nuclear deproliferation or by having a particularly high standard of living. You get it for, for lack of a better way to phrase this, very American goals.

Chris Franklin, from a post entitled “Keep Your Politics Out of My Video Games”

Waywire, Cory Booker’s Attempt to Build a Web Video Startup, Sells to Magnify

Booker, who is likely to win one of New Jersey’s senate seats on Wednesday, had already donated his shares in the troubled company to charity.

Political Sniping Explodes on Amazon After Obama’s Kindle Singles Interview

Reviewers at their worst.

News Byte

Instagram Seeks to Hire D.C. Outreach Manager

Instagram, the massively popular photo-sharing app owned by Facebook, wants to hire a Washington D.C.-based employee to work with “governments, politicians and political influencers on how to best use Instagram,” according to a posting on Facebook’s job listing board. The position, first spotted by AdAge, comes as Instagram seeks to amp up its relationships with journalists and news outlets, aiming to compete with Twitter for real-time relevance during major events.

Remembering Michael Hastings

I think there’s unprecedented space now in journalism to really say things that you wouldn’t have been able to get in print, or at least a large audience for, even ten years ago.

— Michael Hastings, contributing editor for Rolling Stone and reporter for BuzzFeed, in a 2012 AMA on Reddit. Hastings died in a car crash in L.A. on Tuesday.

Laurene Powell Jobs Pushes for Immigration Reform on TV, Twitter and Facebook

Broadcast TV is big. But Steve Jobs’ widow wants more reach to send her message out. Here’s the tool she’s using.

Facebook’s Gay Marriage Map

Did you switch your profile picture this week? Facebook can guess how likely you were to support gay marriage based on your age, gender and location.

Voices

GOP Taps Tech Allies to Narrow Digital Gap

The Republican Party is working with Silicon Valley investors on a venture, backed by political strategist Karl Rove, to create a digital platform for targeting voters and donors, an effort that is adding to tensions between the party’s establishment and its insurgent wings.

The FTC’s Guide to Peddling Bogus Diet Pills on Twitter

This stuff can be tricky. Pay attention!