I'm also in the hunt for a python framework. I've had a look at several, most have already been mentioned here, like Flask and web.py. Personally I'm probably going to go with custom framework built on Werkzeug or modifying Flask.
I think Tornado Web (http://www.tornadoweb.org/) might be an interesting option for you. Should be highly scalable and is being used by FriendFeed. There were some things that I didn't like about it, but I've seemed to have forgotten what exactly.
If you really want to know peoples motivation for downloading copyrighted material, or wanting copyright reform, there are countless of resources on the Internet and elsewhere. This isn't the '80s. Piracy has been common place for at least a decade now. There just isn't any reason nowadays not to know about piracy, even if you don't support it, other than ignorance.
This is of course a political move. The Swedish general election is in four months and the Pirate Party's greatest threat is not getting enough attention. As the other political parties in Sweden doesn't really understand technology and won't actively engage in these issues. In the EP election last year, two unpopular laws had gone into effect the same year and also the Pirate Bay trial had just been held months before the election.
This time around technology related legislature seem to have been postponed and the continuation of the Pirate Bay trial has conveniently been placed just weeks after the election. If the Pirate Party's ISP now decides or get forced to cut off the Pirate Bay from the Internet, they will also censor the Pirate Party, which (of course) is a political party. Sparking a lot of outrage and controversy, which previously has shown very effective for the party.
What's up with all the video chat companies "from" Sweden? Skype, Marratech and now GIPS. Might have something to do with broadband proliferation I guess.
If I'm counting correctly these photographs still retain copyright to the end of the year (in Sweden), as Albert Kahn died in 1940. Copyright in Sweden is generally uphold up until 70 years after authors death.
"So how do you get the new version? We’ve started rolling out the update to users today, however, it will take us a number of days to get it to everyone."
You get the updated version if you (re)download Spotify from the website.
The thing is that it worked. I never seen any Wikileaks story get so much attention in the news or "virally" on the Internet. Here in Sweden it was a top story on all the major newspapers websites and on the evening news, but put into context. The second part with the hellfire missile, where they didn't provide much commentary, in comparison got a lot less attention. More people than usual do seem to have watched the full material and read the related reports etc. to get the full story.
I never really got upset about Wikileaks providing commentary, because I never had the illusion that they were going to be impartial. Don't be lazy, apply some critical thinking, listen to different sources. Leaks are in their nature untrustworthy. Even intelligence agencies with all their highly educated analysts get things wrong.
Finally if you stop supporting Wikileaks because you don't like that they provide commentary, editorialize, make propaganda or whatever your view are of it. I don't really think you get what their doing or what's at stake.
I think it came across quite clearly in the video that the guys on the ground were a lot more attached to the situation. You could here it in their voices. An important part of this story that sadly won't get much attention is how badly the soldiers are treated. The sergeant could potentially have saved this guy a lot of trouble by letting him see a "mental health person".
The US isn't exactly the most gender equal country in the world, so I'll be pretty surprised if women aren't being discriminated against in the tech industry.
Like with the whole "sniffing tor exit nodes" thing [1], you do wonder if it's actually the original owners who fails to protect their data, or if it's someone else [2].
I think your reading to much into this. To me it seems like the stack exchange sites just got too little traffic to reach critical mass. Ask Metafilter is an exception to a lot of other communities which became awful as they grew.
This is how a news site like this works. If somethings get popular a lot of people will get interested in the topic and post stories about it. Then more people get interested in the topic and so on. It's also a reflection what other sites write about. I don't think somehow limiting how long a topic can be discussed will be good, as a lot of insightful stories will be posted some time after an event occurred. It will fade naturally with time as it becomes less topical.
There's always going to be people that don't find a certain topic interesting, but if something is upvoted it means that other people are. So just read the other stories that you feel interested in and when something you are interested in comes up, others can return the favor.
Also, I do think there are some "less than optimal conditions" at HN, especially for new stories. But I don't think something becoming "overly" popular is because of those conditions.
It does make a difference. Linux needs more users, both active and passive. I'm actually surprised how many people that would be the target audience for Linux have come to use OS X instead.
When I need to I've found that separating different activities helps me from getting "caught up" in the Internet. I use a HTPC to watch tv-series/web-tv and listen to music, an android phone for connecting with friends, e-reader to read books and documents. If I do need the computer I mainly use my laptop without wifi, and plug it in when I need to access the Internet briefly.
I do use my desktop computer for gaming, surfing the web and other purely recreational activities, but at least I'm not kidding myself when I do. Before I would tell myself that I was doing something useful, while I would get into the "loop" you're talking about. Now I read and watch video less, but I read and watch things I actually like.
There's also newspapers that isn't as focused on analysis as The Economist, which release on a weekly basis. Some newspapers even have international or weekly editions like The Guardian[1]. It does seem like this was a lot more common before the breakthrough of the Internet.
Also I think there's an issue with the format. I personally enjoy magazines like The Economist more in print, while it's the other way around with daily newspapers.
I think Tornado Web (http://www.tornadoweb.org/) might be an interesting option for you. Should be highly scalable and is being used by FriendFeed. There were some things that I didn't like about it, but I've seemed to have forgotten what exactly.