Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 966

The Lengths Mass-Mailers Are Going to Stay Out of Gmail's Promotions Tab

Since Google pushed out its new tabbed email design earlier this summer, organizations that make lots of money off of marketing emails have moved beyond the grumbling phase, and have started trying to get out of that promotions tab, which siphons the money-making messages away from the best inbox real-estate. In the new (entirely optional for now) version of Gmail, the default "Promotions" tab collects all of "your deals, offers, and other promotional emails." That means messages from Seamless, Groupon, and any other peddling entity don't land in the "Primary" tab, where the most important and most opened emails land. While few consumers are worried about that they might not see emails hawking deals and menu items — it's nice of Google to filter out the junk for us — non-profit organizations that raise money for worthy causes by sending out pleas to large But, non-profits have also found their emails relegated to the tab. While some have argued the alarm is overblown, these organizations have started acting. Here's how:

The Clever Email Tactic 

Hoping to catch the eye of people who actually open marketing emails, certain companies have decided to put a plea right in the email, like this message from Seamless to Buzzfeed's Hilary Reinsberg. 

[image error]

Groupon and SnagaJob.com have used similar tactics, hoping to entice the valued customer who bothered to click over to promotions and open the message. But that's just a temporary solution. To get a more permanent fix, these organizations are asking more of these precious eye-balls than just a quick read. 

Primary Tab Status 

As you can see in that Seamless email it says: "Put us in your primary tab, so that you don't miss out on future discounts." It just takes one click for users to move an organization from "Promotions" to Primary, which is exactly what the vice chair of the Texas Association of Nonprofit Organizations is suggesting. A simple drag and drop from one tab to the inbox ensures emails from that company always arrive in the right place. It's pretty easy as this Groupon email with instructions shows:

[image error]

That, of course, assumes people want their Groupon emails in the main inbox spot. 

The Email Reply Campaign

The non-profit Azaaz has asked its readers for a little more than a simple drag and drop. It wrote the following in an email:

Replying now is the simplest way to send a signal to Gmail that you want to receive Avaaz emails. And if we all do, it could show Gmail that Avaaz is valuable, and help ensure that thousands of members who might miss this email to still receive Avaaz alerts, and have a chance to continue to take action with us.

It's unclear if this tactic works or not. But, the idea is that if a lot of people reply to these emails they no longer fall into "promotional messages" but get a higher priority. 

As of now it's not clear that the new Gmail set-up will change click through and open rates for marketing emails. The new Gmail tabs are optional, after-all. But, as users get used to ignoring those other tabs and better managing the emails they don't want, non-profits and businesses alike want to make sure they get into the right folders — before Gmail starts charging for that privilege, just like Facebook. 

       

What to Expect if British Authorities Detain You for Nine Hours

David Miranda, the partner of journalist Glenn Greenwald, outlined the nine hours he spent in the custody of British authorities at a London airport over the weekend, blaming the incident on the United States. A presidential spokesperson denied involvement on Monday.

Miranda was detained at Heathrow airport en route from Berlin to his home in Rio de Janeiro. He described the incident to The Guardian, the media outlet that employs Greenwald and which paid for Miranda's trip to Germany.

"They were threatening me all the time and saying I would be put in jail if I didn't co-operate," said Miranda. "They treated me like I was a criminal or someone about to attack the UK … It was exhausting and frustrating, but I knew I wasn't doing anything wrong." …

"I was in a different country with different laws, in a room with seven agents coming and going who kept asking me questions. I thought anything could happen. I thought I might be detained for a very long time," he said.

Miranda, who speaks English as a second language, was denied the opportunity to use an interpreter during the detention. He was offered a lawyer and a cup of water, both of which he declined. (The anonymous official who called Greenwald in the middle of the detention told the reporter that Miranda was not allowed an attorney.) Miranda was not allowed to call his partner, and says that the authorities "used the words 'prison' and 'station' all the time." After eight hours, he was allowed to buy a Coke.

While The Guardian notes that Miranda "believes the British authorities were doing the bidding of the US," Miranda's critique largely focused on British authorities: "[Y]ou can't go to a country where they have laws that allow the abuse of liberty for nothing."

During a daily press gathering at the White House, administration spokesman Josh Earnest denied any involvement by the U.S., according to Politico. "This is a decision that they made on their own and not at the request of the United States," Earnest insisted. However, he did indicate that the United States had been told Miranda would be stopped, according to CNN.

Earnest was not able to say if the United States had access to the files collected from Miranda. His trip to Berlin was, in The Guardian's description, to "ferry" files between Greenwald and filmmaked Laura Poitras, who lives in the German city. Miranda's description of the incident suggests that it was those files in which the British authorities were primarily interested. They asked Miranda for the passwords to his devices, eventually confiscating them. Miranda told The Guardian that he didn't know what the files were, adding that "[I]t could have been for the movie that Laura is working on."

In a New York Times Magazine article over the weekend, Poitras described the way in which she encrypted any files before traveling. The Telegraph reports that the files being carried by Miranda were similarly encrypted — likely limiting their utility to British or American authorities.

Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, offered more detail on the relationship between the paper and Miranda — and the paper and the British government.

Miranda is not a journalist, but he still plays a valuable role in helping his partner do his journalistic work. .. [I]t would be highly unadvisable for Greenwald (or any other journalist) to regard any electronic means of communication as safe. The Guardian's work on the Snowden story has involved many individuals taking a huge number of flights in order to have face-to-face meetings. Not good for the environment, but increasingly the only way to operate.

According to Rusbridger, GCHQ, the British intelligence service, and the government ("Whitehall") also intimidated the paper itself.

The mood toughened just over a month ago, when I received a phone call from the centre of government telling me: "You've had your fun. Now we want the stuff back." There followed further meetings with shadowy Whitehall figures. The demand was the same: hand the Snowden material back or destroy it. I explained that we could not research and report on this subject if we complied with this request. The man from Whitehall looked mystified. "You've had your debate. There's no need to write any more." ...

And so one of the more bizarre moments in the Guardian's long history occurred – with two GCHQ security experts overseeing the destruction of hard drives in the Guardian's basement just to make sure there was nothing in the mangled bits of metal which could possibly be of any interest to passing Chinese agents.

The Times Magazine article on Poitras also noted the ways in which she had been subject to harassment and confiscation while traveling, seemingly echoed in the treatment of Miranda. Police records indicate that Miranda was detained at 8:05 a.m. and released at 5:00 p.m. — five minutes shy of the legal limit for detaining a suspect under the UK's terror law.

In his initial description of Miranda's situation, Greenwald excoriated that law.

They completely abused their own terrorism law for reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism: a potent reminder of how often governments lie when they claim that they need powers to stop "the terrorists", and how dangerous it is to vest unchecked power with political officials in its name.

Photo: Greenwald and Miranda embrace on the latter's arrival in Rio. (Reuters)

       

Guantanamo Bay Will Now Allow Stephen King's 'It'

Anyone who's grown up with The Shawshank Redemption knows the value of a prison library—perhaps none more than the story's author, Stephen King. So it should come as heartening news (or as heartening as any news concerning a detention facility for alleged terrorists can be) that Guantanamo Bay will now accept a previously rejected copy of the writer's beloved 1986 novel It.

The book arrived as part of a private donation, which included about 70 books in new condition, the Miami Herald reports. It was the only one rejected, without explanation, after vetting by a library contractor who is not named Brooks:

A contractor named Milton who has managed the library in recent years tells visiting reporters that he screens books and videos and sometimes excludes those with violent or sexual themes. Itincludes a sex scene between a 12-year-old girl and five boys of about the same age, one after another, which apparently didn’t bother whoever was functioning as censor in 2008.

As it turns out, the book was already approved five years ago and another copy has been floating around the library ever since, so the banning was pointless as well as erroneous.

King's novel is not the only one barred from entry at Guantanamo in recent weeks. In a New York Times op-ed last week, popular crime writer John Grisham revealed that his novels have been banned at the prison for containing "impermissible content," whatever that might entail. Grisham wrote of an Algerian prisoner named Nabil Hadjarab who has spent much of his time in solitary confinement and who particularly enjoys Grisham's books. He will not likely be reading them any time soon.

But, as The Times reported in June, the prison library does contain about 9,000 titles, ranging from Arabic translations of Gabriel García Márquez and Danielle Steel to Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. Those 9,000 selections have all made it past the screening process, which sniffs out "too much profanity, anti-American or extremist themes." And the prison's most popular choice suggests that prisoners' literary tastes don't deviate too much from the rest of society—like us, they can't get enough of Fifty Shades of Grey.

       

Can The Soundtrack Of 'Inside Llewyn Davis' Succeed Independently?

The Coen brothers are hoping the music for December's Inside Llewyn Davis—the already highly praised story of a struggling folk singer—can live (and thrive) independently of the film.

Earlier today, film duo and producer Scott Rudin announced that they'll be holding a flashy fall benefit concert "celebrating" the music of the film at Town Hall in New York. The concert—deemed "Another Day Another Time," after a lyric in the Bob Dylan song "Farewell"—will feature cast members from the film like Carey Mulligan and John Goodman performing alongside classic folk artists like Joan Baez and the genre's latest stars, the Punch Brothers. (Patti Smith and Jack White will also be there because, why not?) Although concert tie-in for a movie sounds like something from the mind of Glee, this should be a distinctly adult affair. And a standalone one at that: The concert, scheduled for September 29, is taking place months before the movie debut on December 6. 

Certainly, it's not unusual for a soundtrack to become as much of a phenomenon as the film in which it's featured. Anna Kendrick's rendition of "Cups" from 2012's Pitch Perfect has had an improbable life of its own. The Jay Z-produced music from director Baz Luhrmann's Great Gatsby debuted in second place on the Billboard charts. And, of course, T. Bone Burnett's soundtrack for the Coens' 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou? gave the bluegrass of the 1930s an audience it hadn't had in decades. (The album, which was released within the same month as the movie, went platinum multiple times and won the Grammy for Album of the Year.)

The Inside Llewyn Davis soundtrack's chances for success will also be helped by the fact that folk music isn't as foreign to consumers of popular music as it used to be. Bands with folk-y sounds like The Lumineers and Mumford & Sons have found chart success and won Grammy Awards. (Fans of the latter group will have particular reason to pay attention to Inside Llewyn Davis: the band's lead singer, Marcus Mumford, serves as one of the soundtrack's producers and is married to Carey Mulligan.) Still, the track listing for Llewyn isn't made up solely of radio ready songs. It focuses heavily on arrangements of traditional tunes, like "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me" and  "Dink's Song," both of which have been performed by Dave Van Ronk, who served as the inspiration for the film.

As for the film itself, it will likely be a hit on its own terms, having already won raves at Cannes — France 24's Jon Frosch called it "Fargo-level good." But it's worth noting that, by holding the accompanying concert so early, the team behind the production is asking audiences to accept the story and the soundtrack as individual works of art. (Though it was reported that the soundtrack would be released September 17, it looks like it'll be closer to mid-November.) Burnett, for his part, tells the New York Times today that the concert is intended to "bring together the community that had done the music...so there would be some synergy between the music and the film." Or the film and the music.

       

The Feud Between Barnes & Noble and Simon & Schuster Is Finally Over

Barnes & Noble and Simon & Schuster have finally reached an agreement after months of squabbling over book pricing and other matters, reports to Publishers Weekly, noting that "the issue was causing a noticeable cutback in the number of [Simon & Schuster] titles the bookseller had on its shelves." 

Publishers Weekly first reported in January that Barnes & Noble has reduced its order of Simon & Schuster titles over "perceived lack of support" from the publishing company. In March, a senior executive familiar with the negotiations told The New York Times that Barnes & Noble "wanted to [image error]pay less for books and receive more money for giving titles prominent display in its stores." Authors told The Times that Barnes & Noble — which recently lost CEO Bill Lynch — was also refusing to allow author tours in its stores and limiting Simon & Schuster display space.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the two companies also disagreed over who would handle the cost of in-store promotion and e-book discounts. 

Part of Barnes & Noble's semi-boycott included ordering hardly any titles from lesser-known authors. M.J. Rose, author of Seduction, told The Journal she was relieved the dispute was settled. "Without any visibility of the books in Barnes & Noble, sales were drastically reduced," Rose told the Journal. "People assumed they weren't out, or they forgot about them." Even book sales for superstar authors like Jodi Picoult were hit, her agent told The Times. 

This resolution is especially good news for authors with books coming out this fall — for example, Stephen King, whose The Shining follow-up Doctor Sleep comes out next month, or David Shields and Shane Salerno, who'll drop Salinger, their biography of the author, on September 3. 

       

Westboro Baptist Took on Ke$ha — and Lost

We realize there's only so much time one can spend in a day watching new trailers, viral video clips, and shaky cellphone footage of people arguing on live television. This is why, every day, The Atlantic Wire highlights the videos that truly earn your five minutes (or less) of attention. Today:

Here's one lesson that the bigots at the Westboro Baptist Church learned the hard way: when you mess with Ke$ha, you get the horns she might turn the tables and actually make you listen to her music. Har har. Actually, it's a lot worse than that; you might find yourself in a dance battle that you can't ever hope to win: 

In this short video, you will find all the reasons no one at The Atlantic Wire plays pickup basketball. Mind you, if The Wire did have a basketball team, we'd have a legitimate center, with half-giant Philip Bump clocking in at 6'4": 

Reason #1,298,539 that we wish we were Kid President:

And, finally, here is a kitten who can't stop rolling over. Four more days until Friday, right?

       

Bob Filner Might Want to Trade His Office for His Freedom

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner may be negotiating with the city attorney on a deal that would include his stepping down, 10News reports. Last week, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that California's attorney general was working with the San Diego sheriff on possible criminal charges. The 10News report offers some possible insight into why Filner has insisted on staying in office, despite being accused of inappropriate touching or sexual harassment by 16 women.

Deals trading political office for lighter legal response are a proud American tradition. A quick search for "plea deal resign from office" yields a number of examples. Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick resigning as part of a deal following obstruction of justice charges. A sheriff in Idaho. The New York state comptroller. The lieutenant governor of South Carolina. Former California congressman Duke Cunningham.

Had Filner resigned before reaching a deal, he would have lost that point of leverage. That's assuming that the negotiations are happening — the report is based on multiple anonymous sources. Those sources placed the mayor at the building housing the San Diego offices of the U.S. Attorney.

Over the weekend, the group advocating for a recall of Filner began its push to collect the 100,000-plus signatures needed to get the issue on the ballot, according to the Los Angeles Times. It's a goal that the group would need to meet within 39 days.

Filner is not without his champions. Supporters held a rally in San Diego today offering the public assurances about their mayor.

letter just read at pro-Filner rally with woman saying he's known him 30 years, "and he never sexually harassed me."

— Rick Klein (@rickklein) August 19, 2013

A sign at the pro-Filner rally: "Injustice here is injustice every where - mlk" pic.twitter.com/XpCahMBUUY

— Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) August 19, 2013

Pro-Filner rally speaker calls multiple accusations of sexual harassment against mayor McCarthyism

— Kyle Trygstad (@KyleTrygstad) August 19, 2013

With friends like this, a plea deal sounds like a decent option.

Via Talking Points Memo.

       

Buzz Builds for Samantha Shannon's 'The Bone Season'

Samantha Shannon's The Bone Season, a dystopian novel that follows a 19-year-old clairvoyant in 2059 London, is being published tomorrow to almost unimaginably high expectations.

A steady drumbeat of press for the 21-year-old's debut has led to comparisons to nearly every mainstream female fantasy and sci-fi novelist with name recognition.  

In an interview published online today, Vanity Fair breathlessly suggested that The Bone Season (the first in a seven-novel series) will stir up "a Hunger Games–like frenzy and blockbuster franchise," making Shannon the new Suzanne Collins. Not to be outdone, The Independent called her the next E.L. James, even though there is no suggestion that The Bone Season is overtly pornographic. There have also been comparisons to Divergent by Veronica Roth, since Roth also got a film deal for a sci-fi novel she wrote as an undergraduate.

[image error]The seven book series, to be published by Bloomsbury (as in, Harry Potter Bloomsbury) earned Shannon, a completely untested new author, a reported six-figure advance for the first three books. And the particulars of the series — Bloomsbury, seven books, the fact that she's a Brit  — have lead to a flurry of comparisons to the queen of the blockbuster YA-novel: J.K. Rowling. It's a comparison she says she has mixed feelings about. Shannon recently told Vulture that The Bone Season is a darker, more morally ambiguous series:

“I was born in 1991, and Harry Potter came out in ’97, so, you know, I was really obsessed. I used to read them in one night. [...] I think it’s just because it was seven fantasy books with Bloomsbury that the comparison came out,” Shannon explains. “But The Bone Season is violent. There’s sex.”

And she told Vanity Fair that she'd rather be her own person:

I am obviously a massive fan [of Harry Potter], so it is kind of uncomfortable for me, because if you say that someone is the new something, it suggests that there is something wrong with the old. We don’t need a new J. K. Rowling, so, you know, I’d rather be the first Samantha Shannon.

But hype aside, reviews for The Bone Season have been good, if not exactly glowing. Stephan Lee of Entertainment Weekly gave the freshman effort a "B," writing that "even if Shannon's inexperience is evident, her potential is too. Now that she's laid the detailed groundwork for her series, future installments may soar." Jane Ciabattari at NPR is less reserved with her praise and writes that "it's terrific—intelligent, inventive, dark, and engrossing enough to keep me up late to finish." Helen Brown at The Telegraph says that "like so much recent young adult fiction, I suspect this series will appeal to the fearless teenager dwelling within many adults." We're about to find out.

(Screenshot and book cover via Bloomsbury.)

       

Dozens of Muslim Brotherhood Prisoners Die in Egypt as Unrest Continues

36 Muslim Brotherhood prisoners in military control died in Egypt on Sunday in what's bound to become the latest flashpoint in an ongoing conflict that's claimed over 800 lives so far. As the supporters of deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi continue to protest the military overthrow of Egypt's government, the interim leaders of the country try to dial back rhetorically on their crackdown against the protesters.

There are two stories circulating concerning the deaths of the Muslim Brotherhood prisoners. The first, from the government, explains that the prisoners were suffocated by tear gas during a prison escape attempt. But Muslim Brotherhood leaders say that the prisoners were killed by asphyxiation in the back of a security van. Over 1,000 Muslim Brotherhood loyalists have been arrested since the military crackdown began on Wednesday. Morsi, along with a handful of former leaders of the Islamist elected government, are being detained. The prisoners were reportedly detained during Saturday's raid on a Cairo mosque that had housed pro-Morsi demonstrators.

On Sunday, General Abdul Fattah al-Sisi told Egyptians that "there is room for everyone" in the country, adding that he hoped Morsi's supporters would "rebuild the democratic path" with the rest of the country as part of the political process. Al-Sisi, popular among the myriad supporters of the military takeover of the government,  was immortalized in some unbelievable propaganda today, using a template from Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Egyptian newspaper uses template of a Larry David add to promote General Sisi pic.twitter.com/VMAqyUCOBZ not a joke

— David D. Kirkpatrick (@ddknyt) August 18, 2013

But al-Sisi's statements don't quite gel with the prevailing message emerging out of state media, which has alternately referred to Muslim Brotherhood supporters as "terrorists." The government is also considering a proposal that would effectively outlaw the group in the country, which would more or less bring the Islamist supporters of Morsi back to their semi-exile of Mubarak's rule.

As the political battle between Islamist Morsi loyalists and more or less everyone else in the country unfolds, attacks on the Christian minority in the population have been getting worse. The attackers, largely hard-line Islamist supporters of Mohamed Morsi, have burned dozens of churches across the country. As the Associated Press reports, some Morsi supporting groups believe that Christians in the country played an outsized role in the protests against the Islamist president, and are taking out their anger on the long-targeted communities.

While many of the planned protests today were cancelled, Muslim Brotherhood leaders have called for a week of daily demonstrations against the Egyptian military.

       

Scott Brown Might Run For President

On Sunday, former Massachusetts senator Scott Brown told supporters that he was "exploring a possible run” for the 2016 presidency. Brown, who surprised everyone by winning a special election to fill Ted Kennedy's senate seat (which he then lost to Elizabeth Warren), remains a model for some Republicans who wish the GOP could have more Brown-style election surprises (the good kind) in states like Massachusetts, which is usually as blue as a serene ocean view.

The former senator is also rumored to be a candidate for the 2014 gubernatorial race in the state, which has a history of electing Republicans as governor. He also left the door open to a run for senate in New Hampshire. But he sort of laid his presidential aspirations on the table by attending the Iowa State Fair this weekend, which is where he made today's remarks. From his Tiwtter account, it looks like he's enjoying himself:

At @IowaGOP saying hello and then getting ready to eat some food and put on some pounds. pic.twitter.com/kyCNb3IgFO

— Scott P. Brown (@ScottBrownMA) August 18, 2013

Brown told the Des Moines Register prior to his trip that he was "going to be coming out more often to try to determine whether there’s an interest in my brand of leadership and Republicanism." And then he gave a campaign speech:

I want to understand the challenges and the opportunities and the aspirations of the people in the Midwest and how they view us and vice versa. I want to see if there’s interest in my brand of politics, being a strong national security hawk and a fiscal conservative. The way I see it, hey, there’s plenty of room for people in the party like me and Sarah Palin and Rand Paul and Chris Christie, yet we’re always attacking each other for not fitting some ideologically pure mold.

While there's a decent argument to be made for Scott Brown's Scott-Brown-y-ness being more a result of the terrible campaign run by his first democratic opponent, Martha Coakley, rather than his own political magic, it looks like the former senator is hoping that the memory of his surprise win (which still gets invoked as the "...Next Scott Brown" meme) might help him get support from the national party.