Silicon Valley Insider has a long story on how Facebook was founded with some purportedly new accusations.

New information uncovered by Silicon Alley Insider suggests that some of the complaints against Mark Zuckerberg are valid. It also suggests that, on at least one occasion in 2004, Mark used private login data taken from Facebook’s servers to break into Facebook members’ private email accounts and read their emails–at best, a gross misuse of private information. Lastly, it suggests that Mark hacked into the competing company’s systems and changed some user information with the aim of making the site less useful.

Ruh roh. It’s hard to tell how much of this was new information, though the fact that the accusations from ConnectU came a week after Facebook launched gives the accusers credibility in my book. Also, the $65 Million settlement… Well, yeah. That says Facebook is giving them some credibility, as well. And the accusations of using user data to login to the email addresses of users? That jibes pretty closely with how (un)seriously Facebook takes user privacy. I wonder if any of this will get picked up by the traditional media, and I wonder if the SVI investigation will hold up to journalistic standards…

Via Eric Andersen

As far as I’m concerned, there are 2 types of people. Those that know what “I can walk like a penguin” means, and those that don’t.

It’s from a commercial for the New England Aquarium that aired incessantly when I was younger. Can you walk like a penguin?

Somerville residents have grown accustomed to Tom Champion’s awesome robocalls for city events. Snow emergencies were what he was best known for, but he was also good for water mane breaks and city firework events. It is with sadness I read last week that he’s stepping down.

Tom Flanagan nailed it with this update on Twitter. The cities that voted for Scott Brown correlate to the Netflix zipcodes that rented Paul Blart Mall Cop. What does this say to you? If the internet says it, it must be true.

Voters

Movies

I believe the only thing you can say about this is, “Oh, HELL YEAH!”

The Chris Piascik Cattitude! T Shirt I talked about last week is a reality. Behold the glory and go get yourself one!

Also, I’d been meaning to share this video of him doing his thing. Now you know what he looks like.

More than half-court, actually. Too bad iit didn’t count.

Photo by Flickr user Keith Allison People in Boston have been spoiled by our sports teams this decade. The Red Sox have won 2 World Series, the Patriots have been dominant since 2001, and even the Celtics got involved in the world beating. The Patriots and the Red Sox have been so good that the phrases, “In Bill We Trust” and “In Theo We Trust” have been tossed around unironically regarding Bill Belichick and Theo Epstein of the Pats and Sox respectively.

Last Sunday, the Patriots beat the hell out of Peyton Manning and the Colts for about 50 minutes, up by 2 scores much of the game. And then with a little over 2 minutes left, they found themselves on the Colts’ 28 yard-line on 4th down up by 6 points. Football teams punt here. Always. But Belichick sent the offense out to get the 2 yards and win the game. It’s unclear if he was trying to send a message, or if he just wanted to keep the ball out of Manning’s hands. In any case, this paragraph of cliches is over, the Pats didn’t get the first down, the Colts scored and won the game.

Bill Belichick was right. I would have been OK with him punting, but I’m more than OK with him going for it, whatever the reason and the stats agree.

Statistically, the better decision would be to go for it, and by a good amount. However, these numbers are baselines for the league as a whole. You’d have to expect the Colts had a better than a 30% chance of scoring from their 34, and an accordingly higher chance to score from the Pats’ 28. But any adjustment in their likelihood of scoring from either field position increases the advantage of going for it. You can play with the numbers any way you like, but it’s pretty hard to come up with a realistic combination of numbers that make punting the better option. At best, you could make it a wash.

Here’s a coach who never punts, ever. He also doesn’t have his team return punts or kick off deep. The last time he punted was in 2007 when he was trying to be a good sport to a team he was destroying.

Phil Simms thinks that if Belichick had been able to challenge the call, he would have gotten a more favorable spot and gotten the first down.

Via a football newsletter Gareth gets (link unavailable):

Kevin Eikenberry, leader of Indianapolis-based consultant the Kevin Eikenberry Group: “Most of us in corporate leadership or executive leadership would profess that great leaders take risks, and yet, I’m guessing most of those same people who watched the game (especially in New England) feel like Belichick made a big mistake. We can’t have it both ways. The longer I think about it from a leadership perspective, the more I applaud the coach’s decision … This is a real life example of a leader standing up and making a decision, one that in this case, didn’t turn out in his favor.”

Finally, Bill Simmons who has spent the entire year telling us Manning is unbeatable at night says Belichick should have punted. Aside from the fact that Simmons stopped killing Manning after he met him at the ESPY Awards a couple years ago, punting would have given Manning the opportunity to win the game. Getting the first down would have ended the game. I think I still like Bill Simmons, but I can’t shake the feeling that what he’s doing has gotten tired. I think he’s going to move on ESPN eventually and do something new/big and that will be good for everyone. In this column, he’s annoyingly playing homer contrarian, killing Belichick for a move he would have applauded had it worked, killing Belichick for a move he would have applauded a couple years ago, even if it hadn’t.

In Bill We Trust

I’ll never get over how much Omar Epps looks like Mike Tomlinson. And yet, they only made #2 on this list. Strange

I can’t believe they’re making a Boondock Saints II seeing as how Boondock Saints is the movie I most often cite as worst movie I’ve ever seen. I also had no idea the writer/director was such an epic douche. I guess he gets points for being from Boston, but wow. Even someone who liked the first Boondock Saints thinks the second one sucks.