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Oh hey!

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Yesterday we did a historic thing. We generated 87,834 phone calls to U.S. Representatives in a concerted effort to protect the Internet. Extraordinary. There’s no doubt that we’ve been heard.

So just to keep you updated: The well-intentioned, but immensely flawed “Stop Online Piracy Act” is still in the House Judiciary Committee. The hearing was yesterday and now members will debate and bring amendments to the bill. The Committee will reconvene in a few weeks — the date has yet to be scheduled. Nothing has been brought to a final vote. Everything is still very much in play. We’ll keep you posted on what’s going on and what you can do to help. But for now, we want to thank you.

One encouraging thing we heard yesterday:

I don’t believe this bill has any chance on the House floor. I think it’s way too extreme, it infringes on too many areas that our leadership will know is simply too dangerous to do in its current form.

— Representative Darrell Issa

We also want to express our tremendous gratitude to our friends at Mobile Commons who, on 30 minutes notice, hooked us up with their amazing platform (and provided their expertise) to automatically connect callers with their Representatives.

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What do those numbers add up to? Mobile updates. We have a bunch coming over the next few weeks.

If you have any requests, please make sure to send them to support@tumblr.com!

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Photo posts now support Animated GIFs up to 1MB. Woo!

GIF by iwdrm featuring Blow-Up (1966)

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Reminder! Tumblr Reads is Saturday night at Mountain Bar in LA. Performance and free drinks start at 7. See you there!

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Herkese Merhabalar! Türkçe biliyor musunuz? Tumblr da biliyor! Bugünden itibaren Türkçe de Tumblr’ın desteklediği diller arasına katılmış bulunuyor. Hemen tercihler sayfanızdan dil ayarınızı Türkçe’ye değiştirin.

We <3 our amazing Turkish community and added Turkish to our range of language options! Head to your Preferences page to change your settings.

Following English, German, French, Italian and Japanese, Turkish is now the sixth language Tumblr supports. More on their way!

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Name Natasha Vargas-Cooper
Location Los Angeles
First Post July 2008

Natasha is a journalist. She’s written for The Atlantic, The Awl, The New York Times, and many other equally impressive publications. Her latest piece is on Rebecca Black for New York Mag. Before this, she spent several years working as a union organizer and health policy analyst for a labor union. (She also spent some time in Brooklyn not working.) She graduated Summa Cum Laude from UCLA with a double major in History and Public Policy. Natasha wrote a book called Mad Men Unbuttoned, and she created and hosts a monthly live storytelling series in LA called Public School.

Also check out…

The Kid Should See This
There’s so much science, nature, music, arts, technology, storytelling and assorted good stuff out there that kids haven’t seen.

Magical Game Time
A comics and art blog inspired by a lifetime of playing video games.

Help From A Native Texan
A displaced Texan looking for re-connection. Thoughts, advice and knowledge on everything in the Texas Variety. “Y’all come back now, ya hear?” OH, WE HEAR!

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Tumblr Themes now available in 5 languages

Starting today, you can switch all of Tumblr’s featured and premium themes between English, German, Japanese, French, and Italian, with more on the way!

Just use the Language menu under Customize → Advanced.

This has been a big undertaking, and we’d love to hear your feedback on the translations. If you’re blogging in any of these language, please try it out!

Theme designers: Localizing your themes couldn’t be easier! Simply replace any English text with variables from Tumblr’s new theme dictionary. If your text string doesn’t exist yet, just request it and it will be queued for translation by our international team. Thank you!

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Name Tess Lynch
Location Los Angeles
First Post June 2008

Actor and writer Tess Lynch’s work has appeared on This Recording, Bravo Fan, and Funny or Die, but let’s be honest — her appearance in a Crest commercial earlier this year is what she’s truly famous for. When she’s not writing funny stories about ponies or reviewing disappointing food products, she’s proud to contribute to anthologies like Coming and Crying. Tess enjoys blogging about social injustice and drinking milk (pictured above).

Also check out…

SB Nation
Sports news and fan opinion from the good people at SB Nation, in convenient Tumblr-size.

Matt Griffo
Matt is a comedian in Chicago. His hair is hilarious and it’s not even part of his act. I assume he loves his pet dog.

Can I Get a Man With That?
Those hilarious, embarrassing or downright shameful dating stories you’ve only dared to tell your closest girlfriends. (Now with extra period stories!)

Until we meet again!