Mr. Elmer-DeWitt (Photo: Twitter.com)

This morning's release of the iPad Mini saw crowds completely forgetting about the hurricane and lining up to score themselves a miniaturized version of their favorite fancy tablet. Apple beat reporter Philip Elmer-DeWitt was covering the release for Fortune/CNN Money. His online bio says that he's been covering Apple for the last 30 years. He described the scene as such:

"Judging from the ethnic makeup of the queue in front of the big glass cube of Apple's (AAPL) Fifth Avenue store, however, most of the customers who made the pilgrimage were coming from the environs of Chinatown.

Apple hasn't yet said when the iPad mini will be available in mainland China, so there's likely to be a market there for units shipped from the U.S."

Since Mr. DeWitt didn't cite a source supporting his Chinatown claim, it seemed like an . . . odd assumption.

The paragraph in question was pulled down, but not before we got a screen shot.

We reached out to Mr. Elmer-Dewitt, who said it was taken down because "some readers complained about ethnic profiling."

Gotcha. But why did he say that the Asian customers in line were from Chinatown?

"It's well documented that there's a steady flow of new Apple products from the Fifth Ave store to Chinatown to Hong Kong to the mainland," said Mr. Elmer-Dewitt. "See my old pieces. See the NY Times. My mistake was assuming that all the Asians in line (some of whom brought their children so they could buy 4 iPads, not just the maximum 2) were Chinese and that just because they were Chinese that they were from Chinatown. But I've reported on a lot of these lines, and this one had a higher percentage of Asians than any I've seen before."

Well, alrighty then, no racism to see here, folks.

[via @Joescoscarelli]

Nice flowers, Mr. Constine. (Photo: Business Insider)

Facebook Fiasco Claims Another Scalp Remember that time Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein kept the name of their Watergate informant a secret for decades, thereby providing generations of teenagers an excuse to say "deep throat" in high school classrooms? Good thing no one had email at the time!

According to Business Insider, Citigroup tech analyst Mark Mahaney was recently given the boot. Turns out that one of Mr. Mahaney's underlings was getting a little too comfy with the press. Looking into the Facebook IPO, Massachusetts investigators stumbled across an email from a junior analyst to two TechCrunch reporters that read, in part, "I am ramping up coverage on FB and thought you guys might like to see how the street is thinking about it (and our estimates)." That little communique got Citigroup slapped with a $2 million fine, and that is why one confines all illicit activities, from sexting to whistle-blowing, to one's personal email account.

A bit of footwork on the part of BI suggests the junior analyst was Eric Jacobs, and the recipients were John Constine and Kim-Mai Cutler. As former Stanford University classmates, Mr. Jacobs and Mr. Constine go way back. A photo of the pair was even, for a time, Mr. Constine's profile pic on Facebook.

Find the Yeezy! The Great Kanye Hunt of 2012 continues! Back in September, Betabeat first heard the drumbeat come from General Assembly's east campus at 902 Broadway: Yeezy is here! And he's meeting with a startup. A source mentioned IDEO, the global design and innovation consulting firm, which has an outpost in New York. That would make sense, considering that DONDA, Mr. West's collective of "creatives and developers," is at work on a line of products. However, we've been told we're barking up the wrong tree. One tech company down, 99,999 to go. If you have any information about the identity of this lucky startup, please contact the authorities/Betabeat immediately.

Tea Time at Twitter Fortune reporter Jessi Hempel was visiting a mystery startup in the Bay Area when she sent the following Instagram dispatch: "guess the tech company: kombucha on tap," she tweeted, along with a photo of four different flavors of the stinky tea on tap. TechCrunch reporter Ryan Lawler immediately wondered if it was Square, the mobile payment service known for the highbrow tastes of its dapper CEO, Jack Dorsey. Ms. Hempel replied, "nope. But not far off." When Betabeat then guessed Twitter, she confirmed it with a "favorite." Is kombucha the new Mountain Dew?

(Photo: Jessi Hempel, Twitter)

We were still disappointed to discover, however, that the answer was not Diapers.com.

Frankenstorm Is Chartbeating! Amid the preparations for Hurricane Sandy, a.k.a the extra-perfect storm currently barreling toward New New York's shores, Mayor Bloomberg just couldn't resist a little plug for the city's snazzy digital initiatives.

During a press conference earlier today, Mayor Bloomberg reminded everyone that this is an unpredictable storm and we should all therefore stay attentive to weather forecasts. Among our options are both "one of the weather services on the Internet" and the city's own NYC.gov. Then came the traffic trumpeting: "During Hurricane Irene, NYC.gov, you should know, had 4.3 million hits, shattering its previous high of 2.2 million." He added, "We have added additional capacity to NYC.gov to keep up with the increase in traffic volume, and we have streamlined the website to make sure it provides the most up to date information to New Yorkers."

So if walk outside Monday night and you're surprised by the terrible weather, don't blame Mayor Bloomberg.

Ms. Kunst.

Minority Report is a guest column by Sarah Kunst, who does business development and product at fashion app Kaleidoscope. She’s a black, non-engineer female in tech, but plans to IPO anyway.

Fortune magazine's annual Brainstorm Tech summit is the Lincoln of conferences (the motor company is also a sponsor so kudos to them for nailing their demographic). Not the too-rich-for-its-own-good Bentley like Davos or the flashy Porsche that is TED. Rather, Brainstorm Tech brought together a lot of guys from Ivy League schools who work for companies with giant market caps and little buzz. They're there to listen, network, and cut deals in one of the many hospitality tents at the Aspen Institute.

The listening part was easy as the speakers were relevant and quippy. Peter Thiel and Eric Schmidt went all Hunger Games for the crowd, trading blows on stage during dinner in what felt more like a sporting match than a debate about the future of technology. (You'll have to excuse me if you already heard about their exploits, it takes a girl awhile to adjust back down to sea level.)

Back on stage, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson offered Marissa Mayer's some advice on her new role at Yahoo? "Stay awhile." And Zocdoc founder Cyrus Massoumi fan boy'd the use of two-way video screens to keep in touch with remote offices. The PYTs of tech were on hand as well, with the likes of Ben Lerer of Thrillist, Brit Morin, the Bay Area's own crafty Martha Stewart, and Twitter darling Aaron Levine of Box, hosting parties and panels.

The real networking happens after hours, of course. That's when dance-offs are held and "Here let's open this bottle of wine from my vineyard" drinks are shared, transforming panelists turn into drinking buddies, friends, and business partners all before last call. It's a pretty standard use of the wee hours, but in Aspen late nights can take a turn for the vertical.

For the second year, a couple guys spearheaded a tradition best approached with the same mentality as child birth: Do it once, swear never again, forget about the pain, repeat. They were climbing a mountain and I accepted an invitation to join them. Bottles of wine and a lone celebratory cigarette were procured at twice the going rate from some locals and we were off. A motley crew of two CMOs, a CEO and one girl who's memorized the lyrics to "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better" makes for a lot of big talk...and little to no hiking experience.

The hours that followed were grueling. Our mountaineering skills hadn't included checking to see if there was moonlight to climb by, so the two hour ascent up loose dirt and rocky switchbacks was done in pitch black. We fell into a rhythm, our hyperactive leader running point while those with normal thyroid functions moved at a pace more befitting the dawning realization that this was not a walk in Central Park. At one point, I turned to make sure a fellow hiker had survived a fall and immediately joined him, hanging by my topknot and another hiker's fast reflexes. We were both quickly righted, passed the bottle around for a fortifying nip and in unison, began to climb again. Somehow, drunk at 4am, with zero visibility and in near silence, we had formed a team.

Reaching the summit was a bit of a trick. We found that instead of the snow capped, barren summit of the ski peak variety we were basically just looking for a rock. A really big rock surrounded by other rocks on the side of a sheer drop to certain death, roped off by a neon string that would have a hard time breaking the fall of an ant. But we were at the top of the climb, together. Backs were slapped, pictures taken and as the first rays of dawn appeared in the sky we began to make our way back down. Appropriately for a band of start-upers, the phrase used most on the descent was "How did we do that? If I had known it was that hard I wouldn't have made it!" Drunk on optimism and wine, we had tackled a trail dubbed "aerobic and difficult," by people who are most certainly doing it in the daylight . . . and hiking gear.

The cheesy startup parallels are many: It's all about the people, not knowing how hard it is can be an asset, switchbacks are the new pivots, don't fall off a mountain. (The last one's relevant no matter what profession you're in). However, the real takeaway is that people building the future are people who do awesome, kind of crazy stuff on and off the clock. If you're not surrounded by them, close your laptop and go look for them IRL. No livestream or Twitter feed puts you in meatspace proximity to the smartest, bravest people in tech. Conferences are often called out as a waste of time, but finding likeminded cohorts at 6am on a mountain top--metaphorical or otherwise--is worth a flight to Aspen or $10 New York Tech Meetup ticket. Sharing experiences trumps sharing hashtags. #climbamountain.

(Photo: KPCB)

The gender discrimination suit filed by Kleiner Perkins partner Ellen Pao against her employer has hit a potential snag. The hedge fund run by Ms. Pao's husband, Alphonse "Buddy" Fletcher, has filed for bankruptcy, according to Dan Primack at Fortune.

Mr. Primack points out that while the bankruptcy and the suit could easily be unrelated, the possibility of family financial disaster could provide a motive for Ms. Pao seeking damages against the company.

He writes:

If Kleiner Perkins did what Pao claims, then its motivation for lying would be fairly obvious: Protect its reputation and its assets.

If Pao is the one making up stories, now we have a possible explanation as for why: She needs a big, and quick, payday to help salvage her family's deteriorating financial situation.

Mr. Fletcher also has as somewhat litigious past, a fact some proponents of Kleiner Perkins have brought up in defense of the firm.

Of course, this could mean nothing and everything, but both points do make the landmark lawsuit rather murky.