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28 Feb 2009 10:02

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Culture: British kids’ TV has a new disabled host. Parents aren’t happy.

  • 25 formal complaints about Cerrie Burnell, who’s missing a hand source

28 Feb 2009 09:55

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World: Robert Mugabe: Partying while there’s a cholera epidemic

  • $250,000 was raised for a birthday bash today in honor of the Zimbabwean president’s big 8-5. Probably not in Zimbabwean dollars.
  • 100 beasts will be killed for the feast, all while prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai is actually handling the cholera crisis. source

28 Feb 2009 09:48

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Culture: The Jonas Brothers are popping into theaters, pissing us off

  • I hope the fans we surprise at the movie theaters we visit have as much fun as I know we are going to have.
  • Joe Jonas • On the band’s current trend of showing up at random movie theaters this weekend. They have a new movie out, “Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience,” which we have no desire to see because we’re neither preteen nor female. • source

28 Feb 2009 09:43

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U.S.: Give Hearst credit. They’re trying out e-ink.

  • A newspaper-sized reader. Made by Hearst. The company has no history in the tech industry, but they do have a long history with newspapers and magazines. Word’s going around that the company will be selling its own Kindle that will be large enough for newspaper advertising dimensions. Will you be able to fold it in half? source

27 Feb 2009 16:02

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Offbeat: These dogs need a home. This isn’t an e-mail scam.

Cookie & Coko are real dogs, but their sad story led to a e-chain letter with four legs. source

27 Feb 2009 15:42

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Biz: Reenactment of what happened to Stanford’s funds: *poof*

  • $8
    billion
    amount R. Allen Stanford’s company sold in certificates of deposit over the years.
  • $90 million amount federal investigators have found so far. He lost the rest while playing cricket. source

27 Feb 2009 14:58

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U.S.: Bush’s abortion “conscience” rules? Obama’s throwing ’em out.

  • We’ve been concerned that the way the Bush rule is written it could make it harder for women to get the care they need.
  • A Health and Human Services official • on reversing the policy, which was implemented in December. The administration wants to take the concerns of doctors with moral disagreements into consideration, but in the form of tightly-written regulations. They thought Bush’s rules were too vague. • source
 

27 Feb 2009 14:46

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Culture: The ultimate hype man, Ed McMahon, is in the hospital

  • He’s like 85. It sounds pretty bad. McMahon, that guy who said “Here’s Johnny” about 20,000 times in his life, has been in the hospital for more than three weeks with pneumonia and other medical problems. “Ed’s a big, strong, hearty guy and his family and I are hopeful and optimistic about his prognosis,” said his publicist, Howard Bragman. Still, three weeks is a long time. Pull through, Ed! source

27 Feb 2009 14:40

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Biz, U.S.: Know your hipster neighborhood? It’s dying out.

  • Decemberists no more Early this decade, it was a new tale of urban bohemia. Neighborhoods in cities across the country were starting to become hip, complete with flower shops, coffee huts, boutiques full of random crap you’d never buy, and so on and so forth. Still cool middle-age white people going to Whole Foods. And they were all listening to indie rock and growing neckbeards.
  • The economy of suck One neighborhood, Los Angeles’ Eagle Rock, is a good example of the downward trend. The recession, killing home prices nationwide, is also having an effect on the shops that hipsters descend upon while listening to Rilo Kiley on their iPhones and drinking their vegan mochas. Eagle Rock lost many of their cool shops recently due to economic turmoil.
  • How residents feelResidents are, admittedly, kind of sad about the loss, even if they’ve found it tough to actually shop there due to constricting wallet size. Eagle Rock resident Emily Cook, a screenwriter, lamented the loss of scene but has learned to live without it. “When we first moved here,” she said, “I wanted it to be cool. But that stuff doesn’t matter anymore.” source

27 Feb 2009 10:56

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Offbeat: This new frogfish is a real trip, man! Oooh, the colors …

This psychedelic fish looks – and acts – like an acid trip gone wrong. source