Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on Twitter • Be a Facebook Fan • Tumble us!

19 Apr 2009 22:22

tags

Culture: Dear Mitch Hurwitz: What happened with “Sit Down, Shut Up”?

  • amazing our personal opinion on the everlasting quality of Hurwitz’s last show, “Arrested Development”
  • 42 the average rating on Metacritic for “Sit Down, Shut Up,” with many scathing reviews source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Apr 2009 21:38

tags

Politics, U.S.: 420 advocates celebrate 4/20, hope for pot legalization

  • It is the biggest moment yet. There’s a sense that the notion of legalizing marijuana is starting to cross the fringes into mainstream debate.
  • Ethan Nadelmann • Founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. Nadelmann notes that there’s growing mainstream support of pot legalization. Annoying loudmouths on different sides of the political spectrum Glenn Beck and Jack Cafferty both support legalization. It’s high times for High Times, apparently, who will be holding a beauty pageant tomorrow. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Apr 2009 21:23

tags

Biz: The Fortune 500 is worth a lot less than they were before

  • 85% decline in the Fortune 500’s profits from 2007 to 2008 source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Apr 2009 21:10

tags

Biz: The Fortune 500’s top five and how they got to the top

  • one ExxonMobil: Making money off of the world’s addiction to oil, their massive profits were up 19% in 2008.
  • two Wal-Mart: Making money off of the world’s addiction to cheap crap, their profits were up 7% in 2008.
  • three Chevron: People like putting gas in their cars, and indirectly, money in Chevron’s cash-lined pockets.
  • four ConocoPhillips: see all the stuff we just said about ExxonMobil and Chevron, then apply it here.
  • five General Electric: Nobody watches NBC, so we’ll assume it’s because of all the other stuff they make. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Apr 2009 20:44

tags

Tech: The New York Times puts left foot in, out of URL-shortening game

  • An ultra-hip trend It started with TinyURL. Then Twitter came along, making the need for URL shortening services even greater. Between is.gd and Bit.ly and dozens of other URL shorteners, it’s now the cool thing to do. So it only makes sense that the New York Times would get in on that action with NYTurl.com, which some of their developers created.
  • Now you see it, now you don’t Unfortunately, the site was getting abused by people using the service for non-NYT-related content, and if you go to the page now, it says, “Taken down for now due to abuse.” When we saw that, we elicited a very loud laugh, because it’s not often the New York Times has egg on their face in a clearly embarrassing way like this. LOL. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Apr 2009 20:22

tags

Culture: Box-office recap: Fresh-faced kid > ruggedly handsome dude

  • $24.1 million amount that Zac Efron’s new flick, “17 Again,” made at the box office this weekend. It’s a good time to be a “High School Musical” star.
  • $14.1 million amount that Russell Crowe’s new flick, “Hannah Montana: The Movie” made this weeke… just kidding, he was in “State of Play.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

19 Apr 2009 20:18

tags

U.S.: If you’re a smoker, you should get a piss test. Trust us.

  • Your urine may predict your lung cancer risk. Sort of like a drug test in reverse, there’s a chance that doctors will be able to predict the onset of lung cancer early thanks to your urine. Two chemicals, NNAL and cotinine, show up in higher levels for people with a high lung-cancer risk, and knowing this early can help doctors treat or prevent lung cancer before it becomes something life-threatening. It’ll take some time for the test to come on the market, but here’s a tip in advance – make sure you haven’t also been smoking pot when you get the test – doctors can tell that, too. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

19 Apr 2009 20:04

tags

Politics, U.S.: The latest talking points against Obama skew diplomatic

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Apr 2009 11:13

tags

U.S., World: Did Obama break international law on torture? A UN guy says yes.

  • They are party to the convention and the convention is very, very clear. The fact that you carried out an order doesn’t relieve you of your responsibility.
  • Manfred Nowak • The UN’s Special Rapporteur on torture, on whether, by not prosecuting CIA operatives accused of torture under the Bush administration, Obama is violating an international agreement to do just that. Oh boy. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Apr 2009 11:04

tags

U.S., World: Hugo Chavez can create a bestseller by handing Obama a book

  • 54,295 Saturday’s sales ranking on Amazon for the paperback edition of “Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent.”
  • 5 Today’s Amazon sales ranking for Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Galeano’s 1971 book, after Chavez handed Obama a copy yesterday. Spiffy. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
top tags
older >>