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19 Apr 2009 10:55

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Tech: The Twitter anti-Oprah backlash is in full effect, guys

#herebeforeoprah puts a line in the sand for Twitter fans afraid that it might jump the shark thanks to Oprah. source

19 Apr 2009 10:51

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Culture: Evidence MTV is attempting to give up its vapid ways

  • “The Buried Life,” with its “100 things I want to do before I die” conceit, will often do charitable things to help deserving people on the path to hijinks. source
  • “T.I.’s Road to Redemption” features everyone’s favorite jailbound rapper trying to help young people not make the same stupid mistakes. source
  • Nick Lachey, star of the extra-vapid “Newlyweds” with ex-wife Jessica Simpson, helps out performing arts kids in his hometown on “Taking the Stage.” source
  • Hold up – why isn’t one of these “MTV plays music videos again”? Because then we’d care. This just feels like another stop on the road to irrelevance. source

19 Apr 2009 10:39

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Politics, Tech: A Slate columnist chooses piracy over legal movie downloads

  • Pirates aren’t popular these days, but let’s give them this—they know how to put together a killer on-demand entertainment system.
  • Farhad Manjoo • On the sad state of affairs for legal movie downloading. All Manjoo wants is the digital equivalent of Netflix, but the restrictions on movie download services are so high – either not enough of a selection or too many limitations – that he ends up just using Bittorrent instead. • source

19 Apr 2009 10:30

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Culture: Madonna fell off a horse again. And no, it wasn’t her high horse.

  • The Material Girl also fell off a horse in 2005. Between the Kabbalah, the adoptions, the sex books and the lengthy pop career, Madonna has a pretty interesting life. But we bet you didn’t know Madonna rode horses, too. And she tends to fall off of them, too. In 2005, the pop singer broke a bunch of bones when she fell off one at her birthday party. She didn’t hurt herself that badly this time, just bumps and bruises, but isn’t it weird that she was on a freakin’ horse in the first place? source

19 Apr 2009 10:21

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Culture: A former Columbine student reflects on its 10th anniversary in film

Andrew Robinson, who was there on April 20, 1999, created “April Showers,” out this week and based on the school shooting. source

19 Apr 2009 10:11

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U.S.: A last-ditch effort to keep a dead father’s last wish alive

  • The day before he passed away, we talked about planning for our future, buying an apartment and having another child. This was his wish. It’s the last thing I can do for him.
  • Gisela Marrero • Fiancée of Johnny Quintana, a 31-year-old Bronx man who died suddenly on Thursday. The family, in an effort to see his wish through, went to a judge to request that they be allowed to harvest Quintana’s sperm – a medical procedure that must be done within 36 hours of someone’s death for it to still be useful. The judge agreed. • source

19 Apr 2009 10:04

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Offbeat: A “Nude dude ranch” seems like an odd way to use lottery winnings

  • He won $3.3 million – now he lets it all hang out. The CJ Dude Ranch, located in Brooksville, Fla., is facing a bit of controversy for its clothing-optional policy, as well as the fact that they created the ranch without receiving proper permits. But who needs permits when you have a Web site with photos like this? (Don’t worry, it’s safe for work.) And plus, they do have standards – the site says people “must wear pants and boots to ride the horses.” source
 

19 Apr 2009 09:46

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Culture: Susan Boyle, the unlikely British singer, is the viral video queen