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28 Apr 2009 10:11

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World: Pope Benedict tours the Italian earthquake destruction

The pope says the Lord “is not deaf to the worried cry of so many families who lost everything.” source

28 Apr 2009 08:45

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U.S., World: The swine flu death toll has risen significantly

  • 152 deaths have been reported, all of them in Mexico source

28 Apr 2009 08:38

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Culture, U.S.: Fox officially thinks Tim Roth is more important than Obama

  • For Obama’s address tomorrow night, Fox has waved its middle finger in the air and decided to ignore the address, choosing instead to go with the Tim Roth drama “Lie to Me.” Some will say Rupert Murdoch has political reasons for this, but we think he’s just a prick. source

28 Apr 2009 08:29

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Tech: Nerds are working to preserve your crappy Geocities site

  • Yahoo’s closing it, so they’re working fast. Jason Scott has made it his mission, at least since Yahoo announced that they’re closing Geocities, to download old pages from the site to preserve them for history. The software he’s set up downloads five sites a second and has downloaded over 200,000 so far. They’re grabbing as much as they can but it’s a little tough to be comprehensive with such a highly-used service. And if you’re curious about the overall structure of Geocities, nerdlinger, click the link, because Scott goes into it in great detail. Ah, Geocities: The pet rock of the ’90s. source

27 Apr 2009 22:05

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Politics: Quote of the night, from D.C. journalist Jaclyn Schiff

  • Modern journalists need to help people navigate information overload, sift through the garbage, and identify great information.
  • Jaclyn Schiff • Discussing the swine flu outbreak in general, Twitter’s role in the disseminating information the outbreak, and journalists’ role in informing the public of the outbreak. Ms. Schiff, you’re awesome. We both live in D.C. Wanna go grab a cup of coffee sometime so we can nod our heads in agreement on this particular key fact? I’ll treat. • source

27 Apr 2009 21:19

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Tech, World: In China, the iPhone knockoffs are as good as the real thing

It’s brilliant. It’s perfect. It’s counterfeit. And the faux-cell-phone industry is booming. source

27 Apr 2009 21:06

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U.S.: White House: Whoops, our bad on that low-flying jet thing

  • Last week, I approved a mission over New York. I take responsibility for that decision. While federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities in New York and New Jersey, it’s clear that the mission created confusion and disruption.
  • Louis Caldera • Director of the White House Military Office, on allowing a plane to fly close to the ground for a photo op that freaked out tons of people in downtown NYC, which was understandably jumpy, you know, with that whole 9/11 thing. • source
 

27 Apr 2009 20:55

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U.S., World: Ever hear the phrase “manure lagoons”? It’s the root of swine flu.

  • Residents long complained about the smell. The root of the current swine flu outbreak has its roots in Veracruz state, Mexico, where a 4-year-old boy got sick from what was later found to be swine flu. The boy lived near a massive pig farm with a large pool of manure nearby. Sound like a lot of fun? It’s not. The important part to take from this: The farm is partly owned by a U.S.-based company, Smithfield Foods, who will almost assuredly face scrutiny for starting the outbreak. source

27 Apr 2009 20:43

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Biz, U.S.: Newspapers fall deeper and deeper into oblivion

  • -7.1% circulation decline in the last six months o_O source

27 Apr 2009 12:06

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Politics, Tech: Free software fanatic Richard Stallman is insane, by the way

  • Proprietary software is a social problem, and our aim is to put an end to it. Free software is sometimes more powerful and reliable, but what concerns us most is that it is a more ethical way to distribute software.
  • Free Software Foundation founder and president Richard Stallman • On the “problem” of proprietary, copyrighted software. Why is he so hardcore about free? Well, as he says, “If you don’t have that freedom, the program controls you.” He’s like the Internet version of a crazy cat lady. • source