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20 Jun 2009 23:53

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World: Families of killed Air France passengers will get money for their loss

  • $24,500 per passenger killed on the flight source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jun 2009 23:36

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Politics, World: Analyst: Iran’s government is making a big mistake

  • Now they’ll have to hold their ground and hope that people don’t keep coming back. But history has taught us that people in these situations lose their initial sense of fear and become emboldened by brutality.
  • Mehrdad Khonsari • A consultant for the Center for Arab and Iranian Studies, based in London. Khonsari says that he feels the regime is taking an “enormous risk” by handling things this way. It could make things worse for them in the long run. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jun 2009 23:31

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World: No matter what happened in Tehran, lots of people died today

  • 150+ the unconfirmed death toll for today’s protests in Tehran
  • 19 the confirmed death toll for today’s protests in Tehran source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jun 2009 22:36

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Music: Know that awful Attack Attack! video we posted? There’s more.

Posted by Ernie Smith • 3 Comments • Permalink

20 Jun 2009 22:23

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U.S., World: Obama’s quoting MLK in support of Iran protests

  • Martin Luther King once said, ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’ I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian people’s belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness.
  • President Barack Obama • Speaking on the Iranian protests. Taking a different turn from the guarded language he had previously been using to describe the conflict, he’s now actively encouraging the protests by Iranians. Which, of course, should make Iranian leadership happy. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jun 2009 21:46

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Biz, U.S.: Nearly everyone wants improved health care in the U.S.

  • 85% (or a freaking lot) of folks want major health care reform source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jun 2009 19:51

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Music: Ooh, diverse: Our Saturday Mixtape mines from the fringes

  • 1. We saw Future Islands earlier this week in D.C. We mentioned to a friend, lovingly, that their style was akin to Tom Waits singing “She’s a Maniac.” With songs like “Follow Me,” we could totally see this Wham City-tied band finding a much larger audience.

    2. Tune-Yards, a.k.a. Merrill Garbus, specializes in a world-music-influenced low-fi. On “Sunlight,” the drums and bass and her wispy vocals mesh well with the settings.

    3. Unsung psychedelic heroes, the United States of America (the band, not the country) had a delicate touch to their space-rock sound, as seen on “Coming Down.”

    4. Fun fact: Before T.Rex became glam icons, they sounded just like Devendra Banhart does now. Glam ballad “Cosmic Dancer” is the bridge between their two incarnations.

    5. Earlier this year, Serge Gainsbourg’s “Histoire de Melody Nelson” became one of just a handful of albums to get the hallowed 10.0 rating on Pitchfork. It deserved it: Songs like “Ballade de Melody Nelson” nail a cinematic heft perfectly. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 3 Comments • Permalink
 

20 Jun 2009 18:23

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Offbeat: “I” before “e” except after whatever: The Brits kill grammar rule

  • They said it had too many exceptions. The British government, after weighing their options, decided to get rid of their insufficient “i before e except after c” rule. They specifically decided to get rid of it in its “Support For Spelling” documents sent to thousands of primary schools, noting higher frequencies of words that did not follow that standard – neither with a “c” or without one. Just to emphasize the point, we used a bunch of different exceptions in this post. Weird. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 3 Comments • Permalink

20 Jun 2009 18:00

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Culture, U.S.: Barack Obama gets mad props from supernerd John Hodgman

  • John Hodgman is our hero. Between “The Areas of My Expertise,” “The Daily Show” and the “I’m A Mac” commercials, Hodgman has lots of nerd cred. So the fact that he calls Barack Obama the “nerd president” in this Radio & TV Correspondents’ Dinner speech is awesome and significant. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jun 2009 15:15

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U.S.: Obama dares us to be better dads. But what if we don’t have kids?

  • We need to step out of our own heads and tune in. We need to turn off the television and start talking with our kids, and listening to them, and understanding what’s going on in their lives.
  • Barack Obama • On the occasion of Father’s Day, discussing what fathers should do to be better parents. Obama, of course, famously didn’t know his father very well, and says he wants to be a better father than that. “It was only later in life that I found out that he actually led a very tragic life,” he noted. “And in that sense, it was the myth that I was chasing as opposed to knowing who he really was.” • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink
 
 
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