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21 Jun 2009 23:46

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U.S.: That sucks: An apartment complex in Brooklyn fell. Everyone heard it.

Four were injured when the building fell, and nearby buildings had to be evacuated. Worst part? The owners knew it had structural problems. source

21 Jun 2009 23:31

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Culture: On a much lighter topic, Sandra Bullock had her biggest opening ever

  • $34.1 million for proposing to Ryan Reynolds source

21 Jun 2009 23:21

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Politics: Max Headroom: Twitter and Iran are totally on pundits’ minds

  • Tweet-happy McCain On “Face the Nation,” Sen. John McCain gives credit to social networking sites for their huge role in the protests in Iran – and notes, with excitement, that these are American technologies.

  • Tweet-happy McCain On “Face the Nation,” Sen. John McCain gives credit to social networking sites for their huge role in the protests in Iran – and notes, with excitement, that these are American technologies.

  • Go get ’em, Clay! Clay Shirky, one of media’s greatest thinkers, talks on “Fareed Zakaria GPS” about how the whole world is not just watching, but participating, in the Iran conflict. He says it’s too early to tell if it worked.

  • Tweet-happy McCain On “Face the Nation,” Sen. John McCain gives credit to social networking sites for their huge role in the protests in Iran – and notes, with excitement, that these are American technologies.

  • Go get ’em, Clay! Clay Shirky, one of media’s greatest thinkers, talks on “Fareed Zakaria GPS” about how the whole world is not just watching, but participating, in the Iran conflict. He says it’s too early to tell if it worked.

  • Strange bedfellows Playing off a joke Obama made over the weekend, “Fox News Sunday” discusses whether the media is biased towards the president. Ah, the media talking about the media.

21 Jun 2009 22:13

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Politics, Tech: Dear Washington Post columnists: Give Twitter credit for Iran

  • What the heck, guys?

    John Palfrey, Bruce Etling and Robert Faris, you guys don’t get it. You just don’t. A lengthy response to the Twitter protest tool phenomenon is not the way to go.

    You tore it apart for the very reasons it’s useful, such as its brevity (the revolution will not be in speech form), the fact that lots of people use it and create a glut of information (much of which is retweets), and the fact that dissenters on both sides can use it.

    You have one moderately valid point: The government can block the access. Good thing they’re using proxy servers!

    source
  • What the heck, guys?

    John Palfrey, Bruce Etling and Robert Faris, you guys don’t get it. You just don’t. A lengthy response to the Twitter protest tool phenomenon is not the way to go.

    You tore it apart for the very reasons it’s useful, such as its brevity (the revolution will not be in speech form), the fact that lots of people use it and create a glut of information (much of which is retweets), and the fact that dissenters on both sides can use it.

    You have one moderately valid point: The government can block the access. Good thing they’re using proxy servers!

  • A bad example

    Here’s the real reason why you really don’t get it – you credited Andrew Sullivan for creating the hype around the protests, rather than the protesters themselves.

    We’d like to use the example of @iranriggedelect. We were an early follower of the great resource, and we recommended them when they had three followers. Now they have 10,000+.

    And of course, Twitter had to nudge CNN. Face it – Twitter isn’t people just talking. It’s media. And this media works differently.

    Please figure out why. source

21 Jun 2009 21:20

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World: How Neda has become a rallying cry for Iranian protesters

  • The deeply distressing video is becoming a defining moment in Iran’s disputed elections, in both social media and mainstream publications.
  • Mashable blogger Pete Cashmore • On the ramifications of this awful, awful video (note: *incredibly* graphic content, please don’t say we didn’t warn you), which has gotten far-reaching mainstream recognition since Mashable posted it yesterday. The woman in the video, Neda, was shot directly in the heart despite the shooter having a clear shot at her. Her death has had the side effect of creating a moment for protesters to rally around. Could Neda’s death have the same significance as Tank Man did? Time will only tell. • source

21 Jun 2009 21:05

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World: This woman’s arrest complicated Iran’s already-shaky political climate

Why Faezeh Hashemi’s arrest is so notable: She’s the daughter of ex-prez Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Four other family members were also arrested. source

21 Jun 2009 20:54

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U.S.: Accused “Craigslist Killer” Phillip Markoff indicted this weekend

 

21 Jun 2009 20:38

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Tech: Apple is really sorry that you can’t activate your iPhone. Here’s $30.

  • Since Friday’s launch of the iPhone 3GS, the activation process has been spotty at best and completely unusable at worst. It’s not as bad as last year, when the servers completely crashed on people wanting to activate an iPhone 3G. source
  • To make up for the torrent of new iPhone activations (500,000 by one analyst’s count), Apple is making it up to users by offering a $30 iTunes Store credit to those stuck without a working phone for the weekend. Aww, how nice. source

21 Jun 2009 11:58

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Biz: Want a loan in this economic climate? You must be this tall.

  • 720 credit score or higher to get a loan in this recession source

21 Jun 2009 11:47

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Culture: O.J. Simpson’s ex, Christine Prody, sez he’s a bad human being

  • She wrote all about it in a new book. Prody says, beyond the cocaine, crime, pregnancy and abuse, he treated her like garbage. Without any income of her own to her name, he would get into fights with her and dump her out on the street miles from their home. He forced her to have an abortion – twice. He would get so possessive that he’d spy on phone records and emotionally wore her down. But the kicker, in our opinion, is this line: On a night she was wearing black, he told her, “Nicole wore black the night of her murder.” Wow. Who knows if this is all true, but W-O-W. source