ShortFormBlog | July 23, 2009 - Part 2

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23 Jul 2009 10:30

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Culture: Where’d the nerds go? They’re at Comic-Con in San Diego

LARPers, furries, comic book nerds, superhero freaks, idiots and Pokemon fans alike are all in one city, unprepared for the world’s villans to attack. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 4 Comments • Permalink

23 Jul 2009 10:21

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Culture: Trippy: Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” trailer lives up to the hype

As you might have heard, there was some drama regarding this trailer yesterday – something about Disney getting it pulled from YouTube. That’s OK. We’ll just link it from elsewhere, where it’s yet to be taken down. It’s a must-see either way. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Jul 2009 10:12

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Politics: Was journalism icon Walter Cronkite really worthy of our trust?

If the nostalgia for Cronkitian news values were genuine, you’d expect PBS’s soporific News Hour would be drawing huge and growing numbers of viewers. … Alas, the NewsHour’s Cronkite-lite approach has failed to attract much of an audience.
Slate columnist Jack Shafer • Discussing why the legacy of someone like Walter Cronkite – the trustworthy face of journalism for a generation – was bad for news consumers. Shafer suggests that today’s era of multiple opinions all over the place is a much better market – and that trust, especially of a information source like Cronkite is a bad yardstick to follow. He ends his piece by saying: “Be skeptical, news consumers, especially of the journalists you trust most. It will make you smarter and keep them honest.” • source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Jul 2009 10:03

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Biz, Music: Billboard gets a brain, finally starts handling their charts right

The dark ages Back in the day, Billboard kept its chart data close to its chest, preferring to share it just with music industry folks. It was really A&R folks only: If you wanted to know what was happening on the lower reaches of the chart, it would cost ya an arm and a leg.
Seeing the light Billboard, apparently realizing what the rest of the music industry already has, has opened up its entire chart history to the public for free. Realizing it’s a huge draw for music sales if used right, they’ve also partnered up with Lala to sell the tunes, too.
Brilliant move?It’s entirely possible Billboard could still screw this up, in our humble opinion. They’ve made some big mistakes in the past regarding when and where to charge for their content, and if they make these same mistakes again, music fans won’t be happy. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Jul 2009 09:47

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Biz, Tech: AT&T’s customer base is huge thanks to the iPhone, but it costs ’em

+3.5 million number of new 3G customers the wireless company got last quarter thanks to the iPhone – and 1.5 million new overall customers
-15% profits decline in profits thanks to the high cost of subsidizing the phones – a cost they will get back, eventually, thanks to those giant bills source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Jul 2009 09:39

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U.S., World: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sez North Korea has “no friends”

There is no place to go for North Korea, they have no friends left that will protect them from the international community’s efforts to move toward denuclearization.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton • In her latest push to get North Korea to denuclearize. As we’re sure you all know, Korea’s off-kilter half has been described as “provocative” in the last few months, and not the kind of “provocative” that Madonna was when she made that book with all the naked photos. And North Korea responded “provocatively” to Clinton, saying she “is by no means intelligent.” Now, if this were a schoolyard fight – and not saying it is – this would be the point we’d expect Clinton, fresh off her elbow injury, to take off her pantsuit jacket and start beating the bloody snot out of the jerk in North Korea who said that. But she wouldn’t do that. Know why? She’s a diplomat. • source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Jul 2009 09:26

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Offbeat, U.S.: Ah-nold: You call that budget cuts? Well, this is a KNIFE!

It doesn’t even matter what Arnold Schwartzenegger said in this video. We got the idea in the first second and a half. The governor of California, fresh off $26 billion in budget cuts, is brandishing a big knife. You said it all with your actions, man. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Jul 2009 09:25

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Culture: We know why GM went bankrupt: A Transformer-themed Camaro

Who over the age of 10 would think a Bumblebee-themed car would be awesome? And who under the age of 10 can actually drive? source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

23 Jul 2009 09:15

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U.S.: When not discussing health care, Obama jumped head-first into race

… the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home …
President Barack Obama • Discussing last week’s arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. during last night’s prime-time press conference. (BTW, in case you’re wondering – we’d quote the whole sentence, but the sentence was particularly massive, and this was the important part.) Obama’s stance on the Gates issue stands out because it may be the furthest he’s stuck his neck out on any one race issue since going into office. It was the moment – even beyond all of the health care gobbledygook – which will stand out from this press conference. Last week, his statement on role models also stood out for similar reasons. • source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Jul 2009 08:59

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Biz: Ford managed to find its way to big profits minus bankruptcy

$2.3 billion in 2Q profits for the Detroit automaker source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

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