Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on TwitterBe a Facebook FanTumble us!

03 Jul 2009 11:43

tags

Biz, U.S.: The bloodshed at banks is only getting worse this year

  • 52 banks around the country have failed this year source

03 Jul 2009 11:37

tags

Offbeat: Meet torsoman. Despite his lack of limbs, he’s quite the athlete.

Nick Vujicic can swim, surf, play soccer, kick (with his nub of a foot) and play golf. And you’re sitting on your butt eating Cheetos. source

03 Jul 2009 11:22

tags

Tech: Is leaving MySpace for Facebook somehow racist?

  • The fact that digital migration is revealing the same social patterns as urban white flight should send warning signals to all of us. It should scare the hell out of us.
  • Internet smart person Danah Boyd • On the uncomfortable truth that people are going to Facebook instead of MySpace, and those still on MySpace are the equivalent of city-dwellers during the white flight era. Is some sort of racism going on? Are people under the assumption that people on MySpace are lower-class cretins? We argue that it’s because MySpace isn’t a place for friends anymore. • source

03 Jul 2009 11:15

tags

World: So much for avoiding a diplomatic crisis with the UK, Iran

  • They’re going to try those British embassy staffers. WTF? Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati (who, for a frame of reference, is this guy) announced the news today during prayer services. “And then some people in the UK embassy,” he said, “who had a hand in the disturbances, were arrested and will surely be put on trial.” The UK is pissed; the European Union plans to show solidarity in getting Iran to let go of those diplomats. And everyone else in the world is trying to tell Iran that they can’t shift the blame this time. source

03 Jul 2009 10:58

tags

Culture: OK Magazine has taste? Over Michael Jackson’s dead body

  • $500,000 to show The King of Pop dead source

03 Jul 2009 02:45

tags

U.S.: California’s recalled ex-Gov. Gray Davis doesn’t look so bad now

  • Nobody seems to understand that the economy is like the tide. When you’re in high tide no one thinks low tide is coming. Sometimes a crisis requires people to rethink how we got in this mess. That’s a healthy process.
  • Gray Davis • Who was recalled loudly and publicly in 2003 due to what were seen as some faulty economic policies. Now, seeing things from the outside in a much scarier situation, he’s glad that he’s not in the middle of this storm and stands behind his policies, but isn’t in the mood for vindication. “Every governor is faced with an economic challenge if they serve long enough,” he said. • source

03 Jul 2009 02:26

tags

U.S.: Speaking of Texas police, they’re smarting over a Fort Worth gay bar raid

 

03 Jul 2009 02:18

tags

U.S.: Next in the police-messing-with-good-samaritans file …

  • As you might remember, an ambulance in Oklahoma was pulled over by a police officer while he had a patient inside after the officer believed he was flicked off by an EMT. That situation was very he-said-he-said. source

03 Jul 2009 01:06

tags

Music: Travis Morrison never got over that 0.0 review on Pitchfork

  • RETIRED! No shows, no records, no band. Just relaxing in Brooklyn. Befriend me on facebook. I’m so nice!
  • Travis Morrison • In a post on his Web site, which gave into the former Dismemberment Plan lead singer’s fate the second that this review ran: His career in music is over. Pitchfork reported on it, but it’s kind of like kicking the corpse after they killed it. Fortunately, Morrison has a nice backup career in the form of a job working for the Huffington Post. • source

02 Jul 2009 22:52

tags

Offbeat: We’re not sure what this sewer monster is, but it’s a YouTube hit

  • This looks like the craziest thing we’ve ever seen, and we’re sure it’s going to eat us. This video managed to top Michael Jackson as the most popular thing on YouTube this week, and we can see why. We’re guessing Jackson died because he was afraid it was going to eat him at his imaginary tour stop in Raleigh.source