Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on Twitter • Be a Facebook Fan • Tumble us!

13 Sep 2009 12:20

tags

Biz: Let’s not pretend that newspapers aren’t dying. Let’s talk about it.

  • It’s a bold approach to take. Newspapers across the U.S. have felt the devastating effects of the economy on their business, and the San Jose Mercury News is a microcosm for the whole mess. Caught in the center of more than one major storm – the merging of Knight Ridder with McClatchy (which destabilized the entire industry), its purchase by MediaNews, and the ensuing cuts – the paper went from crown jewel to shell of its former self in a few short years. Mercury News columnist Mike Cassidy asks for help from readers in today’s paper – it’s frank, it’s honest and it hides nothing. Good for them. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Sep 2009 12:08

tags

Culture: Saturday Night Live’s guest stars and hosts: Big Emmy winners

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Sep 2009 12:03

tags

U.S.: Here’s a quote in the Jaycee Dugard case bound to stick with you

  • That’s the one I want. She’s cute, but she’s with the other kids. Let’s come back later and get her.
  • Phillip Garrido (according to his wife, Nancy) • When the couple went “child-shopping” before Jaycee Dugard’s capture. He was looking for a cute blonde, and Dugard fit the bill. You remember that whole thing you were told as a kid about not talking to strangers and that sort of thing? This is why. People like Phillip Garrido are actually out there. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Sep 2009 11:55

tags

U.S.: Captured: A guy who recently robbed a bunch of banks

  • The basics ten banks
    four states
    one angry guy
    one goatee     source
  • The basics ten banks
    four states
    one angry guy
    one goatee
  • The angry robber Chad Schaffner, Most Wanted bank robber source
  • The basics ten banks
    four states
    one angry guy
    one goatee
  • The angry robber Chad Schaffner, Most Wanted bank robber
  • The details Chad Schaffner, a guy with a long history of criminal activity, was arrested yesterday in Kingdom City, Missouri as a suspect in numerous bank robberies. His face was plastered on billboards across the South, which led to his capture. Nobody was hurt in any of the robberies. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 3 Comments • Permalink

13 Sep 2009 11:40

tags

Tech: Cut the crap: Is Facebook Lite a smart direction for all software?

Giving people software in a lite version that simplifies the feature set – while keeping the full version around – is smart, says Technologizer’s Harry McCracken. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Sep 2009 11:28

tags

Politics: Joe Wilson: You got one apology from me. You’re not getting two.

  • I’ve apologized one time. The apology was accepted by the president, the vice president. … I am not apologizing again. I believe that is sufficient.
  • South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson • Talking to “Fox News Sunday” about the “You Lie!” incident. Democrats are pushing for Wilson to apologize on the House floor, but Wilson is pushing back. He also stands behind his remark, if not the way it was presented: “I believe in the truth. What I heard was not true. I believe (Obama) was misstating the facts.”  • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Sep 2009 10:58

tags

U.S.: South Carolina has a well-funded House campaign on its hands

  • $1+ million each for Joe “You Lie!” Wilson and his opponent source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

13 Sep 2009 10:52

tags

World: So now we know a little about how swine flu came to be

  • two strains of the flu in a single pig mutated together and turned into the supervirus that is swine flu source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Sep 2009 10:46

tags

Sports: Serena Williams, wow. Just wow. Way to lose a match all crazy-like.

  • Dear Serena Williams, thank you for making tennis vaguely exciting for once. Sincerely, the ShortFormBlog staff. xoxosource
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Sep 2009 16:11

tags

Music: Saturday Mixtape: Os Mutantes, or why Brazilian music freaking rocks



Welcome back, insanely progressive Brazilian musical icons. We wanted to commemorate Os Mutantes' first album in 33 years, Haih Or Amortecedor, by looking back a little at music of their homeland. Warning: Four of these five songs are in Portuguese, but rule anyway.
  • 1. The females in the Tropicalia movement, including Os Mutantes’ Rita Lee (later a famous solo artist in her own right) and Gal Costa, had this wonderful way of blending their voices into the productions around them perfectly. On Costa’s “Lost in the Paradise,” there’s just as much quiet storm-style R&B as traditional Brazilian elements.
    2. “Telcar” is Os Mutantes’ first single from the new album. What’s surprising about it is that even though it clearly has modern, non-experimental production values (and only features one member of the original band), it still feels of another era in the best way possible.
    3. Caetano Veloso is one of Brazillian music’s greatest songwriters with a reach starting with Tropicalia and far into Brazilian popular music. He’s written hundreds of Brazilian standards, including “Soy Loco Por Tí, América.”
    4. The English lyrics to “Chuckberry Fields Forever,” a Gilberto Gil song performed by late-70s Brazilian supergroup Doces Barbaros, tell of how rock had a permanent impact on traditional Brazilian music. The music acts as evidence.
    5. Despite the fact that that this is a Giberto Gil/Caetano Veloso ditty, “Bat Macumba” is likely more known to American audiences for the Os Mutantes version, which played centerpiece to the band’s 1999 David Byrne compilation and is one of the band’s best-known songs. It loses little in Gil’s version.source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
<< newer 
top tags
older >>