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

28 Mar 2010 10:40

tags

Biz: Volvo cars: Once Swedish, then American, now going Chinese

  • $1.8 billion sale of Volvo cars from Ford to China’s Geely source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Mar 2010 10:35

tags

Tech: Microsoft admits it screwed up search, focused on the wrong thing

  • Google owns the “long tail” results. MS is just trying to accept its niche. Why did Microsoft reboot its entire search engine last year? Simple. They realized it was focusing on the wrong thing, good results for obvious searches, when the real money was to be made in more obscure results. “On any given a month,” said Microsoft Bing manager Yusuf Mehdi, “one-third of queries that show up on Bing, it’s the first time we’ve ever seen that query. A huge chunk of those, we’ll never see again.” As a result, Bing has a different focus, one that involves partnerships with startups and depth on intelligent queries. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Mar 2010 10:13

tags

Culture: “Battlefield Earth” scribe apologizes for writing worst movie ever

  • OK dude, but that still doesn’t get us our refund! In today’s New York Post, J.D. Shapiro apologizes for the mess of a movie that is Battlefield Earth (a.k.a. Travolta’s Waterloo). He notes that he had written it in a different way than it had been portrayed (with Travolta calling it, we spit you not, “The Schindler’s List of sci-fi”), but many changes were forced upon the film due to John Travolta’s influence. (Apparently L. Ron Hubbard kept a lot of notes.) In other news, Scientology is a cult. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Mar 2010 10:02

tags

World: Benjamin Netanyahu’s probably gonna fire the guy who said this

  • We’ve got a real problem. You could say that Obama is the greatest disaster for Israel – a strategic disaster.
  • An anonymous quote from a Benjamin Netanyahu confidante • Regarding the Obama administration, who Netanyahu had a fun meeting with last week. The quote, which was paraphrased in a banner headline in Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, was bashed by Netanyahu’s office in a statement: “The prime minister emphatically rejects the anonymous quotes about President Obama that a newspaper attributed to one of his confidants, and he condemns them.” Who’s getting fired? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Mar 2010 09:50

tags

World: Thai protests turn a civil corner, get a live-television airing

  • protesters Thailand’s red-shirt protesters, supporters of ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, were able to get a debate on live TV. One key statement: “Our request is simple and direct: dissolve parliament for the people to decide again.”
  • leader Thai leader Abhisit Vejjajiva was willing to talk to protesters, but made it clear he wouldn’t bend to their demands. “I have to make a decision based on a consensus from the entire country, not just the Red-Shirts,” he said. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Mar 2010 21:19

tags

Offbeat: Police car finds a formidable foe in the form of a bulldog

  • Holy God. The bulldog wins. The Chattanooga Police Department learned on Sunday that they really need to stop buying front bumpers made out of rawhide for their police vehicles. Winston, the bulldog behind the attack, was set free on “good behavior.” Is this is good behavior, we’re scared to see when it acts up. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Mar 2010 20:55

tags

Culture: Christine Daniels (and Mike Penner) still a sore spot for the L.A. Times

  • She said she didn’t want to be the spokesperson for anything, but unfortunately that’s what she had become.
  • Los Angeles Times blogs editor Tony Pierce • Regarding the pain sportswriter Christine Daniels, a transsexual formerly known as Mike Penner, eventually felt towards her very public identity change. Initially, Daniels wanted to use her status as a L.A. Times reporter to make the change a megaphone, but later felt so pressured by the change that she changed back to Penner and eventually broke many of her ties to the transgender community. Penner killed himself last year. Many Times reporters still won’t talk about the incident, including the brother and ex-wife he worked with. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

27 Mar 2010 19:53

tags

U.S.: Obama conspiracy theorists: Here’s some proof he may be Jewish

That’s right, Obama has a yearly presidential Seder, a tradition he started with his staff in 2008. No other president has had one. Get your tinfoil hats, boys. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Mar 2010 19:11

tags

Music: Saturday Mixtape: We’re suckers for a hazy, summery vibe

  • Summer can’t come soon enough for indie rockers, it seems, because the sound du jour at the moment is a hazy brand of indie rock, much less abrasive than 2008’s noisy lo-fi model (we’re looking at you, No Age and Wavves). Guitars, synths, doesn’t matter: The vibe is key here. And it started with some guy named Ariel Pink.

  • 1. The sad, whining tone of the guitar intro on The Morning Benders’ “Excuses” gives way to a fairly clean sound, but it’s one clearly informed by the calming fuzz of a warm summer day. The Beach Boys wrote the outline, but not the plot, here.
  • 2. They like Neon Indian, they really like him. Last year, the Nintendo-baked project actually drew a degree of success that put it in the forefront of the “chillwave” movement. It’s a lot more accessible than some of the other stuff here. In a good way.
  • 3. A buddy of Animal Collective, Ariel Pink never got the critical praise of his mentors, until it became clear that indie’s path was colliding into his often-bizarre, noise-worn sounds. This song, one of the hundreds he’s recorded over the years, had a proper release way back in 2004, yet it fits in perfectly here. Hm. With the extra attention (he recently signed to big indie 4AD), expect him to have a solid 2010.
  • 4. Bradford Cox, too, has been around a while between Deerhunter and Atlas Sound, but his last Atlas Sound album “Logos,” has a definite worn-out-summer vibe that fits perfectly here. It’s one not reflected in any of his previous albums, but seems to nail the moment perfectly. When we hear “My Halo,” want to laze out. Seriously.
  • 5. Somewhere, below the layers of noise covering up Best Coast’s “Sun Was High (So Was I),” is a killer hook in a killer female vocal. Like the best hooks, it cuts through, saying “listen to me again.” And usually, we’re forced to comply.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Mar 2010 17:38

tags

U.S.: Obama leaps over Senate’s head, issues 15 recess appointments

  • I simply cannot allow partisan politics to stand in the way of the basic functioning of government.
  • President Barack Obama • Regarding the recess appointments that he pushed through today. The appointments are only temporary – they can only serve through the end of 2011. But he was at the point where he needed to do something, due to the immense amount of gridlock in the Senate right now. 217 of his nominees are currently waiting for confirmation, 34 of them over six months. The Republicans fought against this, but it’s not exactly an uncommon thing he’s doing – George W. Bush also had 15 recess appointments at this point of his presidency. At the end of their eight-year terms, both Bush and his wipe buddy Bill Clinton had over 130 each – Bush more than Clinton. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
<< newer 
top tags
older >>