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23 Apr 2010 20:56

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Culture: A little more on Bret Michaels’ condition; it’s not good

  • The Poison singer has a subarachnoid hemorrhage. What’s that, you ask? Well, it’s bleeding in the area between the brain and the tissues that cover the brain (his is at the base of the brain stem). It starts out with a huge headache, usually, and is brought on by a number of risk factors. It can also be the result of injury, so the “Rock of Love” star’s fall at the Tonys is still on the table. Unfortunately, the risk of death in this case is very high, even after treatment. We feel bad for the guy and hope he pulls through. source

23 Apr 2010 17:36

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Culture: Remember Bret Michaels at the Tonys? Not sayin’, just sayin’.

  • Look, we don’t know the full story yet. But the tumble that Michaels took here at the Tonys is exactly the kind of thing, if he fell the wrong way, that might cause something like a hemorrhage to the brain in the long term. He also had an emergency appendectomy just a week ago. And diabetes. And he’s a hair-metal rocker known for his hard-partying ways. In other words, dude has an insane medical history. We hope he’s OK. We’re pulling for you, man. source

23 Apr 2010 17:19

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23 Apr 2010 17:12

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U.S.: Arizona governor signs super-harsh immigration bill into law

  • What the law does The law gives law enforcement the right to question those they think are illegal immigrants. It forces them to keep their papers on them at all times. And it punishes those that help harbor them – by hiring them or knowingly transporting them.
  • Why it’s controversial Simply put, critics of the law feel that it gives into racial profiling. Obama, specifically, calls the law “misguided” and says the law threatens “to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans.”
  • A key compromise Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signed the bill into law, but also pushed through an executive order designed to train law enforcement officials not to engage in racial profiling. Will it work? Who knows, but it might be a fun ride. source

23 Apr 2010 15:12

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Offbeat: Feel-good story: 99-year-old woman’s first computer an iPad

  • Admit it, you needed a pick-me up. Good thing we have Virginia Campbell, the 99-year-old woman and nursing home resident making sense of her new digital toy. The poet and writer had never owned a computer before, but read a lot. Unfortunately, her eyesight was going bad, so the hype around the device sucked her in. And now she can read on this device really easily. Man, she’s gonna be so upset when she realizes it doesn’t run Flash. source

23 Apr 2010 15:00

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Tech: Blippy folks on credit card leak: No, really, it’s not that bad, guys

  • While it looks super-scary and certainly sucks for the 4 people who were affected (to whom we apologize and are contacting), and is embarrassing to us, it’s a lot less bad than it looks at first glance.
  • A message from Blippy • Attempting to do damage control after it turned out some credit card numbers leaked. They claim just four cards were exposed through a Google search that looked fairly scary and got spread just about everywhere. The company better hope that’s the case – it just went through a venture capital round and doesn’t need this level of controversy right now. source

23 Apr 2010 13:35

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U.S.: SEC officials too busy watching porn to prevent financial crisis

  • 31 Securities and Exchange Commission officials were nailed watching porn in the last two and a half years
  • 17 of those idiot workers were senior staffers who made between $100,000 to $222,000 per year source
 

23 Apr 2010 13:25

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23 Apr 2010 13:16

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Tech: Blippy’s got some oversharing problems on its hands

  • yesterday The New York Times publishes an article on Blippy in regards to the privacy concerns it raises – it shares once-confidential info on your purchases with your friends.
  • today A VentureBeat reporter found the reason this might be an awful idea. They found a Google search that exposes users’ credit card numbers. (!) Oh boy. source

23 Apr 2010 11:31

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Biz: Home sales, once looking weak, made a huge March jump

  • 27% increase in new home sales in March
  • four number of months of declines prior to the leap
  • 1963 the last time home sales rose this much source
  • » But why? Credit a tax break that’s about to expire and weather that sucked less than it did in February (when home sales hit a record low). The strange part? The tax break had been in effect each of the four months prior, when home sales weren’t so hot.