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27 Apr 2010 10:45

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Biz: Ford kicking butt, taking names, selling Tauruses this quarter

  • $2.1B the size of Ford’s profit
    in the current quarter; that makes a whole year of profit for them
  • 2005 the last time the bailout-free company
    had four straight quarters of big profits
  • 96% the increase in sales the company’s revamped Ford Taurus has seen this quarter source

27 Apr 2010 10:33

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Offbeat: When this Amtrak train goes by, it goes “mooooooooooo”

  • Amtrak’s new train runs on beef. Yes, beef. The travel option of third-to-last resort (it tops Chinatown buses and *shudder* Greyhound buses) has a new line running from Oklahoma City to Forth Worth, and it’s using a type of biodiesel fuel called B20. What’s B20, you ask? 80 percent diesel fuel, 20 percent beef byproducts. Yeah, it’s technically biodiesel, but eww. source

27 Apr 2010 10:21

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Biz: People still getting plastic surgery – just less of it (fortunately)

  • $10 billion spent on plastic surgery procedures last year source
  • » The recession hit, kinda: With spending down and unemployment up, fewer people have been going under the knife for vanity. But not by much. It’s down just three percent from 2008.

27 Apr 2010 10:12

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Politics: Sen. Lindsey Graham an oddball ’cause he tries to compromise

  • I guess the word ‘maverick’ is out of vogue. But I would say he’s courageous. He’s willing to risk political capital in order to solve problems. Everybody scratches their head about it, because such a trait is unusual.
  • GOP consultant John Weaver • Regarding Sen. Lindsey Graham and his ability to put his political stature on the line to actually work with people. The climate change thing has him angry because he spent a lot of time putting himself on the line. It’s led to a tight relationship with the White House, even if it is a little biting at times. “Rahm has a good relationship with him,” said press secretary Robert Gibbs. “The president has a good relationship with him. Many folks here do.” source

27 Apr 2010 09:55

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U.S.: The military’s top enemy, after the Taliban? PowerPoint

  • “When we understand that slide, we’ll have won the war.” The military has a problem with PowerPoint presentations taking over their lives, to the point where some top military officers refuse to use the program. If it sounds like an absurdly postmodern problem for a major military force to have, that’s because it is. Our military is becoming a “Dilbert” strip. source

27 Apr 2010 09:40

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Tech: Apple’s censorship police targets another op-ed cartoonist

Apple rejected cartoonist Daryl Cagle’s iPhone app, “Tiger Woods Cartoons,” because it ridiculed a pulbic figure. Yo Apple, this is a stupid policy. source