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07 May 2010 23:27

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Culture: The White Pages starting to look as outdated as the 8-track

  • 1/9 of New York households use the white pages; the rest aren’t time-travelers
  • 9,000 tons of paper could be saved yearly if the White Pages went away source

07 May 2010 21:45

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Biz: Stock market: All the gains this year, gone, and then some

  • 7.4% the Dow’s decline from its peak this year
  • 8.7% the S&P 500’s decline from its April peak
  • 10.5% the Nasdaq’s decline; it’s in a correction source
  • » Today’s action: It wasn’t much better than yesterday, honestly. The market bounced back and forth all morning before staying firmly in the down column. The Dow lost 140 points today, or 1.3 percent of its value. Sucks to own stocks, doesn’t it? source

07 May 2010 13:38

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U.S.: Times Square evacuation false alarm: Go about your business

  • It was a bunch of water bottles, guys. Six days after the last incident, and just a couple of days after a false alarm involving the RFK bridge, part of Times Square was evacuated again because of a package that arrived about an hour ago. Sorry for the rough week, New Yorkers. We’ll keep you posted. (Update: CNN is reporting that the incident, much like the RFK bridge incident, was a false alarm. Whew. Between this and the stock market, our blood pressure has been going way up lately.) source

07 May 2010 13:01

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07 May 2010 12:25

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Offbeat: Unlucky dog owner offered a rebate coupon by Delta Airlines

  • $200 off next flight over that dog we lost somehow source

07 May 2010 12:04

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U.S.: Scary: Chicago Metra’s director has Metra enact his final directive

  • He threw himself in front of a train and was killed. The commuter rail system’s executive director, Phil Pagano, killed himself near Crystal Lake, Ill. earlier this morning. Pagano, who had been in the position since 1990, was put on paid administrative leave last month after he gave himself an unauthorized $56,000 bonus last year. Wow. source

07 May 2010 11:24

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World: The British elections: Nobody really came out ahead this year

  • +88 number of seats the Tories gained (not enough to lead outright)
  • -94 number of seats
    Labour lost (enough to fall out of power)
  • -5 number of seats Lib Dems lost (so much for big gains) source
  • » So what’s next, anyway?: With the hung Parliament, nobody has enough votes to lead completely, so right now, the two major parties are trying to court the Liberal Democrats. Whoever can win them over will have proxy leadership over Parliament.
 

07 May 2010 11:13

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Culture: “Iron Man 2” can’t keep up the luster of the original

  • 57 the second film’s disappointing Metacritic score source

07 May 2010 11:08

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Biz: “Flash Crash”: Senators set sights on automated trading

  • A computer glitch caused yesterday’s crash. High-speed algorithmic trading, which accounts for nearly 60 percent of all trading volume, is already under scrutiny by regulators due to the financial crisis. Now, thanks to yesterday’s buttcrack, some Senators are suggesting an investigation. Many are concerned that the automated system can fall out of the control of regulators, causing cluster#(&@s such as the one we saw yesterday. With good reason. source

07 May 2010 10:49

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U.S.: How much oil is currently leaking in the Gulf of Mexico, anyway?

  • use this really cool embed to find out all you need to know about the oil leak, just add numbers source