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09 May 2010 11:47

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Biz: The still-spreading Gulf oil spill is costly to BP’s bottom line

  • $10 million for BP to clean up
    the oil spill daily source

09 May 2010 11:43

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Politics: Joe the Plumber says John Wayne should play him in a movie

  • I definitely cried when ‘Old Yeller’ got shot. I also cried in ‘Remember the Titans.’
  • Sam “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher • In an fairly cheeky interview with AOL News. On the scale of attractiveness, Wurzelbacher gives himself a 7. He types with three fingers, not two. He says he wishes John Wayne were alive so he could play him in a movie. And he notes that when he was 28, he could bench press over 450 pounds. The conservative icon recently became a politician, winning a seat on the Republican party committee in Lucas County, Ohio. And he knows when to cry at a movie. source

09 May 2010 11:33

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Politics: Obama dislikes modern technology’s role in democracy

  • What he said about new tech In his commencement speech at Hampton University yesterday, the president threw out this gem: “With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations – none of which I know how to work – information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation.” He also notes that it allows false claims to quickly gain traction.
  • Why we (mostly) disagree May we note that all those new ways to get information empower us to hear a huge diversity of voices? While we agree that this technology has an addictive element to it, the fact of the matter is, it empowers a diversity of voices that didn’t exist even a decade ago. And plus, Obama’s arguments could easily apply to television or radio, if you think about it. We do agree with the false claims part, though. source

09 May 2010 11:16

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World: Russia’s got deadly mine blasts of its own to deal with

  • 12 miners have already
    died in the dual blasts
    at Russia’s largest coal mine last night
  • 41 were wounded in the blast, near the western Siberian town of Mezhdurechensk
  • 64 miners are still stuck,
    along with 19 rescuers
    who were trying to get
    them out source

09 May 2010 11:01

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U.S.: That ferry in Staten Island has had a long history of problems

  • 1981 During the ship’s initial
    launch, the engine
    stopped and the steering
    died, and it crashed. Oof.
  • 1995 The ship had a crash
    caused by a propulsion
    problem similar to the
    crash on Saturday.
  • 2003 Eleven people died (and
    70 were injured) after the
    ship’s assistant captain
    passed out. source

09 May 2010 10:46

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U.S.: Bob Bennett out: In Utah, Republicans throw over one of their own

  • The political atmosphere, obviously, has been toxic and it’s very clear some of the votes that I have cast have added to the toxic environment. Looking back on them, with one or two very minor exceptions, I wouldn’t have cast them any differently even if I’d known at the time it would cost me my career.
  • Utah Sen. Bob Bennett • Regarding his shocking loss at the Utah Republican Convention, where he was ousted in favor of two fresh faces – Tim Bridgewater and Mike Lee, who will face each other in a June primary. Bennett, a three-term politician, is the first Utah senator ousted by his party since 1940. Fellow Sen. Orrin Hatch said he felt bad for his counterpart, “But you know, people are angry. They’re really upset at the way things are going and I think to a degree that’s what hurt him.” source

09 May 2010 10:30

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Culture: The Betty White “Saturday Night Live” episode: Full of win

  • Her one-liners are pretty priceless. How did the 88-year-old Betty White get on “SNL” anyway? Facebook, of course. She gives the site lots of credit, but gets in a lot of ribbing in the process. “In my day, seeing pictures of people’s vacations was considered a punishment.” Many of the sketches this time were pretty stellar.
 

09 May 2010 10:10

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U.S., World: Attorney General: Pakistani Taliban behind Times Square plot

  • last week Almost immediately the Pakistani
    Taliban claimed responsibility for
    the failed Times Square attack.
    Then, later, they denied it.
  • “this week” On the Sunday talk show, Attorney
    General Eric Holder pinned the
    attack on them. We’re waiting for a
    reversal of the claim. source