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

12 May 2010 22:02

tags

Music: One-word album reviews: The National is this year’s Phoenix, guys

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 May 2010 21:14

tags

Biz, U.S.: The federal deficit blew the roof off of April’s record

  • 19 straight months of federal
    deficit increases source
  • » Why it’s alarming this time: It’s relatively rare for deficit increases to happen in the month of April, due to the fact that it’s tax season and lots of revenue is coming in. In fact, there’s been an April surplus 43 of the last 56 years. Even crazier, the increase this April was four times bigger than last April, from $20 billion to $83 billion. That’s also twice the Wall Street estimate of $40 billion.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 8 Comments • Permalink

12 May 2010 20:56

tags

World: Three things Britain’s new coalition government wants to do

  • More consistent votes Create a more consistent schedule of leadership change by setting elections for parliament for every five years. The legislature can do it sooner if 55 percent of parliament votes to do so.
  • Austerity measures Like much of Europe, the coalition government plans to do something about the large amount of debt it’s built up. It won’t be quite as insane as Greece, but expect some things to get cut out of the budget.
  • Creating jobs 2.5 million Britons are unemployed, a number that might affect the strength of the coalition if they don’t do something about it. Expect Clegg’s people and Cameron’s people to be on it. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 May 2010 20:28

tags

Biz: Mark Cuban sued for sucking at running the Dallas Mavericks

  • $273
    million     amount the Mavericks
    have lost in Cuban’s nine years
    of running the team
  • 76%
    share     amount of the team Cuban owns;
    Ross Perot Jr. owns 5 percent, and
    he’s mad source
  • » Why’s he getting sued? Simply put, Perot (the former presidential candidate’s son) thinks that Cuban is putting an unsustainable amount of debt on the team, and that they’ll become insolvent over time. The famously outspoken Cuban, who bought most of the team from Perot back in 2000, has enough money in his bank account and a diverse enough portfolio of businesses to ensure that doesn’t happen, and suggests that Perot is merely looking to get out of the deal.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 May 2010 19:42

tags

World: No. 1 reason for weak Japanese leadership: A taste for ugly shirts

Just 24 percent of the Japanese approve of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. Why? Some suggest it’s because he apparently doesn’t know how to dress himself. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 May 2010 11:03

tags

Biz: Wal-Mart forgot to pay workers in California some of their wages

  • $86M
     the possible size of the total settlement, based on underpaid wages and vacation time
  • 232k
     the number of former workers that could benefit from the class-action suit
  • $370 the amount that would net each employee, on average, which isn’t that much source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 May 2010 10:37

tags

World: Holy crap: Sinkhole kills entire family in Quebec

  • strangeness The family was just at home minding their own business when the ground below their home started to fall apart in a mudslide.
  • sadness A day later, after a crew of rescuers tried to help, four people – the entire family – was found dead inside the home. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

12 May 2010 10:24

tags

Tech: Ho-hum: Another iPhone 4G prototype found in the wild

This one showed up in Vietnam and apparently was further along in the design process than the one lost in the Silicon Valley bar. It uses Apple’s A4 chip. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 May 2010 10:12

tags

Politics: Elena Kagan’s big public problem? People don’t know her yet

  • 40% of people have a positive or fair opinion of Kagan
  • 36% have a fair or negative opinion of the Supreme Court nominee
  • 24% are wondering who the heck you’re talking about source
  • » How does this compare? Not very well, actually. People’s positive opinions of Kagan are lower than any of the other four nominees since 2005, including a full seven points below Sonia Sotomayor. The reason for this, mostly, is the high number of “no opinions” – most of Bush’s choices scored around 15 percent there.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 May 2010 09:47

tags

Biz: The U.S. trade deficit widens in March. What does that mean?

  • $188B the value of goods the U.S. imported from other countries in March
  • $147B the value of goods the U.S. exported to other countries in March
  • $40.4B the gap between
    the two     – a.k.a. our trade deficit source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
top tags
older >>