They plan to keep fighting for them. The interchange fees, which merchants often complain about as being too high for certain transactions, could put a big crimp in Visa and MasterCard’s bottom line if regulated as part of a broader financial reform package. “We lost this battle. It’s a big battle,” said MasterCard’s President for U.S. Markets Chris McWilton. “But the war wages on and we’ll be working really hard over the next week or so to stop this.” If you own a small business, watch this battle. source
You get Tennessee pride and the feeling that if there was looting here, the national media would be all over it. I think that’s unfair, but that’s the way some people view it.
Tennessean editor Mark Silverman • Regarding the way that the mainstream media mostly glossed over a huge story – a massive flood in Nashville that killed 30 people. But why? The simple answer is that there were seemingly bigger, more nuanced stories happening that week, and a major flood seems old hat. It’s absolutely the worst way to think about it, but it seemingly couldn’t compete with terrorism (the failed Times Square bombing, where nobody died) or a slightly-more-epic disaster (the BP oil spill). The truth is, though, the story got underplayed by the usual suspects, to the point where Anderson Cooper took his crew down there later in the week and apologized for not getting down there sooner. source
before Iran seemed close to reaching
a deal on enriching 2,640 pounds
of uranium that pleased the West,
then got all grumblely. Then it
enriched more uranium.
now Iran actually signed an agreement
with Turkey and Brazil to do
basically the same thing, which
is surprising, but now they have
more uranium. source
This classic of viral video form has been floating around the Web for a solid half-decade or so. Winnebago Man, a.k.a. Jack Rebney, proved himself the master of profanity in the above video, a clip Conan O’Brien named one of his favorite YouTube clips as part of their fifth anniversary celebration, and will get a banner treatment later this year as part of the awesome-sounding documentary “Winnebago Man.” True story: The guy now lives on a mountain. source