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11 Jun 2010 21:31

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Politics: Charles Schumer justifies Gaza blockade with straight-wrong facts

  • Yo, Charles, what happened? The New York Senator, who is Jewish, woefully misinformed a Orthodox Union crowd by saying that most Palestinians don’t support a two-state solution in Israel. Actually, they do. By using this train of thought, he gets to this conclusion: “Since the Palestinians in Gaza elected Hamas, while certainly there should be humanitarian aid and people not starving to death, to strangle them economically until they see that’s not the way to go, makes sense.” It’s no Helen Thomas-level gaffe, sure, but what an awful justification. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Jun 2010 21:09

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Tech: Dear Phil Corbett: Shut up and let us tweet in peace. OK?

  • Some social-media fans may disagree, but outside of ornithological contexts, ‘tweet’ has not yet achieved the status of standard English. And standard English is what we should use in news articles.
  • New York Times standards editor Phil Corbett • For some reason fighting the flow of the English language, which has already decided to call Twitter posts “tweets” (lowercase). Corbett calls the word “inherently silly” and says it’s possible people may not even be using the site in a year. OK, this would be fine if he had any good recommendations. But what does he come up with? “But let’s look for deft, English alternatives: use Twitter, post to or on Twitter, write on Twitter, a Twitter message, a Twitter update. Or, once you’ve established that Twitter is the medium, simply use ‘say’ or ‘write.’ ” In other words, he has no good ideas for what to call this thing that he’s railing against. How about we call it “tweet,” Phil? Seems like a reasonable name. It also seems dumb for a guy who uses “ornithological” to complain about the clarity of language.  source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

11 Jun 2010 20:50

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Biz, U.S.: Fun oil spill fact: BP is just as much American as it is British

  • 40% the amount of the company owned by British shareholders; another 40 percent is owned by Americans
  • 7.3% the amount BP’s stock went up in the U.K. after the British government gave them a show of support today
  • 3.5% the amount the stock went up in the U.S. after the announcement; it’s been sucking in recent weeks source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Jun 2010 20:42

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Biz: Own a home in the Gulf? To put it simply, you’re screwed. *sigh*

  • 10%
    decline     the amount the oil spill could depress home prices in the Gulf region
  • $4.3
    billion     the actual financial figure you could put on that total (holy crap) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Jun 2010 20:30

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U.S.: To our friends camping in Arkansas: Thoughts and prayers, guys

300 people were camping along the Caddo and Little Missouri Rivers when the floodwaters got insanely high. 16 people were killed and dozens are still missing. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

11 Jun 2010 20:15

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Music: One-word album reviews: Christina Aguilera no Lady Gaga

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Jun 2010 14:58

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Tech: Gawker/Goatse Security/AT&T/Apple update: Something happened

  • yes Gawker was contacted by the FBI as part of an investigation into that 3G iPad data leak thang.
  • unlikely The chance that the FBI has a case; Goatse Security grabbed their info from a public site. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

11 Jun 2010 11:38

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Culture: Dear Michael Jordan: Lose the Hitler mustache, dude

  • This has actually been bothering us for a while. MJ may be the retired king of the basketball court, but it doesn’t mean he can get away with anything. This ‘stache of his, which he’s been wearing for a while, actually, randomly started getting attention after he wore it in this Hanes ad. Dude. It looks stupid. There, we said it. Charles Barkley (hilariously) agrees with us: “That is one of the stupidest things that I have seen in a long time,” he said recently. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Jun 2010 11:24

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Music: Thank the Lord. Sufjan Stevens is finally working on his next album

  • We’ve played on some of the tracks and been listening to some of the stuff as he’s been working on it. … It’s going to be incredible. It’s going to probably blow people’s minds.
  • The National’s Bryce Dessner • Revealing that Sufjan Stevens finally got off his butt and decided to start recording that new album, a whole five years after “Illinois” (and a whole year after we scolded him for keeping fans waiting). It’s not like he’s been quiet, though. He still runs his Asthmatic Kitty label, he’s done Christmas music, he released his “The BQE” art project last year, and he’s been a little too frank in interviews. No word on whether this will be another “state” album. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Jun 2010 11:06

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U.S.: Yikes: Arlington Cemetery’s got a bunch of mishandled graves

  • 211 out of 300,000 ain’t bad, right? (actually, yes) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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