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30 Jun 2010 22:14

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Culture: M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Last Airbender” bends towards total fail

30 Jun 2010 21:50

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Politics: You happy, National Enquirer? Al Gore massage case reopened

  • Because it’s going to go somewhere … yeah. Thanks to all the new attention the massage/sexual assault report has been getting, the Portland Police Department reopened the case today. Gore’s people are optimistic that it won’t hurt the former presidential wannabe, with one spokesperson saying reopened the case “will only benefit Mr. Gore.” In other news, we wonder what fellow National Enquirer-outed presidential wannabe (and Lindsay Lohan wannabe) John Edwards has been up to lately … source

30 Jun 2010 21:23

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Politics: Retreat your armies: Rick Barber’s big talk fades away on “Hardball”

  • Why do you keep saying government is tyranny?
  • Chris Matthews • During an interview with Alabama congressional candidate Rick “gather your armies” Barber, who completely flopped during his interview with the MSNBC talker. He doesn’t seem so convicted about his anti-income-tax, pro-rebellion criticisms in front of Matthews, who takes apart every claim of Barber’s colonial-motif ad and lays it flat on the table. It’s like Rand Paul, except more embarrassing. source

30 Jun 2010 21:02

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Biz: A little Woot! (wait, a big Woot!) for our friends at Woot!

  • Well, that’s the funniest thing we’ve seen all day. Woot.com is one of the coolest concepts for shopping online anywhere, and they’re totally irreverent to boot. And now that Amazon has acquired them, that’s gonna change, right? Actually, no. See, Amazon acquired a similarly irreverent site called Zappos.com about a year ago, and they left the corporate culture alone. The company’s CEO, Matt Rutledge, puts it this way: “We plan to continue to run Woot the way we have always run Woot – with a wall of ideas and a dartboard.” source

30 Jun 2010 20:24

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U.S.: Financial reform plows through the House (and maybe the Senate?)

  • 237-192 with just three
    GOP votes source
  • no The Senate won’t get it passed and signed by their July 4 deadline.
  • yes Robert Byrd’s timely death is the specific reason for the holdup.
  • maybe The Senate might have enough votes to pass it – possibly. source

30 Jun 2010 12:19

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Culture: “Is this real life?” David After Dentist family cashes in on YouTube fame

  • Maybe it’s exploitation. Maybe it’s just good fortune. But this classic viral video helped David DeVore Jr. and his family make $150,000 in a year – most of it off of ads on the video’s YouTube page. Between those, T-shirt sales, deals for medical scrubs and a spot in a Super Bowl ad, the family has totally cashed in during a period where his father, David DeVore Sr., could have been in dire straits. See, before this, he was a real estate agent. In Florida. You know, the worst place in the country to be a real estate agent. source

30 Jun 2010 11:16

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Tech: Dell’s history of selling crapboxes catches up with them

  • 11.8
    million
    number of faulty PCs Dell sold between 2003 and 2005
  • 97%
    failure
    the rate at which those crappy computers failed source
  • » And yes, there’s a lawsuit: During the period, Dell sold all these crappy computers to major companies, some of which were brought to their knees by their hardware failures. They were caused by capacitor failures that affected the industry at large. However, Dell never issued a recall and, worse, KNOWINGLY SOLD the defective machines in an effort to save as much money as possible. The company has set aside $100 million to pay any potential settlement over the crappy black boxes, and already took a $300 million charge to repair the machines in 2005. Ever wonder why your work computers broke so easily a while back? This is why.
 

30 Jun 2010 11:01

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U.S.: New Russian spies more boring, hotter than Cold War-era spies

  • Gotta love Russian spies. Especially spies who grow lettuce in their gardens. And raise kids. And do things that normal families would do. And one femme fatale, Anna Chapman (can’t forget about her). We’re pretty sure she’s the redhead on the left. source

30 Jun 2010 10:42

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30 Jun 2010 10:33

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World: Nice try, Taliban: NATO fends off an attack on their Afghan air base

  • In this incident several insurgents were killed and I can tell you that the security perimeter was not breached and the insurgents were being stopped by Afghan and ISAF forces very effectively.
  • NATO spokesman Brigadier General Josef Blotz • Refuting claims by the Taliban that they killed dozens of Afghan and coalition fighters in the midst of a firefight outside Jalalabad’s Bagram Air Base. Instead, six Taliban solders were killed and two coalition soliders were wounded. The Taliban’s attack was flashy but ineffective – first a car bomb went off and then a bunch of insurgents tried to storm the air base, but never got close. source