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10 Jun 2010 10:41

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World: In Afghanistan, a suicide bomber turns a wedding into a disaster

  • 40+ number of people killed in the suicide bombing, during a wedding in the village of Nagahan
  • 70+ number of people injured; the groom was a anti-Taliban militia member who was badly injured source

10 Jun 2010 10:34

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Politics: Sad state of affairs: The new Oprah is … Glenn freaking BECK?!

  • This book is Amazon’s top seller. It’s not exactly a barn-burner. It’s not new. It’s a tome written against the dangers of socialism in the wake of World War II, which shouldn’t exactly be flying off shelves. But it is. Why? Because Glenn Beck devoted an entire show to it. Which means that – sigh – Glenn Beck singlehandedly has the power to make books popular. Crap. We’re going back to bed. We didn’t wake up for this. source

10 Jun 2010 10:18

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Biz: Between searches and Twitter, BP’s PR defense mechanism is in full force

BP’s spending a bunch of money to have the top Google result on “Oil Spill.” Also @BPGlobalPR changed its description to note it’s a parody. source

10 Jun 2010 10:10

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Biz, U.S.: Sucks to be BP, reason No. 39,197: Their stock plummets

  • 15% the amount BP shares fell in the U.S. yesterday
  • 11% the amount BP shares fell in the U.K. today
  • 1997 the last time BP’s stock was this low source
  • » Why the freefall? Well, besides the general “Did you see the oil spill?” response to that question, BP was told to pay workers it laid off as a result of the government’s moratorium on offshore drilling. Which means they’re on the hook for millions of dollars they weren’t before.

09 Jun 2010 22:44

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Politics: Alvin Greene: Nikki Haley no longer most scandalous S.C. politician

  • tuesday Some unemployed former army guy without a Web site, Alvin Greene, somehow wins the Democratic primary in the state’s Senate race. Probably because nobody knew who the other guy was, either.
  • wednesday Conveniently, it comes out that Greene allegedly showed a college student some dirty stuff on a computer, which is a felony. The Democratic party, freaked out by this, wants him to quit. He won’t. This’ll be fun, guys. source

09 Jun 2010 22:13

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Tech: More on the leaked 3G iPad leak thang: Gawker’s out for blood

  • Gawker’s upset with Apple. They want Apple to feel the pain. Problem is, they’re looking for blood that’s coming out of a different body. The gaffe is clearly AT&T’s, not Apple’s, fault. While it’s great that they exposed it, the portrayal is all wrong. Ryan Tate of Valleywag writes: “Although the security vulnerability was confined to AT&T servers, Apple bears responsibility for ensuring the privacy of its users, who must provide the company with their email addresses to activate their iPads.” We know they’re upset about the raid and the WWDC snub, but doesn’t it seem like they’re fishing with a statement like that? Personally, we have to admit to getting a kick out of the word “Goatse” running in a New York Times article. Best part of the whole story. source

09 Jun 2010 22:02

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Tech: “Gawker,” “iPad” and “Goatse Security” forever linked after tonight

Gawker found out that AT&T had a major iPad security hole which exposed the personal e-mail addresses of military officials, celebrities and executives. Oy vey. source
 

09 Jun 2010 21:33

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Culture: Gary Coleman’s ex-wife officially worst person in the world

  • yes The tabloid Globe printed copies of the deathbed photo of Gary Coleman that Shannon Price sold them.
  • no We’re not going to show them on this site because – let’s face it – it’s morally reprehensible. source

09 Jun 2010 20:52

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Tech: The root of Google’s new Caffeine engine: 9/11. No, really

  • The onslaught of news readers that day made them emphasize immediacy. Remember September 11, 2001? We still had the Internet, yeah, but our search engines were super-primitive back then. So when people looked up news on Google, stories weren’t updated. Eventually, Google started caching sites like CNN to offset this, but it taught them a long-term lesson. “That was a real wake-up call, where we said we have to pay a lot of attention to freshness,” said Matt Cutts of Google’s spam team. “We knew that before, but we thought 30 days was pretty good.” Which led the the development of Google News, and later, Caffeine. Now, what was once updated monthly is now thrown up immediately. Neat, huh? source

09 Jun 2010 20:36

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World: Iran sanctions: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad needs a dustbin, stat

  • I gave one of the [world powers] a message that the resolutions you issue are like a used handkerchief which should be thrown in the dustbin.
  • Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad • Talking all big and stuff after major sanctions were put on his country by the UN. What do the sanctions (the fourth set put on the country) do? Well, they allow the UN to prevent the tools for making nuclear devices from entering the country, specifically targeting the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, who have been known to create front companies. Beyond that, though, it also blocks Iran from buying heavy weapons like helicopters and attack missiles, and stiffens restrictions on both banks and certain individuals. That’s one fairly solid handkerchief Ahmadinejad just threw away. Or is it? source