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12 Jul 2010 23:24

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Music: Pitchfork plays turncoat on M.I.A. and her new album, /\/\/\Y/\

  • Right or wrong, the social contract is simple: If you bring the hits, we’ll put up with your #(&@. With
    /\/\ /\ Y /\, M.I.A. has broken that contract. And she could not have chosen a worse time to do it.
  • Pitchfork reviewer Matthew Perpetua • Ruining M.I.A.’s entire week with a 4.4 album review that simply savages the wildly experimental political rapper. She’s not had much good press of late, what with a New York Times Magazine article that simply did not put her in a good light (and a huge fight that revolved around truffle fries – no joke), and this review will likely compound her problems. When you fall from 8.9 to 4.4 on Pitchfork in the span of an album, it’s not helpful to your career. Just ask Travis Morrison. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Jul 2010 23:02

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Tech: Consumer Reports throws buckets of cold water on the iPhone 4

  • If it wasn’t obvious before, Apple has a huge design problem with the iPhone 4. And now Consumer Reports has confirmed it through vigorous testing. Which means that yes, Apple does have a huge problem on its hands, and yes, Apple is covering it up. The suggestion at the end of this clip is enough to ruin Jony Ive’s entire week. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Jul 2010 22:46

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Politics: Just like health care, Ben Nelson is holding up financial reform

  • 56 number of Democratic senators who will vote for the final financial reform bill for sure
  • three number of Republican senators who will probably vote for the bill (including Scott Brown)
  • one number of Democrats named Ben Nelson who (once again) will make things tough source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Jul 2010 22:44

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U.S.: The Gulf oil spill has a new cap, but will it stop the massive leak?

  • good Our good friends at BP have put a tighter cap on the well, with the goal of stopping the oil leak altogether.
  • bad Oh, there’s between 89 million and 176 million gallons of oil that have already leaked over 83 days. (Just sayin’.) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Jul 2010 21:46

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Politics: A big up to our buddy Charles Apple, and his spiffy new site

  • Dear Daniel Hunt: Sorry we cut off your head. But seriously, folks, we’d like to congratulate our friend Charles Apple, who runs an awesome visual journalism blog, for his move to the American Copy Editors Society‘s site. Apple, a good friend of ours who’s offered tons of advice in the past, recently made a move from the warm confines of his VisualEditors.com home to a new home with ACES. It’s a meeting of the journalistic minds – the word people and the visual people are getting together for the first time ever. Ooh, scary. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

12 Jul 2010 21:26

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Tech: Guy says he owns Facebook. Now we claim that we own it, too

  • 84% percentage of Facebook some guy claims he owns
  • yes the dude’s claim led to a stop on all Facebook asset transfers
  • 0% percentage of Facebook we think that guy actually owns source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Jul 2010 21:18

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Tech: Is Google betting the FarmVille on taking on Facebook?

  • what Apparently, Google’s making another play at taking on Facebook’s market, this time by latching onto FarmVille maker Zynga to make Google Games.
  • why Because people on Facebook play lots of FarmVille and Mafia Wars, and it could be a social networking in for Google, which had its Buzz flop recently. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

12 Jul 2010 21:10

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Politics: Rand Paul somehow argues that the poor have it good

  • First, it started with the Cold War. Then it went to this argument that the U.S. has the engine of capitalism. Then he noted that the Soviets were thrown off because Americans had color TVs. Then he made this whopper of an argument: “The poor in our country are enormously better off than the rest of the world. Doesn’t mean we can’t do better, but we have to acknowledge and be proud of our system of capitalism, be proud of our American way.” Uhhhhh … source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Jul 2010 21:01

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World: Fidel Castro: The U.S. needs to, you know, stop causing nuclear war

  • Instead of taking practical steps towards the reduction of the chilling threat of the proliferation of nuclear weapons in Iran or any other part of the world, the United States is moving towards the control of the vital oil-producing regions of the Middle East – with violent means should other means fail.
  • Former Cuban president Fidel Castro • Speaking in a rare television interview tonight on the United States’ foreign policy, which he says is slowly building up to nuclear war with Iran. It’s an oddly-timed event, seemingly designed to make sure Castro’s stance on foreign policy was still part of the discussion. It worked – he’s currently Twitter’s top trending topic. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Jul 2010 20:39

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Culture: Harvey Pekar was one of our heroes. RIP, dude from Cleveland.

  • A modest antihero if there ever was one. Harvey Pekar may not have had a super-exciting life by traditional standards, but he certainly knew how to make it feel a lot more important than it really was. The miserable guy from Cleveland took all those failings and little victories and turned them into “American Splendor,” one of the greatest underground comic books ever made. Beyond being one of our personal inspirations, his autobiographical works helped inspire a generation of DIY artists – even if he couldn’t draw anything beyond a stick figure. Beyond the comics, here are three ways you know his work:

  • His Letterman guest spotsPekar’s many guest appearances on “Late Night With David Letterman” were often funny, but this particular clip got him banned from the show for a number of years – not only did he wear a shirt bad-mouthing NBC, he trashed on the network’s corporate owners, General Electric. A gripping watch.

  • His protegé ToBy RadloffPartly due to the Letterman appearances, some of his friends, who regularly showed up in his comic books, built a name outside of them. Radloff is the best-known Clevelandite to build success off his comic notoriety, with appearances on both MTV and the local “The Eddie Marshall Show.”

  • His popular hit moviePekar, Radloff and pretty much everybody else in his life got the documentary-slash-biography treatment in the 2003 film “American Splendor,” which pulled off the neat trick of mixing comics, drama and real people – and built a base for Paul Giamatti’s later “Sideways” fame. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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