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24 Jul 2010 10:55

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World: The Taliban: We have two U.S. nationals. The U.S.: We want them back.

  • $20,000 reward for their safe release source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Jul 2010 10:47

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World: North Korea and their famous style of overreaction fail to disappoint

  • The army and people of the [North] will legitimately counter with their powerful nuclear deterrence the largest-ever nuclear war exercises.
  • A message from North Korea’s National Defense Commission • Regarding the building tension over the United States’ war exercises with South Korea. Yeah, they want to pull nukes out just because the U.S. and South Korea plan to begin Operation Invincible Spirit, a series of troop exercises, starting tomorrow. Of course, if North Korea had kept a cool head over the last however many years, would the war exercises even be necessary? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Jul 2010 10:31

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Tech: Say what you will about Microsoft, but Windows 7 is a cash cow

  • 10 copies of Windows 7 sold every single minute
  • 25M copies sold in the last 29 days alone
  • 175M copies sold since it first launched source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Jul 2010 03:21

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Politics: Tea Party Express ditches Mark Williams over really misguided idea

  • Dumb move by mark williams In response to the NAACP’s chiding of the Tea Party, Tea Party Express leader Mark WIlliams wrote a blog post in the guise of a slave pretending to thank Abraham Lincoln for slavery. He called it satire. It was universally criticized, even by his own side.
  • Smart move by mark williams Realizing that the post was really dumb and hurt the Modern Tea Party movement as a whole, Williams resigned from the Tea Party Express. He says he’ll still remain part of the movement, but not hog the spotlight as its most well-known member. It’s for the best. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Jul 2010 02:10

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Offbeat: Jury decides “Girls Gone Wild” doesn’t need hot coed consent

  • Through her actions, she gave implied consent. She was really playing to the camera. She knew what she was doing.
  • Jury foreman Patrick O’Brien • Describing the circumstances that made his jury side against an anonymous St. Louis woman who did not consent to being shown in a Girls Gone Wild video originally shot in 2004. The woman danced for a camera, but was unwilling to remove her top for the cameraman, only to have someone else pull it off instead. Even though she didn’t sign anything, they put her in the video anyway. “I was having fun until my top was pulled off. And now this thing is out there for the world to see forever,” said the plaintiff, when told of the jury’s reasoning. Despite all this, she was nominated for “Ass Clown of the Week” by the city’s alt-weekly, The River Front Times. Because she was asking for that, too. (They later apologized.) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Jul 2010 01:07

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U.S.: Vacation rentals in NYC no longer on the table thanks to new law

  • Craigslist entrepreneurs in NYC: Sorry. After saying he would veto the law, New York Governor David Paterson passed a law banning short-term vacation rentals in the city, forcing people to go to licensed hotels instead. If you go to Craigslist, you’ll see quite the cottage industry exists for this kind of housing. NYC mayor and noted iPad fanatic Michael Bloomberg supported the measure: “When housing designated for permanent occupancy is illegally converted into a hotel, unsafe conditions are created, the residential character of City neighborhoods is harmed and the supply of much-needed units of housing is depleted,” he said. Or, more likely, this cottage industry bloomed because hotels in NYC are super-expensive and out of whack with the rest of the country. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Jul 2010 23:42

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Politics: Rick Sanchez’s journalistic high horse rings hollow to South Florida

  • One thing you may not know about Rick Sanchez is, before he became the iconic anchor who obsessed over finding interesting tweets, he was a longtime if-it-bleeds-it-leads-style anchor in South Florida, often focusing on the most lurid, ratings-grab stories he could find – which reportedly hit a peak during the overblown Elian Gonzalez era. At least thats how Broward-Palm Beach New Times puts it. So, the irony of him talking about journalistic integrity, as he does in the Fox News-chiding clip above, is a little striking to folks in the Miami area. (Thanks Billy Wachsberger) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink
 

23 Jul 2010 23:08

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Biz: SEC settlement: Dell pays for pumping up earnings with Intel’s money

  • $4.3 billion the amount Dell reportedly received from Intel from between 2003 and 2007 for using their chips exclusively
  • $100 million the amount Dell has to pay in fines today; the Intel fees are subject of antitrust inquiries source
  • » Don’t forget: This was largely the same era during which Dell knowingly sold millions of computers with 97 percent failure rates. So if you want to talk about business practices which eventually led to lawsuits and SEC settlements, look no further than Dell circa 2005.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

23 Jul 2010 22:45

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Biz: Nutritionist’s nightmare: Unhealthy food ads during cartoons stay put

Current federal advertising standards make it OK to advertise cereal and other fairly unhealthy foods during cartoons. Attempts to change this? Stalled. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Jul 2010 22:37

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Culture: “Machete” never meant to be immigration statement, but kinda is

  • It’s kind of funny because it’s not really what the movie is about, and I didn’t want people to think that it was. I just felt like I had to say something about it so I cut that trailer. There’s so much grandstanding and those of us who live near a border know how unsolvable the issue really is.
  • Director Robert Rodriguez • On how his upcoming “Machete,” which he premiered at Comic-Con, somehow ended up in the middle in the immigration debate. That’s because he cut a version of the self-described Mexploitation film’s trailer that tackled the immigration debate. The film, which has stacked its cast since the days of the original “Grindhouse” fake trailer, has drawn some political blowback for the trailer, but considering the attention it’s drawn, it only makes us want to see the Danny Trejo career summation even more. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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