Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on Twitter • Be a Facebook Fan • Tumble us!

20 Jul 2010 14:55

tags

Politics: When The Onion plays it subtle, Tea Partiers get fooled

  • You’d think that the Onion logo on this years-old video would hint to people that this is actually a satire. Or the fact that keeps repeating the word “classified.” Or the fact that he’s clearly talking about flesh-eating zombies. But no. In fact, this clip has been repeatedly posted on Facebook as if it’s actually real and confirming the Modern Tea Party’s greatest nightmare. Too subtle?
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jul 2010 13:18

tags

U.S.: Elena Kagan’s nomination out of committee, on way to confirmation

  • 13-6 the vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee to back Kagan
  • one Republican, Lindsey Graham, broke ranks to support her source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jul 2010 11:02

tags

Biz: Crappy housing numbers remain pretty crappy, guys

  • 5% decline in housing starts in June, an 8-month low source
  • » Silver lining: On the plus side, there was a very modest 2.1 percent increase in new permits, an early indicator of how the housing market is going. After the rough month or two the housing market has faced, at least that’s something.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jul 2010 10:53

tags

Biz: Goldman Sachs’ post-SEC profits fall precipitously, laughably

  • 86% decline in Goldman Sachs’ profits during the second quarter of 2010 – in other words, from a huge number to a very large one
  • $613M the size of their profits in the first quarter after paying a massive SEC fine and getting nicked by British taxes source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jul 2010 10:36

tags

U.S.: BP: Whoops! We’re sorry about that crappy Photoshop, guys

  • We will replace the Photoshopped version currently on bp.com with the original image tonight. We’ve instructed our post-production team to refrain from doing this in the future.
  • BP spokesman Scott Dean • Describing the issue with the Photoshopped image that we posted about last night (and based on tweets and traffic, drew a lot of attention this morning). Dean says that there wasn’t anything outwardly sinister in the photo deception, just an ethically weak photo editor who inserted three images in spots where the screens were blank. Which doesn’t explain, you know, the fact that the photo’s meta data has a 2001 creation date. But we’ll let that one slide, because the PR guy says it wasn’t sinister. Oh yeah, our boy Charles Apple posted an update. Check it out. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

20 Jul 2010 03:01

tags

Offbeat: Mexican monkey smuggler no match for airline security

  • 18 monkeys around this dude’s freaking waist source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jul 2010 02:00

tags

U.S.: Protip to BP: Don’t upload high-res images of terrible Photoshops

  • Houston, we have a problem. And that problem is exacerbated by the fact that, um, it’s the worst Photoshop job we’ve ever seen. And the photo they uploaded is 4,800 pixels wide, and is probably going to be viewed in a Web browser, where you can see every painstaking detail of this image. Especially the detail over to the right that we pulled out for you guys – the most obvious one. AMERICAblog has many, many more, and they’re all about as blatant as this. The worst one? The meta info says the photo was taken in 2001 (!?!). source
  • » Update: BP couldn’t let a PR disaster last this long, could it? (Oh wait.) So, of course, BP apologized for its actions. Here’s our update, and our buddy Charles Apple has more.
  • » Second update: AMERICAblog has found another jacked photo. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, it seems. Kudos for the great work, guys.
  • » Third update: Charles Apple sent this story along, and we just have to say … BP is really making themselves out to be an evil corporation, aren’t they?
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

19 Jul 2010 21:58

tags

Tech: Based on the numbers alone, Tumblr is becoming the new Twitter

  • 6.25million visitors tumbling their logs each month
  • 4.5Mnumber of posts getting tumbled each day
  • 650,000 number of posts getting tumbled daily a year ago
  • 255M number of pageviews the tumblelogging site got in July 2009
  • 420M number of pageviews Tumblr had leaped to by November 2009
  • 1.5B number of pageviews they had in June; thanks John Mayer source
  • » Should we switch to Tumblr? Obviously, with its quickly-growing community, focus on functionality and expansion, dead-simple API and genius “reblog” function, this awesome platform appears to be where it’s at. Nothing against you, WordPress, but this whole fracas with the maker of the popular Thesis theme suggests that you should take a step back.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Jul 2010 21:36

tags

Tech: iPad users willing to wait six weeks for an immaculate DODOcase

  • They’ve started a successful business, but they’ve also started to save an industry — traditional bookbinding — in San Francisco that was on the brink of total extinction.
  • Shopify chief executive Tobias Lütke • Regarding the founders of DODOcase, a company that won the site’s competition (and a $100,000 prize) for having the largest sales of any retailer. The case, sculpted to look like a classy Moleskine notebook case and hand-designed by traditional bookbinders, costs $60, is designed with ultra-high-quality materials and doubles as a stand. They sold 10,000 in just a couple of months, despite a lengthy wait between sale and delivery. And it can count the founder of Twitter amongst its fans. You do the math. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Jul 2010 21:21

tags

U.S.: Worst woman in the world leaves dog in hot car, tops herself

  • bad A woman left her dog inside a hot car for over an hour when it was 104 degrees outside.
  • worse The woman was at Costco buying dog food, and the poor dog died when she returned.
  • evilest She was so overcome with guilt that she RETURNED THE DOG FOOD. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
<< newer 
top tags
older >>