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11 Aug 2010 23:09

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Offbeat: Breakdown: Yesterday’s ultra-viral hoax featuring Jenny, a.k.a. Elyse

  • anyone fooled by this needs to try harder. Jenny, the employee who quit her job via dry-erase board, was proven to be a hoax today. But then again, it did fool some people. We’re actually not disappointed. Anyone who looked at those photos would wonder why the quality of them was basically perfect, like they had been shot in a studio. Because they had been. This hoax flew through the Internet in a matter of hours, which leaves a lot of questions about both the girl (real name: Elyse “I’m freaking famous now” Porterfield) and the traffic she drew. So, let’s throw out some numbers.
  • 20 girls applied to an ad looking for an actress for the role; Elyse was the obvious choice
  • two the number of hours the photo shoot took – half of which was spent on waiting for a battery to charge
  • 421,000 total Facebook shares (whoa)
  • 2.5Mthe amount of traffic TheChive.com usually gets each month
  • 2.5M the amount of traffic TheChive.com got yesterday alone
  • 2.5M the amount of traffic TheChive.com got today (at last count)
  • » How has it worked out for Elyse? Well … her Facebook fan page is brimming with new fans. Like, 4,100 or so. While she claims to have gotten more marriage proposals than job offers, she did get a few of those, too. She should do a commercial with the Old Spice Guy. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

11 Aug 2010 22:28

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Tech: Treesaver and Nomad Edition: The latest web magazine twist

  • While the magazine is interesting, the technology is way more interesting. Treesaver is a HTML5 platform designed for magazine content in a way that is very versatile and adapts to the viewport on the screen. Which is frickin’ rad. As for Nomad Edition, the magazine format which will use the to-be-open-sourced technology first, we liked the idea until we read the phrase “links will not be embedded in the Nomad Editions content” in this New York Times article. Boo. You don’t get the advantages of this format. You lose instantly. Go directly to jail, do not collect $200. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Aug 2010 21:57

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Biz: Increased trade deficit + nervous investors = SELL! SELL! SELL!

  • 18.8% increase in the trade deficit, to $49.9 billion
  • 2.5% decrease in the Dow because of this news
  • 2.8% fall in the S&P 500 for the same reason
  • 3% dip in the Nasdaq today; sigh source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Aug 2010 21:41

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World: Osama bin Laden’s cook gets prison time for feeding bin Laden

  • 14 number of years Ibrahim al Qosi was sentenced in a military tribunal for conspiring with al-Qaeda and providing material support for terrorism
  • two number of years al Qosi may actually serve, based on a plea agreement which has been kept secret and may not be publicized for months, when nobody cares anymore source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Aug 2010 21:31

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Politics: Dear Robert Gibbs: We love you, but you should zip it

  • Robbie, it’s been a love affair for us. You seem like a genuine fun-loving guy and have generally been a decent press secretary. But recently, you’ve just been opening up your mouth too much. While refreshing honesty is nice and refreshing, it’s not your job. Your job isn’t to fight the “professional left” for respect. Your job is to help Obama communicate with the press. And if you become the news, you aren’t doing your job anymore. We love you and your demeanor. It’s refreshing considering some of the guys Bush had in that spot (Scott McClellan, anyone?), but don’t it get in the way of your job. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Aug 2010 19:46

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U.S.: Oh, Blago: Jury deadlocked on what to do about the dude

  • question The jury asked the judge what they could do if they could not reach agreement on all counts in the Rod Blagojevich case.
  • response The judge said it was OK for them to rule on some of the charges, and continue deliberating on what to do about the guy’s hair. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Aug 2010 11:12

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Politics: Happy birthday Charlie Rangel! Ethics trials are good presents

  • Strangely enough, some guests can’t attend his party. Rangel, who turns 80 today, plans to have a $200-a-plate dinner gala tonight, with the proceeds going to Rangel’s ethics-stained reelection campaign. He has invited a number of political bigwigs who may or may not show up – including Bill Clinton (can’t make it), David Paterson (not confirmed), Charles Schumer (not confirmed) and Michael Bloomberg (not confirmed). Worst of all, the night’s entertainment, Aretha Franklin, can’t make it either, due to a rib injury. The 20-term congressman recently made a passionate speech about his plight. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

11 Aug 2010 10:57

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Biz: BP station owners caught between a rock and a hard place

  • rockDue to the oil spill, many individual station owners have seen business fall flat – some as many as 50 percent, but most around a more modest 5 percent after an early freefall in sales.
  • hard placeHowever, despite the stations mostly not being owned by BP, many owners have a contract with the company for 15-20 years that could lead to heavy fines if the contract’s broken early. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Aug 2010 10:48

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Tech: Twitter’s official “Tweet Button” should piss off Tweetmeme

  • First off, this is really unfair. Twitter has, on multiple occasions, taken things that its developer base have nurtured and created and made their own versions. Tweetmeme, in some ways, may have set itself up for a situation like this – the design of the button was such that it could slow down big sites (we recently switched to the quicker Topsy for this reason), and the color scheme (which couldn’t be changed) was too loud for a piece of furniture. But really? Why didn’t Twitter just buy them out rather than compete directly with them? This is how not to keep your platform’s developers very happy. One key point to make here: If Twitter is uninterested in the analytics end, Tweetmeme may still have a market even despite this. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Aug 2010 10:39

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Politics: Newt Gingrich’s perceived racism: Esquire writer’s opening salvo

  • Just before he made the jump-shot crack, one member of the audience called Obama ‘the Kenyan.’ Gingrich said nothing. Another complained about all the shiftless people living on welfare in New Orleans. Gingrich didn’t say anything then, either.
  • Esquire writer John H. Richardson • In an essay about former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who is expected to make a presidential run in 2012. Newt was speaking amongst a group of Southern conservatives, and had made a quip about his basketball prowess: “The more angry we get, the worse it is for Obama. I don’t care how many three-point jump shots he makes.” He was discussing a pickup basketball game he played in Kuwait over two years ago. Richardson uses this lead-in to set up the 8,000-word article he wrote about Gingrich, which, based on that introduction, should make Newt feel like he’s being attacked. (Hat tip Mediaite) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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