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30 Sep 2010 23:08

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Tech: Facebook now wants hi-res versions of your photographic memories

  • Why is this couple so happy? Because they know that when people anonymously stalk them on Facebook now, they’ll be able to see a super-huge high-quality version. Silent stalkers, Facebook just upped the game! source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Sep 2010 21:53

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Politics: Economist Robert Reich: Rich getting richer, poor staying poor

  • There are big, big holes in that Wall Street financial reform act — holes big enough for Wall Street traders to drive their Ferraris through. …  I think we’re going to be left with a Wall Street that continues to grow more and more powerful and richer relative to the rest of the United States economy.
  • Economist (and Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Labor) Robert Reich • Regarding the economic recovery and financial reform, which he says has not succeeded in helping the middle-class, but has succeeded in allowing the financial industry to get richer. It’s created a disparity that, according to Reich, hasn’t existed since the Great Depression. “[The middle class] can’t go deeper and deeper into debt. They can’t work longer hours. They’ve exhausted all of their coping mechanisms,” he says. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Sep 2010 20:26

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Tech: WebP: Google wants to upgrade, shrink your JPGs for some reason

  • What the heck is this? It’s Google’s attempt to replace the venerable JPEG format on the Web with something else. Nobody supports this format at the moment, so it’s a halfway-between PNG, but you get the idea, right? Think of this as an image-only extension of their already-well-regarded WebM open-source HTML5 video format. We like the idea behind it and think the Web could use an upgrade from JPEG, but these things load very slowly on Chrome right now. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Sep 2010 18:29

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Politics, U.S.: The GOP: Party of fiscal responsibility

  • If Democrats were smart, they’d plaster this graph on billboards in swing districts around the country. This calculation is based on an analysis by the Center for American Progress, which used estimates by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office as their starting point (methodology here). Economics whiz Ezra Klein adds, “the treatment of the GOP’s vague spending cuts is extremely generous.” Any Tea Partiers care to comment? source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 4 Comments • Permalink

30 Sep 2010 15:55

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Tech, World: Fun facts about Gliese 581g, aka “The New Earth”

  • everyone, meet gliese 581g! Despite the ugly name, it’s actually a friendly, Earth-like planet in the Libra constellation. “Glee-G,” as we like to call it, is 20 light years away, so we won’t be visiting any time soon; however, the “conditions on the ground” (heh, military humor) are perfect for sustaining water. Here are a few more tidbits about our newest planetary sibling. source
  • No night and day One side of the planet is always facing it’s “sun,” while the other is permanently looking into the abyss of space. So, if it’s freezing and you can’t wait for summer, just cross on over to the other side!
  • 3X bigger than earth So you probably won’t be able to cross on over to the other side. However, despite its size, it has similar gravitational and atmospheric conditions to our beloved blue orb.
  • aliens exist!“The chances for life on this planet are 100 percent,” says Steven Vogt, an astronomer at the University of California. You’d think this sort of thing would have made the news rounds a bit more heavily, no? source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Sep 2010 11:18

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U.S.: Tyler Clementi may have posted cry for help online before suicide

  • People have commented on his profile with things like ‘how did you manage to go back in there? are you okay?’ and the fact that people he was with saw my making out with a guy as the scandal, whereas I mean come on… he was SPYING ON ME…do they see nothing wrong with this?
  • A quote reportedly from Rutgers student Tyler Clementi • Posted on an online forum not long before he committed suicide. The quote was from Cit2mo, and he described a situation very much like the one that Clementi suffered. While there’s no independent confirmation, the situation matches Clementi’s almost exactly. According to a friend of Clementi’s roommate Dharun Ravi, it was merely in good fun. “He’s very, very open-minded,” Michael Zhuang said, “and he, like if it had been a girl in the room it wouldn’t have been any different.” Tell that to Tyler. He seemed not to appreciate the gesture. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

30 Sep 2010 11:04

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Biz: Bailout bonanza: AIG brokers a payback deal with the U.S.

  • 92.1%taxpayers’ upcoming stake in AIG
  • what The U.S. government will receive $62 billion in common shares of AIG stock to replace the $49 billion in preferred shares it currently has floating around.
  • why Because, over time, the government will be able to sell these shares and hopefully make back some of the billions it paid AIG during bailout-o-rama. source
  • » But wait, there’s more: AIG also plans to pay back $20 billion that it received from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York credit facility. An end result of all of this is that taxpayers will see an instant paper profit of $10 billion along with the long-term profits from the sale. Who wants to say “screw all those future generations” and grab a piece?
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

30 Sep 2010 10:50

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Culture: RIP Tony Curtis: One of film’s most iconic stars, dead at 85

  • An icon of film, with the roles to show for it. Tony Curtis spent a lot of time in the movies – he worked in them for around 60 years, and had a variety of roles under his belt. He starred in classics such as “Some Like it Hot” and “Spartacus.” He was nominated for a Golden Globe, an Emmy and an Oscar. And he had a daughter, Jamie Lee, who has become a huge star in her own right. That’s the legacy that Tony Curtis leaves. He died today at 85. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Sep 2010 09:45

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Biz: Fisher-Price blames choking hazard for massive toy recall

  • 10.9 million toys recalled, including tricycles source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Sep 2010 03:15

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Politics: Andrew Shirvell: Insane Michigan bureaucrat stalks gay U of M student

  • Anderson Cooper, eat your heart out. The guy he’s talking to in this episode of “Anderson Cooper is Awesome” is Andrew Shirvell, an assistant Attorney General for the state of Michigan. In his free time, Shirvell runs this blog. “Chris Armstrong Watch” is basically this guy freaking the hell out over the fact that the University of Michigan’s student-body president is gay. Shirvell’s reasonable reaction to this news is to draw swastikas on Armstrong’s face and stalk Armstrong and all of his friends on Facebook. Because that’s what reasonable people do. Anderson Cooper turns Shirvell, who gets paid money from checks that taxpayers indirectly write, into a laughingstock halfway through the first question. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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