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25 Oct 2010 10:47

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Politics: Obama can take his endorsement and shove it in Rhode Island

  • 2008 In a move that proved extremely helpful for the president’s electoral chances back then, Rhode Island moderate political figure Lincoln Chafee supported Obama. Chafee,  formerly Republican, is running for governor as an independent.
  • 2010 Rather than go against Chafee, Obama chose not to endorse anyone in the gubernatorial race. Democrat Frank Caprio took the news well: “He can take his endorsement and really shove it as far as I’m concerned.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Oct 2010 10:32

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Tech: Do people simply tire of social sites like Digg, just like TV shows?

  • Starting a company like Digg is less like building a traditional tech company (think Apple or HP) and more like launching a TV show. And perhaps, like TV shows, these companies are ephemeral in nature. People flock in for a while, then get bored and move on.
  • Newsweek scribe Daniel Lyons • Offering an interesting perspective on the decline of Digg, which he suggests may have been as much about the change of its audience as a failure of Digg to keep up. The TV show metaphor is actually a very good one. While not every company will fall prey to changing seasons, Web 2.0 companies are particularly apt to them due to their socially-oriented business models. Lyons suggestion at the end is most telling: “The big lesson of Digg may be simply this: if someone offers you a ridiculous amount of money for a company that wasn’t that hard to build, don’t think twice. Take the money and run.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Oct 2010 10:16

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Tech: Firesheep: Bringing light to a serious problem, but at what cost?

  • From a hacker’s perspective, releasing this was a good idea. Firesheep is a Firefox plugin that allows you to spy on people’s cookies from within a wi-fi network, effectively allowing you to log into other people’s accounts without knowing their passwords. Great, this will get people to work on this very significant issue and force HTTPS connections. But the problem is, you’ve released an exploit that makes it easy for people to spy on anyone, something that anyone can use. And most of those people will not have the idealistic ethics of the creator of this program. Yes, you’ll get Facebook to use HTTPS, even though it’ll cost them money. But you’ve enabled script kiddies to read personal information at coffee shops everywhere. Not everyone is a hacker. Not everyone is going to appreciate the existence of this. They’ll just feel violated. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Oct 2010 10:02

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U.S.: “Hiccup Girl” falls on hard times, charged in murder case

  • 2007 In the kind of story CNN loves, Florida teenager Jennifer Mee became famous for an uncontrollable case of hiccups that lasted for weeks.
  • 2010 In the kind of story HLN loves, Mee, now 19 years old, was charged with murder during an armed robbery attempt, along with two others. Oh boy.  source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Oct 2010 09:53

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World: Great! Afghan government taking money from Iran, won’t stop

  • They have asked for good relations in return, and for lots of other things in return. And we have also asked for lots of things in return in this relationship. This is a relationship between neighbors and it will go on and we will continue to ask for cash help from Iran.
  • Afghan president Hamid Karzai • Admitting his government takes money from the Iranian government (a payment of around $1-2 million every other month, by the way). But here’s the kicker – even though they’ve been called out for it, they don’t plan to stop. The U.S. has been funding your nation for how many years, buddy? This is something you just don’t do if you’re working with the U.S. In other news, Karzai wants his country’s local media to “defame The New York Times just as they have defamed us.” The Times broke the story a couple days ago. Karzai claims they wrote it to defame his chief of staff, Umar Daudzai. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Oct 2010 00:07

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Politics: Max Headroom: Juan Williams’ sloppy wet kiss from Fox News

  • Racism = Promotion? Newsbusters pulled this clip as if to vilify Andrew Sullivan for his views on Juan Williams, but it seems like they don’t have much to go on. It seems to us he’s questioning the corporate culture in general here.
  • Clip after clip Rachel Maddow made a good point about the Juan Williams thing here, noting that controversial comments about Muslims are a common theme on Fox News – and importantly, it’s not a first amendement issue.
  • After the storm On “Fox News Sunday,” there was a lot of rallying around Juan Williams, who is now a full-time anchor for the network. It seems, in fact, downright lovey-dovey. Aww, it’s a love-in with Brit Hume!
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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