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31 Oct 2010 22:04

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Politics: Max Headroom: Examples of amplifying everything & hearing nothing

  • We hear nothing Jon Stewart had this killer line during his twelve-minute rant: “If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.” It’s so relevant to this video that you know that the second this moron starts yelling that you can ignore basically anything he says. He obviously heard nothing in the speech.
  • Missing the point And here’s someone who missed the whole point of the whole driving-through-the-tunnel analogy, which is that we have our differences and such but we’re just normal people. This guy instead suggests that “sanity” will be restored by Tuesday’s election. Not the same thing, buddy.
  • Here’s the point You know what critics of the rally are missing out of all of this? The inherent, almost simplistic euphoria that was around the event. The excitement that was there. There’s no politics in this video. Only a simple exchange between a random dude and a hot girl holding an “America” sign. Fuck yeah!
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Oct 2010 21:27

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Tech: Why did super-developer Lars Rasmussen leave Google, anyway?

  • what Lars Rasmussen, a key Google staffer who famously crated Google Maps (and Google Wave) decided to leave the company recently. Understandable, because they killed his Google Wave baby.
  • why He’s going to Facebook! He revealed the news to the Sydney Morning Herald, saying: “It feels to me that Facebook may be a sort of once-in-a-decade type of company.” We can see that. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Oct 2010 21:17

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Politics: Reagan budget director: GOP, Dems going too far with tax cuts

  • It’s rank demagoguery. We should call it for what it is. If these people were all put into a room on penalty of death to come up with how much they could cut, they couldn’t come up with $50 billion, when the problem is $1.3 trillion. So, to stand before the public and rub raw this anti-tax sentiment, the Republican Party, as much as it pains me to say this, should be ashamed of themselves.
  • Reagan budget director David Stockman • Ripping his own freaking party for emphasizing a tax-cut strategy despite the fact that there’s a huge deficit. “It’s become in a sense an absolute,” he explains. “Something that can’t be questioned, something that’s gospel, something that’s sort of embedded into the catechism and so scratch the average Republican today and he’ll say ‘Tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts.'” The key point he seems to be getting at: We have too much going on as a government and it can’t simply be solved by cutting taxes. It’s a point that makes him angry when the Democrats (i.e. Obama) recommend it, too. The fact of the matter is that we have the Reagan tax cuts, the Bush tax cuts and now the Obama tax cuts. Is the solution cutting the government severely, like our boys in the U.K.? Or is it just raising taxes? A lot to question. (Thanks soupsoup) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Oct 2010 20:58

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Politics, U.S.: Palin: ABC reporters are “corrupt bastards”

  • In this clip, Sarah Palin charges ABC affiliates in Alaska with “corruption,” claiming that they “conspired to make up stories about Joe Miller.” According to her, reporters at a recent Miller rally attempted to find a child molester in the crowd in order to discredit Miller and his supporters. A tape of has been released, and Palin “can’t wait until it busts out all over the nation.” source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 2 Comments • Permalink

31 Oct 2010 20:37

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Biz: “Pontiac, 84, Dies of Indifference”: We admit to stealing this headline

The New York Times came up with a better headline than we ever will, so rather than trying to fight it, ta-da! Here it is again – for the first time. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Oct 2010 20:26

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Politics: DC Metro numbers suggest huge “Rally to Restore Sanity” crowds

  • 350,000 number of trips the DC Metro has on an average Saturday
  • 825,437 number of trips the DC Metro had yesterday source
  • » To put it in perspective: The rally had the highest Saturday ridership ever – passing the record set in June 1991, when a rally was held for Operation Desert Storm. That rally gave Metro around 786,358 trips that day. And assuming the riders went round-trip yesterday, that means 237,719 extra riders were on the Metro yesterday. That doesn’t mean 237,719 extra people – the tally doesn’t account for multiple trips by the same rider – but suffice it to say that the crowd was really huge yesterday. And no, the Beck rally (which also took place on a Saturday) didn’t even rate in the top five (which is what we know you were really wondering).
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Oct 2010 11:45

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Tech: Evan Williams learns he’s not the best guy to run Twitter

  • The thing I’ve learned that’s much different than any other time in my life is I have a team that is really, really great. I’ve been studying this stuff for a really long time, and I’ve screwed up in many, many, many ways in terms of managing people and product decisions and business, so I feel fairly confident at this point that it could scale pretty well.
  • Twitter co-founder Evan Williams • Explaining why he decided to step down from his CEO position last month. To put it simply, he’s a big idea guy, but a terrible boss. And in case you need any proof of that, consider three things: First, when Blogger’s business model weakened during the dot-com bubble and he couldn’t pay anyone, he ran the company by himself for a while. Second, when Twitter first became immensely popular, Williams’ first instinct wasn’t to hire more people to ensure the site was up all the time. And third, Evan Williams famously flopped during a speech at SXSW earlier this year. Idea guy he is. Steve Jobs he is not. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

31 Oct 2010 11:33

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Politics: “Front groups” push negative ads on BOTH sides – not just GOP

  • lame Republican-leaning “front groups” have been pushing negative ads into campaigns across the country with little oversight. Democrats have loudly complained.
  • lamer Problem is, Democratic “front groups” also exist, and have been pushing negative ads into campaigns, too – most notably against Sharron Angle. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Oct 2010 11:24

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Biz: Tribune Corp. investors suing mad over insanely massive loans

  • $3.7 billion in loans offered prior to Tribune Corp.’s sale source
  • » … and here comes the lawsuit: A bunch of investors in Tribune Corp. have sued JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, Citicorp and Bank of America for making those loans possible for the leveraged buyout that Sam Zell did, knowing that it’d be nearly impossible to get those funds back. In the process, the companies received $120 million in fees while Tribune floundered to the point that L.A. Times front pages like these are depressingly commonplace.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Oct 2010 11:12

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World: Dozens hurt after suicide bombing in busy Turkish district

  • 32+ people injured in the attack in a busy Istanbul tourist district
  • 17+ of those hurt were police officers, the targets of the attack source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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