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31 Oct 2010 11:05

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Tech: Guy sticks USB ports in random NYC walls for some reason

Is that a random USB port sticking out of the wall, or are you just happy to see me? Careful, you can get STDs from these if you’re not careful. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Oct 2010 10:57

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Tech: Apple and Motorola lawsuits more annoying than anything

  • All these lawsuits between Apple and Motorola are silly. In the latest suit (a counter-suit, even), the iPhone maker sued Motorola for using multitouch technology (among other things which Apple owns patents for) in nine of its phones, including each of the popular Droid models. These suits are excuses for each company to get in the other’s hair, and basically do nothing useful. Honestly, if Apple was really serious about fighting these claims against their multitouch technology, they would’ve sued when the first Droid phone came out. Now, it just seems like a vindictive attempt at leverage. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Oct 2010 10:41

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Biz, Politics: Prop. 23-pushing Valero claims they’re not so eco-evil

Just because we’re pushing for Prop. 23 to pass means we hate the environment! Look! Here’s a worker of ours RIDING A BIKE AT OUR PLANT! SEE? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Oct 2010 10:32

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Culture: Ron Howard: The “electric cars are gay” line stays in “The Dilemma”

  • It is a slight moment in ‘The Dilemma’ meant to demonstrate an aspect of our lead character’s personality, and we never expected it to represent our intentions or the point of view of the movie or those of us who made it.
  • Director Ron Howard • Explaining why the gay joke made in “The Dilemma” stays in, despite the uproar against gay jokes in general at the moment. Howard feels the joke is important to understanding Vince Vaughn’s character, and that his film is getting lots of negative attention at the moment because of the timing of it, in which Anderson Cooper seems to be taking on gay bullying as a personal crusade of his. (Cooper called out the movie’s trailer for the use of the phrase.) While it’s controversial, we kind of agree with Howard. Comedy is a slippery slope and not one that should be so strongly affected by PC concerns. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Oct 2010 10:18

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World: Cargo plane bomb plot: Lots of packages under scrutiny

  • 24 more suspect packages currently getting analyzed in Yemen source
  • » About the suspects: Two Yemeni women, 22-year old Hanan al-Samawi and her 45-year-old mother, have reportedly been arrested for the incident. Also, bombmaker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, whose handiwork first came to everyone’s attention thanks to the Underwear Bomber, is also considered a suspect in the latest incident. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, planes from Yemen can’t directly enter the U.S. in the wake of the Underwear Bomber incident. Which is why the suspicious device was caught in London instead of Chicago.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

31 Oct 2010 10:01

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Politics: Missy Smith, campaign ads, and reaching the bottom of the barrel

  • So, recently, this lady has been clogging DC airwaves with the worst ads. We saw them a few times over the weekend. Missy Smith’s been paying money to show aborted fetuses in as disgusting a light as possible, during daytime hours. (Click here if you’re curious.) And because she’s in cahoots with Randall Terry, the founder of Operation Rescue, she knew that she legally could force the TV stations to show them. In fact, she ran for Congress in DC (where she’s destined to lose, because Eleanor Holmes Norton is very popular) specifically to run these ads on television. The stations have had to put lengthy, 15-second warnings in front of the ads. And they’ve forced us to consider a few things:
  • Culture wars not over In the age of Obama, despite all the negative energy that’s been popping up, one positive of it is that certain social movements (specifically gay rights) have been looking more and more likely to go mainstream. But as this ad proves, certain wedge issues won’t go away quite that easily.
  • Playing to our divisions Jon Stewart’s twelve-minute rant at the very end of yesterday’s “Rally To Restore Sanity” was pretty much made for people like Smith and ads like this one. Most people aren’t like Smith, but people like Smith use stunts like these to dominate our dialogue. Don’t let these stunts define us, fellow Americans.
  • The bar has lowered In a political advertising season that started with Demon Sheep and has only gotten worse from there (barring Dale Peterson), it makes sense that we end it with an ad that literally shows aborted fetuses during daytime television. Those earlier ads set the stage for us to hit bottom. Now, here we are. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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