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18 Nov 2010 00:13

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U.S.: Two dudes floated NYC-Subway-under-Hudson-River idea first

  • Know what’s awesome? When you offer up a crazy idea to make people’s lives easier, it gets ignored, and then, all of a sudden, The New York Times is playing it up as a lead headline. Such is the life of Steve Lanset and Ralph Braskett, who floated the idea of putting a NYC Subway tunnel under the Hudson River a whole five years before Michael Bloomberg got to the idea. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Nov 2010 23:20

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Culture: Greg Oden pretty much most injured player in NBA history

  • We usually make a point not to post sports here, but we just have to this time. Greg Oden has missed more games than he’s played. The Portland Trail Blazer hasn’t taken the court the entire season so far. He’s played just 82 games since entering the NBA in 2007 as a No. 1 draft pick after a dominant single year at Ohio State. And he has to get surgery on his knee again, and will miss the entire season. Again. Hey, Greg Oden, we don’t know why you have the knees of a 60-year-old, but you need to take better care of them, because you’re clearly doing something wrong. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Nov 2010 22:45

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Biz: GM’s initial public offering does exactly what everyone expects

  • $20.1
    billion     the amount raised by GM’s IPO earlier today (which is amazing, and the biggest ever)
  • $4.35
    billion     the amount in preferred shares the company sold, far above the $4 billion anticipated
  • 33%
    stake     the amount of GM the government will still own after the IPO, down from 61 percent source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Nov 2010 22:28

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Culture: The Incredible Hulk now The Incredible Illegal Immigrant Hunter

You loved Lou Ferrigno when he turned green and his muscles got really big. Now he’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s right-hand man for fighting illegal immigration in Arizona. Be scared. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Nov 2010 22:27

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U.S.: Haiti’s cholera outbreak finds its way to American shores

  • 1 case of cholera in Florida thanks to the Haiti outbreak; uh-oh source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Nov 2010 22:00

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Tech: Why did Wikipedia decide to have Jimmy Wales look into your soul?

If you’re like us, you’ve been wondering how Wikipedia created its very effective-looking fundraising ads. Well, the secret is that they’ve been doing some insane audience testing. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Nov 2010 21:49

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Biz, Tech: Google stumbles with high-fashion wannabe Boutiques.com

  • Hey Google, just some advice: If you’re creating high-fashion anything, the design can’t look like a crappy hacked, brittle WordPress knock-off. This design sucks. Why would anyone shop here for clothes? It looks, um, sloppy. But then, so did the design of Like.com, which Google acquired a few months ago (and whose team designed this). The basic idea behind both Like.com and this (think using “visual search” to find the pair of shoes you like) is pretty good, but something simply doesn’t congeal here. Design is everything with this market. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

17 Nov 2010 21:33

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Politics: Nancy Pelosi House Minority Leader, but Heath Shuler gave her fits

  • It wasn’t about winning or losing this race. It was about truly making a difference within our caucus, to ensure that the moderates were heard.
  • Rep. Heath Shuler • Explaining why his loss in the race against Nancy Pelosi for House Minority Leader was still a bit of a victory. The caucus may have voted for Pelosi, but they gave Shuler 43 votes, which is more than a fifth of the 193 Democrats still left. There’s dissent within her own party, which will be hard for her to get past. As for Shuler, a Blue Dog Democrat, he gets to go back to North Carolina and tell his constituents that he took on Nancy Pelosi. This is why Shuler is still here and other Blue Dogs are not. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Nov 2010 21:09

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U.S.: What happened to Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen? She’s dead

In case you were in need of a good Hollywood whodunit, the death of publicist Ronni Chasen the other day has the city gripped like a Phil Spector murder case. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Nov 2010 20:42

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U.S.: Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani finds civilian court nicer than military court

  • 224 number of people killed in the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania
  • 285 number of charges Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani faced in front of a civilian court recently
  • one number of charges he was actually convicted of; he’ll go to jail for at least 20 years source
  • » Why this trial is a big deal: Ghailani was the first suspect who served time in Guantanamo to face trial in a civilian, rather than a military, court. The suspect once faced much harsher charges that could’ve led to the death penalty, but instead will receive a much lighter sentence. For its part, the Justice Department is OK with that: “We respect the jury’s verdict and are pleased that Ahmed Ghailani now faces a minimum of 20 years in prison and a potential life sentence for his role in the embassy bombings,” they wrote.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink
 
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