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30 Nov 2010 10:07

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U.S.: How Marinette, Wisconsin’s local paper played the hostage situation

  • Because we admit to having a tinge of morning-after guilt about the way we ripped the online coverage of the high school hostage situation in Marinette, Wisconsin last night, here’s the cover of today’s Marinette EagleHerald. This is probably the biggest story of the year for them. And in case you’re curious, you can read the full stories over here. (Green Bay also had some good play in print, even if early online coverage was lacking.) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Nov 2010 09:42

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Biz, Tech: European Union targets its frickin’ laser beam at Google’s head

  • Is Google acting anti-competitively? Does it use its search-engine prowess to favor its own services over those of competitors? Does the company’s market share (66 percent in the U.S., 80 percent in Europe) constitute a monopoly? Do sites like Foundem, eJustice.fr and Ciao (the latter owned by Microsoft) have bad luck with Google because of crappy information-thin design that completely wastes your time and has little relevance (which we’d argue with the first two) or because there are competitive issues afoot (which seems realistic with the last one)? The European Union is asking these questions themselves as part of an antitrust trial. Seems Google’s getting too big for its britches. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Nov 2010 00:34

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Tech: Posted without comment: Google adds 3D trees to Earth, Street View

Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Nov 2010 00:22

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Offbeat, U.S.: If you keep rubber bands in your car, you might get searched

  • standard Cops in Pennsylvania pulled a guy over because a GPS unit was blocking the driver’s view. No big deal, right?
  • unusual Upon searching his car, the officers found 26 pounds of cocaine (!), worth $1.2 million, hiding in a secret compartment.
  • dubious The probable cause for the search was…the presence of rubber bands (often used to stack money). source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Nov 2010 00:05

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Culture, World: Tons of new Picasso artwork found in some guy’s trunk

  • 271 previously unknown Picasso works unearthed in France source
  • » Picasso’s electrician just tore the art world a new one. Pierre Le Guennec used to install burglar alarms for Pablo Picasso. Last September, he approached the Picasso estate with an astonishing revelation: for the past several decades, he’d had been keeping 271 previously unreleased Picasso originals in a trunk in his house. He wanted Picasso’s relatives to authenticate the work; instead, the filed suit against him for illegal possession. Le Guennec claims they were a gift from the late artist; Picasso’s family thinks he stole them. No matter who prevails in court, art lovers are the real winners here. This is a huge find.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Nov 2010 23:01

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Politics, U.S.: TARP: Not as expensive as we’d thought it was

  • $109
    billlion     estimated losses of the TARP program, as of last March, according to CBO
  • $66 billion that same estimate, revised five months later by CBO
  • $25 billion the most recent estimate of TARP’s losses, as of today  source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Nov 2010 22:42

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Biz, U.S.: Wikileaks’ next target: the financial sector

  • It could take down a bank or two.
  • Wikileaks founder Julian Assange • Discussing an upcoming “megaleak” to be released early next year. Assange is being characteristically tight-lipped about this, but he says it will expose both “the ecosystem of corruption” and “the regular decision making that turns a blind eye to and supports unethical practices.” The only precedent, he says, is the Enron emails.   source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

29 Nov 2010 22:15

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U.S.: Marinette, Wisconsin hostage situation ends; coverage still sucks

  • good The high school hostage crisis is over in Marinette, Wisconsin and only the gunman was hurt. The situation lasted about five hours.
  • bad The coverage was still very scarce for hours, though Green Bay finally has some photos. Can anyone explain why this happened? source
  • » There’s a lesson here: In the past few years, newspaper companies have cut their resources very thin, especially at companies like Gannett, which owns the nearby Green Bay Press-Gazette. It’s sad to think that when something genuinely bad happens in small-town America, there are no details because we’ve cut our resources that much. We’re sad for the town that trusts the local news; we’re also glad that things weren’t worse.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Nov 2010 21:50

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Offbeat: The L.A. Times can’t get rid of their Bridge column quietly

  • 60 number of phone calls the paper’s reader’s representative got over removing the Bridge column, a stodgy tradition that predates everyone
  • 31 number of e-mails they got; who are these people and why do they actually play Bridge? And how do we get them to stop? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Nov 2010 20:48

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U.S.: Some more morsels from the Marinette, Wisconsin hostage situation

  • 24 people are being held hostage – 23 students and one teacher; noone has been injured
  • yes the situation started during the school day, but other students were unaware of the situation
  • no the student doesn’t have a criminal record, nor do any media sources have photos yet source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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