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07 Nov 2010 20:36

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Tech: New browser startup Rockmelt lies to us right off the bat

  • Yeah yeah, Toby… You think you’ll be able to charm us into downloading a copy of the Rockmelt beta by talking about your apartment above a bar with turtle racing … but we have a secret for you guys. Moorhead’s Scottish Pub doesn’t exist! We don’t care if Marc Andreessen managed to get a bunch of the old Netscape gang back together for this one. Or that you’re based off of Chromium. Or that you’re not as cluttered as that other browser with the same idea, Flock. You lied to us, and we don’t know what to believe anymore. TO-BY. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

07 Nov 2010 20:13

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Culture: New York Times once again proves more clever than everyone else

  • There’s journalism, and then there’s the NYT. Today, as runners got past the finish line at the New York Marathon, the New York Times (fresh off Cheesegate) got a bunch of the finishers to take post-race photos, and some of the faces are pretty amazing. Witness the post-marathon glow. (In other news, Chilean miner Edison Pena reached the finish line, too.) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Nov 2010 12:07

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World: Haiti’s cholera outbreak gets much larger after Hurricane Tomas

  • 500+ people have died in Haiti’s recent cholera outbreak
  • 7,000+ have fallen ill to the very scary waterborne disease source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Nov 2010 11:53

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Biz: Healthy? Yeah, right. The government’s pro-cheese efforts

  • As a culture, our cheese-eating is way higher than it should be. Yeah, it’s tasty, and we know how tough of a habit it is to break (looks down at stomach), but we’ve gotten hooked on it as a culture at large. But the thing you should be really scared about? That, with the help of the government, the dairy industry is pushing us to eat even more of it. Dairy Management, Inc., a government-created industry marketing group, has been pushing for more cheese in foods, even as our culture has slowly been switching to low-fat or even plant-based forms of milk. Some more details:
  • 33 number of pounds of cheese the average American eats yearly source
  • bad That 33 pounds number is triple what the average American ate back in the 1970s, when the culture was cheesier in general.
  • worse Cheese is a key source of saturated fat, that kind of really safe fat that’s linked to heart disease and high calories.
  • worser Dairy Management has been promoting eating more cheese as a form of weight-loss, even though that’s not true.
  • The government feeds big dairy… Dairy Management is a very powerful group, and has been closely tied to both the Bush and Obama administrations. They have a budget of around $140 million, mostly from fees the government forces on the dairy industry, along with some money directly from the Agriculture Department. This is despite the public get-healthy face that folks like Michelle Obama have pushed in recent years. Not so much.
  • … And we just eat it up In recent years, Dairy Management’s efforts have led to new products such as Domino’s pizza relaunch (which had way more cheese), Taco Bell’s quesadillas (which have eight times more cheese than any other item on their menu), and cheesy burgers from Wendy’s and Burger King. In 2007 alone, their efforts led to an increase in cheese sales of 30 million pounds. You feel guilty now, don’t you?
  • » Are you a cheese-snacking fanatic? All of this underlines the big problem: The Agriculture Department is both the regulator and the government group that pushes the economic engine of the farming and dairy industries. This is very problematic for a lot of reasons. By the way, one group that Dairy Management is specifically focusing on: Families who eat lots of cheese and don’t really worry about the health qualms. That’s who these crap food products are marketed towards. Perhaps you should consider ordering your next sandwich without cheese.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Nov 2010 10:58

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World: G20 Summit in Seoul draws the usual unhappy protesters

Every time there’s a Gsomethingorother – G7, G12, G20, what have you – there are anti-capitalism protests. Right now, the ones in Seoul are calmer than most. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Nov 2010 10:44

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World: Indonesia’s erupting Mount Merapi not calming down anytime soon

  • 156 people have been killed by Mount Merapi’s massive eruption since October 26
  • 12.4 number of miles the volcano’s danger zone extends; ash has killed some living miles away
  • 200k people have been displaced by the volcano’s 3.7-mile-high wrath source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Nov 2010 10:30

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Politics: Hah! Eric Cantor rips Nancy Pelosi for putting “ideology first”

  • This is a woman who puts ideology first. This says to voters, ‘we’re not listening to you.’
  • Likely House Majority Leader Eric Cantor • Dropping his two cents into the whole Nancy-still-wants-to-lead thing. Is this the guy who should be trashing people for putting ideology first? We remember what Eric did during the the Health Care Summit at the White House, and when you have to use attention-grabbing props to get your point across, you’re in it for the ideology, not getting things done. None of this is to say that Nancy should try to keep her leadership position. But Eric Cantor is the wrong guy to make this argument. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

06 Nov 2010 20:15

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World: Myanmar (a.k.a. Burma) having (possibly democratic) elections

  • 29
    million     number of people who will be able to vote in tomorrow’s elections in Burma (also known as Myanmar)
  • 1.5
    million     number of those people who won’t be able to because it’s too dangerous for voting to take place
  • 50 number of years that Burma has been under depressing military rule
  • 20 number of years since the country had any sort of election (sham or not)
  • 3,000 candidates are vying for a seat in Sunday’s election source
  • » Critics say it’s a sham: Well, let’s see. Foreign journalists won’t be allowed in the country during tomorrow’s elections. Nor will independent observers. And the leader of the opposition party, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, is currently under house arrest and largely has been since the last election. Wonder what makes them think that this election is a sham.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Nov 2010 19:47

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Tech: Proxy war: Facebook, Google fighting over your friends

  • cause Google, looking to build its own social networking product to compete with Facebook (Orkut doesn’t count apparently) wants Facebook to open up its data stream so they can use it.
  • reaction Facebook says no, so Google changes their policy so Facebook can’t simply grab contacts from Gmail accounts anymore. You joined Facebook five years ago, so it doesn’t matter. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Nov 2010 19:38

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Biz: Baby bundle: Amazon sees lots of opportunity with Diapers.com

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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