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02 Nov 2010 10:08

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Biz: Futurist Ross Dawson: Newspapers dead in the U.S. by 2017

  • Leading futurist Ross Dawson has a message for you print jockeys out there: Find another medium that doesn’t involve dead trees. The dude created a handy-dandy chart explaining how we won’t read newspapers in the U.S. in another seven years. But on the plus side, if you’re a member of the Argentinian press, your papers will still be relevant into 2039. Food for thought. Plus this guy is a futurist which means he can see into the futureeeeeeeeeeee. oooh. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Nov 2010 09:57

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Politics: Ed Rendell on Obama: “expectations were unreasonably high”

  • I think expectations were unreasonably high for Barack Obama. He took over the presidency, Harry, facing the worst set of problems not of his own making that any American president has faced in the last 50 years.
  • Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell • Explaining (on “The Early Show” with Harry Smith and Maggie Rodriguez) the big problem Democrats have faced over the last two years. They have a president who has actually done stuff but the American people are either unaware or misinformed about what it is he did. (See: The Obama tax cuts nobody felt.) “We’ve got to learn to explain and communicate what we’ve done and what we want to do a lot more clearly and a lot better than we have,” Rendell said. While it’s too early to say whether or not Rendell’s assessment means big losses tonight (let the polls speak for themselves, kids), it’s one of the more honest assessments of the communication problems the Democrats have had recently. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Nov 2010 09:44

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U.S.: Today’s midterms already broke a pretty major record

  • 16 million early ballots already cast before the day started source
  • » And possibly an all-time record, too: The tally of early ballots looks to get very close to 2008’s record. Will it top it? Either way, it’s a record for a midterm election.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Nov 2010 01:22

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Politics: Famous last words before heading into tomorrow’s midterms

  • Just as the conditions promising at least a pretty bad Democratic year have been with us for some time, the uncertainty has been with us all along as well, like a virus with an exceptionally long latency period; on Tuesday, we’ll see which of the polls it has infected.
  • FiveThirtyEight guy Nate Silver • Offering a key piece of final analysis that we should probably take into the elections today. While the polls have largely remained consistent about how many seats the Democrats will lose and the Republicans will gain, it’s good to keep at least a little bit of perspective no matter how you lean. Remember, back in 1994 the analysts were relatively consistent too, but in the end, the Republicans did way better than most of them expected – by a long shot. No matter the case, you should probably get out there and vote your heart out for both the ballot measures and the candidates – unless you live in DC and know the results of every election already. We’ll have lots of key results from our non-existent glass-enclosed nerve center at a late-night coffee shop in Dupont Circle tomorrow night. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Nov 2010 00:56

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U.S.: Unemployed woman receives letter from Obama, sells it to get by

  • sad One of millions of people in dire economic straits, Jennifer Cline and her husband lost their jobs in 2007. Then she got two types of skin cancer.
  • uplifting Cline wrote a letter to Obama telling him of her optimism despite her tough situation. Obama responded personally. It was big news.
  • sad Months later, Cline, still in dire straits, is selling the letter for $7,000 to pay for a mortgage and medical bills. Hard knocks suck. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Nov 2010 22:44

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Politics: Keith Olbermann stops “Worst Person in the World” segment (for now)

  • Well, that was unexpected. While criticizing the “Rally To Restore Sanity,” Keith Olbermann actually bent to it a little bit. He’s taking a break from the most well-known segment of “Countdown,” the “Worst Person in the World” segment, which (hilariously enough) was created in an attempt to defend Tucker “mining Journolist for traffic” Carlson. Is this temporary? Is it a pre-election stunt? Does it matter? Who cares! It’s Keith, admitting Jon Stewart’s rally got to him while at the same time saying it didn’t really get to him. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Nov 2010 21:25

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U.S.: Will “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” soften during the appeals process?

  • NO “don’t ask” won’t go away while Obama defends it source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

01 Nov 2010 21:17

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Tech: Off-topic: We really want this guitar. Please buy it for us. Please?

  • OK, OK, we know it’s early … But it’s almost that time again. With radio stations across the country beginning to change their formats to Christmas music, we want to suggest a Christmas present for the ShortFormBlog staff (OK, mostly Julius). A robotic Gibson Firebird guitar. This bad boy will only set you back an easy-to-pay-back-in-installments $5,570. And it’s made with the kind of forward-thinking technologies that we’ll put to good use by playing Oasis tunes off of “Be Here Now.” “Don’t go a-way, say what you’ll say, say that you’ll stay, forever and a day …” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

01 Nov 2010 20:55

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Culture: Pee-Wee Herman: A bit older, but still a child at heart

Is there anyone more deserving of a comeback than Pee-Wee Herman/Paul Reubens? With his upcoming Broadway show, we pretty much have to say no. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Nov 2010 20:17

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Culture: Dear anonymous sources: Please don’t anger Sarah Palin

  • This is the torrent of rage that builds up when you piss sarah Palin off: “I suppose I could play their immature, unprofessional, waste-of-time game, too, by claiming these reporters and politicos are homophobe, child molesting, tax evading, anti-dentite, puppy-kicking, chain smoking porn producers…really, they are… I’ve seen it myself…but I’ll only give you the information off-the-record, on deep, deep background; attribute these ‘facts’ to an ‘anonymous source’ and I’ll give you more.” Yikes. We’re scared. *cower* source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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