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16 Dec 2010 22:56

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Politics, U.S.: Senator’s cancer scare throws wrench into Democrats’ legislative plans

  • bad Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon announced today that he’s been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
  • goodThanks to early detection, he’s probably going to make a full recovery. We’re glad to hear it, Ron!
  • uncertainHe’ll have to miss some votes to get surgery, making it that much harder for Senate Dems to pass anything. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Dec 2010 22:32

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U.S.: Congress passes bill requiring hybrids to be louder

  • The trend toward putting more environmentally friendly, quiet vehicles on the road has unintentionally jeopardized the safety and independence of the blind and other pedestrians.
  • Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y) • Regarding the House’s recent passage of a new bill requiring auto regulators to set minimum decibel levels for hybrid vehicles. Because hybrids are so quiet, pedestrians sometimes don’t hear ’em coming, and so they get hit. It’s a particularly big issue for the visually impaired, who often rely on a car’s noise to warn them of its presence. The bill has already passed the Senate and is on its way to becoming law. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Dec 2010 22:30

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Offbeat, World: Tokyo Governor pushes for draconian restrictions on cartoon boobs

  • Tokyo is “cracking down” on anime porn sales. We put “cracking down” in quotes because the restrictions, proposed by conservative Governor Shintaro Ishihara, really aren’t all that strict, at least by US standards. The bill would make it illegal to sell anime depicting things like rape, pedophilia and incest to people under the age of 18. Offenders would be subject to a $3,500 fine. Quite frankly, we’re surprised this isn’t already illegal. Nevertheless, comic book publishers are now threatening to boycott the Tokyo International Anime Fair in protest. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Dec 2010 22:01

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World: Deadly accidental attack in Afghanistan

  • 4 Afghan soldiers mistakenly killed by NATO-led airstrike source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Dec 2010 20:50

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U.S.: Ohio State’s servers hacked; officials wait two months to tell people

  • 760,000 people’s private data at risk source
  • » Why did they wait? Well, the school wanted to double-check that this is what happened, so they used a private security firm to check what happened. Fortunately for affected users, while Ohio State says that they don’t think anyone’s data was actually taken (and the breach was more to see if the server was ripe to launch cyberattacks from), they’ve offered a year of free credit protection to those who were affected by the breach. Still, two months? That’s a long time to wait to inform people about something of this nature.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Dec 2010 20:33

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Politics: Harry Reid kills omnibus spending bill over earmarks non-issue

  • what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s killing the Senate’s huge, trillion-dollar omnibus spending bill, which would keep the government running through September, in favor of a smaller one.
  • why Complaints about $8.3 billion in earmarks – which we pointed out last night are not a big deal – may make it hard for the bill to pass. It needs to pass by Friday to avoid a government shutdown. source
  • » Our point still stands: The problem with the bill was not the earmarks. The problem was that it was a trillion dollars, but a few senators have made earmarks the issue, which sucks, because the earmarks are a tiny part of the plan and if they would’ve gone to some random bureaucracy had they not been earmarked for the states.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Dec 2010 20:13

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U.S.: Police want public’s help with huge “Grim Sleeper” photo collection

  • First off, We’re A little uncomfortable with the way the L.A. times is covering this story. See, the Times put the collection of photos – 180 of them – into a pageview-generating giant slideshow, complete with ads on every page. We’ll let you click through them without posting any ourselves. Anyway, moving on … the photos, collected from suspect Lonnie David Franklin Jr., are disturbing documents – the way they are cropped suggests at least some, but not all, of the women were naked in the original photos. The “Grim Sleeper,” called that due to a long period of dormancy, may have killed many other young girls; there’s nothing to suggest he ever stopped between 1998 and 2002. It’s possible he was just really good at covering his tracks. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

16 Dec 2010 11:21

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Offbeat: Crazy animators make crazy animation with Google Docs

  • The people who made this are supremely clever, but have way too much time on their hands, honestly. Google Apps wasn’t designed for something this crazy. (thanks drawnblog)
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Dec 2010 11:15

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Tech: Nokia fires fresh salvo in ongoing patent war with Apple

  • 13 new patent claims made by Nokia against Apple source
  • » Whiny babies on both sides: Nokia, which hasn’t exactly been doing all that great in the market lately (but created a lot of fundamental technologies for mobile devices), sued Apple over a bunch of patents last year. Then Apple countersued. Nokia then went as far as asking the U.S. International Trade Commission to halt imports of Apple products. You know, how much does suing the hell out of one another solve? Nothing.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Dec 2010 11:01

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Politics: Jim DeMint pulls the “it’s Christmas” card to block legislation

  • We shouldn’t be jamming a major arms control treaty up against Christmas; it’s sacrilegious and disrespectful. What’s going on here is just wrong. This is the most sacred holiday for Christians. They did the same thing last year – they kept everybody here until [Christmas Eve] to force something down everybody’s throat. I think Americans are sick of this.
  • Sen. Jim DeMint • Saying a pretty douchey thing about doing his freaking job. So, to clarify … the GOP stonewalls the Democrats in the Senate the entire year, forcing legislation and judicial nominees from getting passed or even debated, and Jim here is all upset because they’re trying to actually get stuff passed while they still have some control of Congress? Yeah, you’re not a jerk. Perhaps you would enjoy your Christmas holiday more if YOU DIDN’T ACT LIKE A JERK THE REST OF THE YEAR. Don’t like it? Deal with it. Seriously, this is the most pathetic reasoning we’ve seen for any political ploy this year. Mind you, it’s December. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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