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27 Dec 2010 22:46

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Offbeat: NYC blizzard’s worst victim: This unlucky Ford Explorer

  • We don’t know the sanitation workers who did this to this poor vehicle, but if we did, we’d smack them around for a little bit. (thanks Adam Griffiths)
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

27 Dec 2010 20:40

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Politics: Ed Rendell brings up good point for exactly the wrong reason

  • We’ve become a nation of wusses. The Chinese are kicking our butt in everything. If this was in China do you think the Chinese would have called off the game? People would have been marching down to the stadium, they would have walked and they would have been doing calculus on the way down.
  • Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell • Complaining about a football game cancelled because of snow. Wait … comprehend that a second. The governor of Pennsylvania is really annoyed because a football game was cancelled because of snow. And as a result, he’s bringing up the industrial fight the U.S. is losing with China. He’s thinking of a fairly smart concept, but trying to apply it to football. We can’t get behind Ed Rendell on this, not because his overarching point isn’t fair, but because he’s bringing it up over a delayed football game. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Dec 2010 20:23

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Politics: Gallup’s “Most Admired” poll: SARAH PALIN BEAT OPRAH?!?!?!?!?!

  • 22% of people think Obama is the male they admire most – worse than 2008 or 2009, but still decent
  • 17% of people think Hillary Clinton is the female they most admire – she kills at this poll, usually
  • 12% of people think Sarah Palin is the female they most admire; who are these people? source
  • » To emphasize our dislike of this poll: Sarah Palin beat Oprah. SARAH PALIN BEAT OPRAH!!!!!!!! While George W. Bush was just behind Obama, he didn’t have 12 percent. Cannot believe this, guys. We think we might have to go to bed after this one.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Dec 2010 14:34

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Biz: H&R Block can’t loan you your tax refund early anymore, guys

  • situation H&R Block offered instant loans to those who didn’t want to wait a couple of weeks to get their tax refund – which often benefited low-income customers.
  • conflictUnfortunately for them, the US government stepped in and forced the bank backing the loans, HSBC, to stop offering them, in part due to their very high interest rates.
  • defeatThe decision was made very late last week, and now H&R Block’s stock is down by a solid 10 percent, because they don’t have a backup for HSBC’s loans. source
  • » A weakened competitive position: Unfortunately for H&R block, that 10 percent drop isn’t the only bad news they have to deal with. See, the IRS informed HSBC and Republic Bancorp that they wouldn’t be underwriting the controversial loans anymore, and wouldn’t be informing tax services which consumers were eligible for said loans. But their top competitor, Jackson Hewitt Tax Service, managed to find other banks to offer the service, so as a result, they’ll have a significant competitive advantage over H&R Block next year – which has caused H&R Block’s stock to lose nearly half its value and Jackson Hewitt to skyrocket 37 percent in recent weeks. Just a tip to our friends who use these loans – their interest rates are predatory in nature, so be careful.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Dec 2010 13:54

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Tech: Amazon has record-setting holiday season, led by the Kindle

  • 158 units sold each second, and 13.7 million overall source
  • » And the key factoid? Amazon’s best-selling item of all-time is the third-generation Kindle, which only came out a few months ago. That’s not the best-selling technology item. No. It managed to top the final book in the “Harry Potter” series for the mantle of Amazon’s biggest seller of all-time. At $139, guess they found their price point. And guess we have egg on our face.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Dec 2010 13:18

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U.S.: Alabama at top of Medicaid bonus class … and then some

  • So, fun fact about Medicaid for children: Around two-thirds of uninsured children are eligible to receive it. But nearly 4.7 million children who are eligible for the service don’t receive it. Why? Well, to put it simply, state and federal governments are absolutely terrible at informing parents that it’s an option. It’s something the Obama administration has been working on, however, and thanks to some incentives, 15 states are being rewarded for insuring more children (around 874,000 in total) in the last year. Or, actually, Alabama and 14 other states:
  • $309
    million     the amount in Medicaid bonuses that the Obama administration is handing to the states
  • $55
    million     the amount that Alabama – *ALONE* – is taking in, more than double any other state on the list source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Dec 2010 09:20

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Culture: Hugh Hefner somehow getting 23-year-old Playmate to marry him

  • These are the words of a man who’s getting engaged to a woman three-and-a-half times his age. That’s right, our boy Hef is getting hitched to Crystal Harris, a playmate who at 23 years of age should make Hugh Hefner’s 84-year-old bones feel brittle in comparison. How does he do it? We mean that in more ways than one. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

27 Dec 2010 08:47

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U.S.: How much snow fell in New York yesterday? A freaking lot

  • 29 inches of snow fell in many parts of New York state on Sunday
  • 2,000 flights were canceled; Amtrak trains were also cancelled on Sunday
  • six states declared a state of emergency after the massive storm source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Dec 2010 08:24

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World: Julian Assange is writing a book. Here’s how much he’s gonna make

  • So, in case you couldn’t guess otherwise, Julian Assange is broke. Running a site like Wikileaks does not make one rich, and now that banks are clamping down on the organization, he’s forced to take desperate measures. Which means that the inevitable book is coming down the pipe a little sooner than anyone might have guessed. Which means, within a year, we’re going to see a movie, with Neil Patrick Harris playing our boy Julian. Probably. Anyway, here’s how much this autobiography thang is going to make him:
  • $502k coming from British publisher Canongate Books Ltd.
  • $800k more coming from American publisher Alfred A. Knopf
  • $1.7M total, which will go towards his legal defense source
  • » Our question: Will Bank of America, PayPal, Mastercard and Visa block payments to Knopf or Canongate Books? Because they’re directly helping Wikileaks.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Dec 2010 08:03

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U.S.: Will the TSA’s body scans and pat-downs continue after the holidays?

  • YES because it’s “objectively safer” or something source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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