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30 Dec 2010 21:44

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Tech: Web users like Facebook, Google, and…Bing?

  • facebook was the most-visited website this year. That is, of course, if you consider each Google offshoot site (Maps, Gmail) a separate website. If you count all Google properties, though, the search engine giant shoots up to #1, comprising 9.85% of all US visits. Some more weird bits: eBay was pushed out of the top ten by Bing (people actually use Bing?), and “facebook login” was the 2nd most-searched term of the year, which is odd, because it’s not like the login box on Facebook.com is terribly hard to find. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 1 Comment • Permalink

30 Dec 2010 21:23

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Culture: Survey participants deny paying for online porn

  • 2% of Internet users pay for pornography source
  • » Really? Only 2%? Not that we’re, uhh, experts on online pornography, but 2% sounds really, really low. These statistics are hard to come by, but one site reported that over $3,000 is spent on pornography every minute. We smell shenanigans. And by “shenanigans,” we mean “people lying to an interviewer because they’re embarrassed about paying for porn.” On the other hand, considering how ubiquitous free porn is on the internet, maybe 2% isn’t that low after all.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 1 Comment • Permalink

30 Dec 2010 21:00

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U.S.: Casino to thief: You’ve got ’till Spring to cash in those stolen chips

  • causeThievin’ varmint makes off with $1.5 million in chips from the Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
  • effect MGM announces that, as of April 22nd of next year, their $25,000 chips will no longer be redeemable.
  • questionApril 22nd? That’s four months from now. Won’t the guy just cash them in before then? source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Dec 2010 20:48

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U.S.: Bad timing: Honda recalls snowblowers in midst of blizzards

  • 18.5k snow blowers recalled due to fuel seepage source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Dec 2010 20:22

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Politics: Reciting Constitution on House floor will have “no practical impact”

  • Reading [the Constitution] on the floor of the House will not make the country more like you want it to be, unless your problem with the country is that you thought the Constitution should be read aloud on the floor of the House more frequently.
  • Ezra Klein • On the GOP’s requirement that all proposed laws in the next Congress be prefaced by a reading aloud of the Constitution. Klein calls the move, seen by some as an attempt to appeal to the Tea Party, a “gimmick” that will have “no practical impact” on how members legislate. Kevin Gutzman, history professor at Western Connecticut State University, agrees: “This is the way the establishment handles grassroots movements… once they’ve humored [Tea Party sympathizers] and those people go away, it’s right back to business as usual.”source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Dec 2010 18:09

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U.S.: Haley Barbour: Want early release? That will cost you one kidney

  • $11 the amount two Mississippi sisters stole in an armed robbery at a nightclub 16 years ago
  • two the number of life sentences they got for the crime (really); they had no prior records
  • one number of kidneys one sister has to donate as a condition of her sentence getting suspended source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Dec 2010 13:35

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World: Ivory Coast could celebrate new year by falling further into abyss

  • A few things happen on January 1st, guys. First of all, it’s the new year, which is always sort of a big deal. Secondly, it’s the site’s second anniversary, which means we expect cake, but probably won’t get it because nobody cares enough about this site to make a cake. But third, and most importantly, some really crazy stuff could go down in the Ivory Coast. See, supporters of opposition leader Alassane Ouattara are holed up in the Golf Hotel in Abidjan, but supporters of Laurent Gbagbo are talking about plans to “liberate” the hotel on the first of the year, leading the UN’s new envoy to the country to say things like “on the brink of genocide.” This could be extremely bad, and we’d rather have a crappy anniversary that everyone ignores than to see a country like the Ivory Coast, which has been through hell and civil war, fall into that trap again thanks to the current unrest being caused by Gbagbo’s controversial hold on power. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

30 Dec 2010 12:36

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Tech: So long, FaceTime: Skype can do iPhone 3G video chat now

  • So it’s official: Skype has just eaten Apple’s lunch in the video-chat market. Video chat over 3G? Interoperability? Apple can’t do either right now. As long as Skype can bounce back from their recent outage and keep customers happy with them, FaceTime will lose. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

30 Dec 2010 12:26

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Biz: Groupon founders cash in big time with latest financing round

  • $950M the size of Groupon’s current funding round, started this week
  • $500M of that funding has already been raised (impressive!)
  • $345M of that total is going to founders and existing shareholders  source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Dec 2010 12:10

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Biz: New jobless claims back down to pre-financial-crisis numbers

  • 388,000 the number of new jobless claims last week (the week of Christmas), the lowest it’s been in ages
  • 07/12/08 the last time new jobless claims dipped below 400,000 in a week – in the midst of the housing crisis source
  • » Is this a corner turned? It’s important to note that while weekly jobless claims figures aren’t exactly the end-all-be-all of unemployment statistics, the number has been headed in downward direction for weeks and is nearly 250,000 less than its peak in March 2009. While the numbers are seasonally adjusted, the Christmas holiday can have an effect on them, so it’s good to keep an eye on this number to see where it goes after the first of the year.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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