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12 Jan 2011 21:43

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U.S.: Obama to Arizona memorial: “Gabby opened her eyes”

  • This may have been one of Obama’s best speeches as president. Certainly at least a little jarring to hear cheering at a memorial for the fallen, but the way he was able to bring context to a terrible event really hit home. The way he spoke about the tragedy brought tears to quite a few sets of eyes, and it’s definitely good to see a major political figure speaking above the never-ending debate that it seems like everyone’s been sucked into over the last few days. It feels like a spark that had been missing for a while just came back. Again, though, it’s sad that this was the event to bring a speech like this out of him. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Jan 2011 20:37

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U.S.: Gabrielle Giffords’ rescuer, Daniel Hernandez: I’m not a hero

  • “We must reject the title of hero.” Daniel Hernandez personally stood at Gabrielle Giffords’ side, at her beck and call, trying his hardest to save the congresswoman’s life. And he just gave an amazing speech, emphasizing that the first responders deserve the title of hero, not him. We are going to see more of this guy. It’s too bad that a horrible, unbelievably sad incident like this brought him into the public spotlight. (Live from CNN) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Jan 2011 20:19

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U.S.: If there’s no snow where you are, you’re in the minority

  • 71% of the U.S. covered in snow (but not Florida) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Jan 2011 20:06

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World: Poor Ai Weiwei: China tears down prominent artist’s studio

See this unlucky guy right here? He’s an artist. He once built an art studio. China didn’t like his anti-communist views, so they tore it down. Now he doesn’t have an art studio. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Jan 2011 19:51

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U.S.: Westboro Baptist Church gives in (a little) on funeral protests

  • good Westboro Baptist Church promised not to protest the funeral of nine-year-old Christina Green after Arizona passed a law against their protests. They made a deal with a radio host in exchange for airtime.
  • bad However, the WBC still plans to protest the other funerals in the wake of the Tucson shootings, because clearly it’s still OK to protest a random person’s funeral when they’re older than nine. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Jan 2011 12:38

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World: Lebanon cabinet thrown into chaos after Hezbollah supporters resign

  • 11 ministers in the Lebanese cabinet resigned today (uh oh) source
  • » Why did they resign? The members, supporters of Hezbollah, resigned in protest of a UN-backed tribunal looking into the death of former prime minister Rafik Hariri. It’s likely that the tribunal will point the finger at members of Hezbollah, which is what led to the instability today and even made it an inevitability. The result? The government dissolves. Yikes.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Jan 2011 11:15

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Tech: Sony wants court to prevent PS3 system master key’s spread

  • The lack of injunctive relief will … result in the loss of goodwill to licensees, encourage infringers to increase operations, and discourage anti-piracy enforcement which is great and irreparable harm.
  • A court document from Sony’s lawyers • Asking for a temporary restraining order to stop the spread of the Playstation 3 master key, which was released online earlier this month by Geohot (George Hotz), who originally jailbroke the iPhone, and the FAIL0VERFLOW group. It’s good to note that the PS3 was originally released with an Other OS feature, which (awesomely) allowed people to run Linux on their consoles. However, it was eventually turned off by Sony for security reasons, leading to the current chain of events. Streisand effect, anyone? source
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12 Jan 2011 10:50

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World: Reminder: Snow sucks, but not as much as Australia’s flooding

Brisbane-area floodwaters have reached the second story of some homes. “This is an extraordinary, once in a 100 year event or more,” said Queensland Premier Anna Bligh. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Jan 2011 10:35

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Tech: Microsoft suddenly complains about Apple “App Store” trademark

  • then Back in 2008, Apple trademarked the words “App Store” to advertise its silo of third-party programmed application goodness. The U.S. Patent Office opened up the name for opposition in 2009, and Apple later used it for it Mac App Store.
  • now Microsoft, trying to gain a foothold with Windows Phone 7, decided to protest use of the name, saying that it was too generic. Note that the U.S. Patent Office has allowed others to protest this trademark for more than a year. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Jan 2011 10:20

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U.S.: So, how did NYC handle their latest snowstorm, anyway?

  • 5″-9″ number of inches of snow that fell in the NYC area last night; heavy, but not too heavy
  • 2,400+ sanitation workers were out using over 300 trucks to clear out snow – they were ready this time
  • no public schools didn’t close today, but they’ve only closed six times since 1978 source
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