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21 Jan 2011 22:07

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Politics: Question: Post-MSNBC, should Keith Olbermann return to sports?

  • Personally, I liked Olbermann better as a sports anchor. He could be funny, but he wasn’t expected to wad up paper, or quiver his lip, or what have you.
  • SB Nation’s Jon Bois • Offering a relatively fresh view on Olbermann’s departure, whatever the cause. Fact is, as many wonky fans as he has, some still love him more for his ’90s run on ESPN’s “Sportscenter.” (We disagree, by the way, but that’s just us.) Should Keith get back into sports? He was pretty good back in the day at doing this, so it’d be an interesting time to return. But he might be harder to accept in this role, considering the by-default divisive nature of “Countdown.” Keith’s done some sports stuff in recent years, most recently with “Football Night in America.” But doing sports full-time might be a bit of a harsh left turn for a guy who’s banked so much on the cult of personality and earned many fans because of it. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Jan 2011 21:33

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Politics: So, what happens to Keith Olbermann’s old MSNBC slot now?

  • departure Keith Olbermann shockingly announced his departure from MSNBC tonight, making the left half of the Interwebs explode. (Here’s the video.)
  • replacement Lawrence O’Donnell will be replacing Keith in the 8 p.m. slot, and Ed Schultz will replace O’Donnell at 10 p.m. Why not give our boy Cenk his own show? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Jan 2011 21:01

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Tech: Threewords.me: How to turn a side project into wad of cash

  • Come up with a clever idea. Play with it for a few days. Promote it online. Watch traffic explode as the crazy idea goes viral and forces you to beef up your server capacity almost immediately. Decide you don’t want to make it your main gig. Choose to cash out quickly. Put up a page hoping you find a buyer quickly. Find said big buyer quickly. Turn your side project into a wad of cash. With just three words. And a dream. Way to go, Mark Bao. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Jan 2011 20:34

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Music: Two dudes. Eight hours. One formulaic “Top 40” pop tune.

  • The dudes’ point? Any bastard can make a formulaic hit song with a little bit of knowledge of what they’re doing, and we let them do it. Dave Wallace and Dan Bennett (known as Transit) put together the kind of “Top 40”-like pop tune that would get played in the clubs. Well, that is, if they wanted their tunes to name-drop Jamie Lee Curtis for no particular reason. It took them so little time that they took a couple hours off to grab burgers and come back. The goodness starts at 6:05. The track can be ganked over here. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Jan 2011 19:32

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Biz, Tech: Mark Zuckerberg swimming in Facebook cash infusions right now

  • We know what Mark Zuckerberg’s doing right now. He’s taking his daily swim in Facebook money. (We’re sure the Winklevi are rowing through their much smaller pile of litigation money.) As we’re sure you’ve heard, Facebook has been making fast friends with Goldman Sachs to increase its funding base without going public, which they’re going out of their way to not do for some reason. How much money have they raised? Well, to give you an idea:
  • $1.5 billion raised by Facebook in the last freaking month
  • $500
    million     the amount Facebook raised in that shady-sounding Goldman Sachs deal a while back
  • $1
    billion     the amount Facebook raised from Goldman Sachs’ uber-rich individual international clients source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Jan 2011 18:03

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Politics: State of the Union: There’s a response to Paul Ryan’s response

  • reasoned The GOP’s official response to Obama’s State of the Union will feature Paul Ryan’s uniquely reasonable principled fiscal conservatism on display.
  • crazy But wait, there’s another “official” response. Michele Bachmann will be on the Tea Party Express Web site after Ryan gets done to offer a second response. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Jan 2011 15:48

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Culture: We have some Antoine Dodson news for you guys. Sit down first.

  • Before we reveal to you this news, start playing this video above. Get about a minute in. Then continue reading. *pause* OK, hopefully we haven’t lost you. Now that you’ve seen the clip above, imagine Dodson with his own reality TV show. Apparently he has a deal now. How the heck did he get from saving his sister from getting raped to this? Weird how this works. We hope he and his family are happy with his success. But he might be flying too close to the sun. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

21 Jan 2011 15:24

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Biz: Jeff Zucker’s last gasp with NBC: “I leave you in good hands”

  • For me, that chapter’s ending, but for all of you it’s an exciting new beginning. With Comcast, I leave you in good hands and have no doubt that you will continue to do great things. I look forward to following your progress.
  • Departing NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker • In a memo to his employees on the company’s financial performance, the last such report before the soon-to-complete Comcast deal. Zucker, the man probably most responsible for the Jay Leno/Conan mess, is leaving a company he’s worked at for a solid 25 years. Sorry, we’re finding it hard to type. We have something in our eyes. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Jan 2011 14:59

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Biz: Warner Music Group looking for buyer; do you guys take $50s?

The Warners, which are actually doing rather well compared to their music-industry competitors, saw their stock rise in the wake of the news. Hope we can stil afford it. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Jan 2011 14:42

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U.S.: Thiopental sodium: Key lethal injection drug headed off the market?

  • This will be a challenge for [medical] customers and we regret that. But we don’t want to put our Italian facility at risk that the product will be misused.
  • Hospira spokeswoman Tareta Adams • Discussing the company’s decision to pull a key drug used in lethal executions off the market. The drug, thiopental sodium, is widely used by prisons all over the country, but in the wake of manufacturing issues in 2009, they had to stop producing the product. They were about to restart production at an italian factory, but an order by that country’s parliament forced Hospira to agree not to allow the Italian-produced drugs to be used in lethal injections in the U.S. So now, American prisons will be screwed or forced to use other medications to do the same thing. In Oklahoma, the drug pentobarbital, usually used to put animals down, was used in an execution there after a court decision. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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