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26 Jan 2011 20:49

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Offbeat: Broke New Jersey county: We’re using “pickle juice” to stop snow

  • We’re assuming that this girl isn’t a sanitation worker. Bergen County, New Jersey, has been using a briny mixture of salt and water that they’ve called “pickle juice.” With just a $4 million snow budget (and $3 million already spent), they’ve had to get creative, and let’s face it, you don’t get more creative than you do with pickle juice. Anyway, this is a major cost-saver for the county. A ton of salt costs $63. A gallon of this mixture costs 7 cents. Roughy 250 gallons of water equals a ton. The result? Less than a third of the cost. We bet it doesn’t work very well, no matter how much it saves. (photo by spanginator) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Jan 2011 20:24

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Politics: Rep. Peter King: TSA threat warning changes necessary

  • Though the system served a valuable purpose in the terrible days and months following the terrorist attacks of September 11, it was clearly time for the current color-coded system to be replaced with a more targeted system.
  • House Homeland Security Commission Chair Rep. Peter King • On the proposed changes to the TSA’s infamous (and widely-mocked) color-code system, launched not long after 9/11.  While not delving into the specifics, King sounds relatively positive on what might be in store. “It sounds to me like the changes they are proposing make sense,” he said. “We will have to wait and see how they implement this new, more targeted system.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Jan 2011 19:51

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U.S.: Mosque drama: California town allows one … after much NIMBY rage

These folks here? Muslim. They want a mosque in Temecula, Calif. But the crazies came out and filed an appeal. The City Council eventually denied the appeal after a LOOONG meeting. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Jan 2011 19:10

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Tech: Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook hacked: Well, that’s reassuring

  • Let the hacking begin: If facebook needs money, instead of going to the banks, why doesn’t Facebook let its users invest in Facebook in a social way?
  • “Mark Zuckerberg” • Or, that is, some dude who hacked the Facebook founder’s Facebook profile. You know what’s really bad press, Mark? Not an award-winning movie about your life. Something like this. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Jan 2011 15:39

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Culture: Anaheim Ducks sued over allegedly anti-semitic comments

  • Hockey player Jason Bailey claims his minor league coaches made anti-semitic remarks. Bailey alleges that head coach Mark Raymond and assistant coach Mark Pedersen, of the Bakersfield Condors (the Ducks minor league affiliate to which he was assigned), made anti-semitic remarks around him. The suit claims that Raymond said Jews “only care about money and who’s who,” and that he didn’t want his son to be Jewish or ever wear a yarmulke. Pedersen is alleged to have said, “I just got a friend request from a dirty Jew.” Bailey, who is Jewish, is seeking unspecified damages for the team creating a “hostile work environment.” No kidding. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Jan 2011 14:59

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U.S.: Good news on Giffords, as medical condition is upgraded

  • GOOD Giffords’ current condition source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Jan 2011 14:30

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Politics: FCIC report to blame human action, inaction for financial crisis

  • We conclude this financial crisis was avoidable.
  • Report by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission • The panel’s report, charged with investigation and review of America’s cataclysmic economic crisis, was obtained by Reuters on Tuesday. It cites human error, action, and inaction as being to blame for the collapse. The report will be widely released on Thursday. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 1 Comment • Permalink
 

26 Jan 2011 13:56

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World: This week in Italian quiz show host exhumations

  • buried Prominent Italian quiz show host Mike Bongiorno, who died in 2009 and was laid to rest in Arona.
  • unburied Italian officials reported Tuesday that Bongiorno’s body was stolen from its grave. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Jan 2011 13:35

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U.S.: The high cost of unfunded tax cuts

  • $1.07 trillion could have been our deficit in 2011 source
  • » Not to belabor the point: The extension of the Bush-era tax cuts, which the President hashed out with Republicans, was a compromise granted to a political party that claims to be concerned about the deficit. You might therefore think the deal wouldn’t staggeringly increase the deficit, but you’d think wrong. This news will invariably be spun into another story about reckless liberal spending, but remember: this was the war trophy the Republican Party got out of the President, unfunded expenditure be damned.
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 1 Comment • Permalink

26 Jan 2011 13:19

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Offbeat: Canadian woman earns first ever degree in Beatles studies

  • I am so proud of my achievement.
  • Mary-Lu Zahalan-Kennedy • The former Miss Canada finalist graduated from Liverpool Hope University with a Masters degree in Beatles studies. “Beatles, Popular Music and Society” was the first ever such course to offer such a degree, making Zalahan-Kennedy the world’s first collegiately accredited Beatles expert. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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