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07 Feb 2011 14:10

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World: Getting back to basic fears, shark attacks rise in 2010

  • Shark week? More like shark year: Reported shark attack rates reached their highest level since 2000 last year, topping out at seventy-nine. The most publicized were likely those in the Red Sea, where there were five attacks in four days, and four of those attacks were thought to have been done by just two sharks. Still, the biggest takeaway from this? Shark attacks are still, as ever, exceedingly rare, even with repeat offenders like the Red Sea duo stalking the waters. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Feb 2011 13:18

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Politics: Tony Blair has his say on Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood

  • It is founded on a different view of the relationship between religion and public policy than most people in secular societies would want.
  • Former British PM Tony Blair • The oft-maligned former leader speaking about the Muslim Brotherhood, whose likely involvement in forming a new Egyptian government is causing some angst for advocates of secularism. Blair suggested the Brotherhood was not extremist like some groups in other countries, but that while religion had an important place in society, he “wouldn’t want to live in even a democratic theocracy.” Can you even call something democracy if one entity officially has omnipotent control over the people?  source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Feb 2011 12:57

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U.S.: This week in international disease transplantation

  • 3 cholera diagnoses in New York City, by way of the Dominican Republic source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Feb 2011 11:22

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Tech: Gawker finally moves over to that bold redesign they have

  • Oh, hey new Gawker: In case anyone needed a reason to go to Gawker today, here you go. Compared to previous iterations of the redesign, the kickers in front of the topics help a lot. They weren’t there before, making everything sort of blend into one another. Still, though, we think this is a huge mistake on Gawker’s part. By downplaying what made Gawker worthwhile (the snarky blurbs over to the right), they endanger their base. Good luck, though. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Feb 2011 11:13

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World: Rio de Janeiro’s famous carnival props lost in massive fire

  • It looks really funny until you realize the context: Rio de Janeiro’s carnival-building section of town, Samba City, just had a huge fire where lots of stuff got destroyed. Costumes, giant props: They were almost all destroyed. (Nobody was hurt, though.) “We are heartbroken,” said League of Samba Schools president Jorge Castanheria. “Everything was practically ready for the carnival.” It happened so close to the event, which draws hundreds of thousands of people each year, that they may not be able to get everything ready in time. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Feb 2011 11:00

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Politics: California Rep. Jane Harman ditches Congress for pure wonkery

  • what California Democrat Jane Harman will likely reveal plans tomorrow to vacate her seat in Congress.
  • why She’ll be the new President and CEO of the Woodrow Wilson Center in DC. Ah, think tanks. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Feb 2011 10:52

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World: Egypt opposition organizers: “We are betting on the people”

  • The government played all the dirty games that they had, and the people persisted. We are betting on the people.
  • Shady el-Ghazaly Harb • Revealing himself in a public setting as one of the main organizers of the Facebook page that originally influenced the protests in Egypt. He and his group vow to escalate the movement, despite attempts by leadership to portray yesterday’s meeting with opposition as both sides coming together. At least three organizers had been held in extra-legal detention the night before and finally released.  source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

07 Feb 2011 10:36

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World: Julian Assange’s extradition trial starts back up in the UK

The defense in the extradition trial suggested that there was real risk Assange could be sent to Guantanamo Bay. The prosecution pooh-poohed that. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Feb 2011 10:19

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World: Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir: We’re OK with the secession vote

  • We will announce today in front of the world our acceptance and respect for the choice of the people of the south.
  • Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir • Revealing that his country would accept the results of a country-splitting referendum between the north and south. The south chose, by a wide margin, to secede, a result that cuts back Bashir’s clout but could help stabilize the entire region. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Feb 2011 00:23

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Biz, Tech: Three things to know about AOL’s Huffington Post merger

  • one The buyout fits perfectly in with AOL CEO Tim Armstrong’s content strategy. It’s a strategy that led him to buy TechCrunch last year.
  • two The merger of the two companies has the potential to draw in 100 million viewers to a single Web conglomerate with many tentacles.
  • three Arianna Huffington will now be in charge of all of AOL’s editorial content – including such notable things as Moviefone and Mapquest.  source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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