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26 Apr 2011 14:03

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World: Health effects of Chernobyl disaster still hard to quantify

  • Chernobyl at 25: Today marks 25 years since Chernobyl blew up, plagued as it was by a mixture of poor decision-making by its chief operator, Anatoly Diatlov, as well as a critically flawed reactor design. All these years later, officials and experts still debate the health effects resulting from the crisis; the UN concluded about 6,000 youths would/have suffered thyroid cancer as a result, while other scientists and organizations insist the magnitude of the problem is much greater, in the tens of thousands. Now, the containment sarcophagus around Chernobyl is decaying, to boot, so the building of “the shelter,” an enormous arch that would cover the entire plant, becomes more important than ever for the surrounding areas. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Apr 2011 10:17

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Biz: Head-to-head: Which service is better, Groupon or LivingSocial

  • I wanted to dig into the whole group buying daily-deal craze and see if it’s as much of a win for merchants as it is for consumers. To test this out, I took one of my outlets and did a Groupon for it, and then did a deal through rival site LivingSocial. Let me tell you right now: It was night and day. Working with one company was a great experience. With the other, it was a mess.
  • Entrepreneur Romil Patel • Introing a piece he wrote comparing the two most-popular deals services from a businessperson’s perspective. To put it simply, one had kinda-rough customer service and deals that confused consumers. The other was a pleasure to work with. Can you figure out which one he liked better? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Apr 2011 09:59

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Biz: Ford scores largest quarterly profit since “Felicity” was popular

  • $2.55
    billion     the amount in profits that Ford made in its most recent quarter — a huge boost thanks to small cars
  • circa
    1998     the last time Ford had a profit this big — back when we were all listening to Third Eye Blind source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Apr 2011 02:01

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Biz: Netflix has more subscribers than Comcast, catching up with HBO

  • 23.6M number of subscribers Netflix has — up by over 3 million subscribers
  • 28.6M number of subscribers HBO has; Netflix passed Showtime’s 20 million
  • 22.8M number of subscribers Comcast has; cable use is declining source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Apr 2011 23:19

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U.S.: CIA: We only burn and shred documents because it’s the green thing to do

  • The Central Intelligence Agency’s practice of shredding and burning classified papers—often referred to in movies and books as “burn after reading”—is one of several ways the CIA conserves energy, reduces its impact on the environment, and lowers costs through its sustainability efforts.
  • The CIA • In an Earth Day posting to their website. The fact that the CIA actually said this is much funnier than any joke we could hope to make, so we’ll just let it stand. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Apr 2011 22:56

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U.S.: Republicans in Mississippi ambivalent about outcome of Civil War

  • 38% of Mississippi GOPers wish the South had won source
  • » There’s more: If you include the 41% that’s undecided, you get a whopping 79% of Mississippi Republicans who aren’t quite ready to throw their support behind Abraham Lincoln circa 1861. Also, 9% of African Americans in the state aren’t sure whether they like the NAACP more than the KKK; surely, this is the result of a typo, or some sort of methodological error, or perhaps a psychoactive pollutant in the drinking water. Oh well; at least 54% of the state agrees that interracial marriage shouldn’t be illegal. That’s right, a whole 54%!
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Apr 2011 22:28

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Politics: Feingold would have a shot at toppling Walker, new poll says

  • Heads up, Scott: A new poll shows progressive hero Russ Feingold neck-and-neck with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in a hypothetical recall election. This is less than a year after Feingold lost re-election to the Senate by five points to a political novice. Yeah, yeah, we know: this doesn’t mean much, as Feingold hasn’t expressed any interest in running and Walker is nine months away from even being eligible for a recall. But we can dream, right? source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

25 Apr 2011 21:55

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Politics: Ron Paul to run for President again

  • one Establishment favorite and GOP company man Haley Barbour surprised everyone today by announcing that he won’t be running for president in 2012 (probably a good idea, given his poll numbers).
  • two Hours later, Dave Weigel at Slate confirmed that everyone’s favorite scrappy libertarian, Ron Paul, will announce tomorrow an exploratory committee to run for president. Let the ReLOVEution begin again — for the first time. source
  • » What this means: One thing to keep in mind about presidential primaries is that every time a potential candidate announces their intent to run (or that they won’t be running), the calculus for every undecided candidate changes. For example, Haley Barbour is good friends with Mitch Daniels, who is half-heartedly considering a run of his own. With Barbour out, Mitch Daniels has one less excuse not to run. Meanwhile, Ron Paul’s entrance into the race effectively puts an end to his son’s quixotic flirtations with a bid, as Rand Paul already ruled out running against his father. Next question: Will the presence of another libertarian on the ballot put a dent in Paul’s loyal following?
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Apr 2011 21:18

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Politics: Donald Trump infers Robert De Niro is an idiot. On what grounds?

  • I won’t mention names, but certain people in the news the last couple weeks, just, what are they doing? It’s crazy. They’re making statements about people that they don’t even back up. Go get the facts before you start saying things about people.
  • Robert De Niro • Saying the kind of “no shit, sherlock” thing that somebody somewhere needed to say about the political sphere in recent weeks. Unfortunately … Donald Trump inferred it was about him. On Fox and Friends today, Trump had this to say: “When I watch him doing interviews and various other things, we are not dealing with Albert Einstein. He can say what he wants but the fact is this guy (Obama) has not revealed his birth certificate.” WAIT. STOP A SECOND. Robert De Niro (rightly) wants people to back up what they say in the press, and Donald Trump says he’s an idiot?!? Screw it. We give up. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Apr 2011 20:51

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Offbeat: Super Mario Bros. 3 sounds better with acoustic instruments

  • Because we have a predilection towards anything Mario: Here’s a clip of someone playing through Super Mario Bros. 3 — with a soundtrack provided by live musicians. Holy crap guys. We’re nerding out, and so are the creators of this — a couple of video game/jazz nerds called “Eight Bits of Jam.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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