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01 May 2011 16:22

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Politics: Donald Trump, post-Seth Meyers: NOW he wants to talk issues?

  • cause At last night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, both Barack Obama and Seth Meyers scored some ice cold burns on Donald Trump — while he was in the room, grimacing.
  • effect This morning, Trump called the comments “inappropriate” and tried to redirect things to political issues. WAIT. Now you wanna talk issues all of a sudden, Sideshow Don? Too late, brah. source

01 May 2011 16:11

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Tech: NGOs report bad conditions in iPad factory, anti-suicide pledges

  • Suicides were not connected to bad working conditions. There was a copy effect. If one commits suicide, then others will follow.
  • Foxconn manager Louis Woo • Explaining away last summer’s suicide problem at his factory in China, which is in the business of producing Apple products. The article cites the research efforts of two NGOs, which cast a less than flattering light on the factory — that workers are publicly humiliated if they perform poorly, that they’re treated “inhumanely, like machines,” that they’re paid a stiflingly low wage to force them to work exhaustively long hours, that they have to sign an anti-suicide pledge telling them to “treasure their lives” — it’s a grim and disconcerting read. Woo’s explanation for the problem of his workers killing themselves seems rather lame, as well. If one commits suicide, the others will follow? That’s not exactly a logical process you’d expect to see in a group of people who were otherwise living happy lives. source

01 May 2011 16:04

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Biz: PlayStation Network breach could cost credit card firms millions

  • $1.5B the amount the PlayStation Network data breach could cost Sony, according to analysts
  • $300M the amount Sony’s data breach could cost credit card firms if consumers replace their cards
  • $3-$5 the amount it would cost card companies to replace a card affected by the breach source
  • » A big number, but small potatoes: The credit card industry makes a lot of money each year, and a $300 million charge, while not insignificant, is a drop in the bucket. In 2010, banks that distributed Visa and MasterCard cards — excluding American Express and Discover — made $2.12 billion in after-tax profit. So even if the potential cost is high, they could handle it.

01 May 2011 15:40

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U.S.: Protip: If you live in California, don’t breathe the air or something

  • 154M number of Americans who live in areas of the country where the air is sometimes dangerous to breathe
  • 17M number of Americans that live in areas with three different types of dangerous pollution source
  • » California cities the worst: According to the American Lung Association’s “State of the Air 2011” report, released last week, eight of the ten worst metropolitan areas for pollution are based in California (though one county crosses the Nevada border), with Los Angeles being the worst and Sacramento and San Diego also making the list. Uh, yikes.

01 May 2011 15:23

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World: Pro-Gaddafi official: NATO was going directly after Gaddafi

  • This was a direct operation to assassinate the leader of this country. This is not permitted by international law; it is not permitted by any moral code or principle.
  • Libyan spokesperson Moussa Ibrahim • Expressing anger about the attack by NATO that killed members of Gaddafi’s family. “The leader with his wife was there in the house with other friends and relatives,” Ibrahim explained “The attack resulted in the martyrdom of brother Saif al-Arab Gadhafi, 29 year old and three of the leader’s grandchildren. The leader himself is in good health. He was not harmed.” NATO, by the way, says that they weren’t actively targeting any one person, but instead attacking based on links to the “systematic attacks on the Libyan population.” Whatever that means. source