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04 May 2011 10:45

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Culture: Steelers’ Rashard Mendenhall feeling heat over Bin Laden tweets

The Pittsburgh halfback said this: “It’s amazing how people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak. We’ve only heard one side.” He also doubted al-Qaeda’s role in 9/11. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 May 2011 10:33

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Politics: Tim Pawlenty: Get off the sideline, GOP! BEAT THIS OBAMA GUY!

  • I think it’s time to say, ‘It’s time to get off the sideline.’ We’ve got less than a year and a half to beat him … and it’s going to take all of us going full tilt to beat him.
  • Tim Pawlenty • Coming up with a line which could perhaps be a rallying cry for the GOP over the next year and a half. “It’s time to get off the sideline” would also work as a rallying cry during the third quarter of a football game. T-Paw could totally be the new Michael Irvin! But in all seriousness, this is a good line. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 May 2011 10:07

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World: How much money was Osama carrying when he was killed?

  • €500 were on his person — sewn into his clothes source
  • » Ready at the drop of a hat: In case Osama needed to make a run for it, the money sewn in his clothes ensured he might be able to survive for a couple of days. Though … it says a lot about the declining value of the dollar that he chose Euros instead. Among other things officials say they found — 10 cell phones, 10 computers and 100 thumb drives. Since the compound didn’t have internet access, we bet they just tethered their phones like we do.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 May 2011 09:58

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U.S.: States struggle to handle Mississippi River’s rising floodwaters

  • We’re making a lot of unfortunate history here in Mississippi in April and May.
  • Mississippi Emergency Management Agency spokesman Jeff Rent • Putting a pretty unfortunate period on the end of the sentence that is the Mississippi River’s flooding — along with last week’s tornadoes. All along the Misssissippi River, floodwaters are reaching record levels, putting some in precarious situations — or forcing some necessary but undesirable decisions, like blowing holes in levees that flood crops but save towns. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 May 2011 23:27

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Biz: Newspaper pulse check: Why one paper’s circulation skyrocketed

  • The newspaper is doing OK right now. Not great, just OK. In the past six months, that gray newsprint behemoth did OK, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, with the top two papers gaining some ground and most of the top five staying roughly in the same order. However, the way that the group analyzed the data changed this time around — deciding, instead of focusing just on paid circulation, to emphasize “average circulation,” which includes separate editions under the umbrella of a certain brand. The numbers caused one paper to rocket into the top five and one to fall out. See if you can guess by the numbers below:
  • 2.1 million daily circulation for the top-ranked Wall Street Journal
  • 1.8 million average daily circulation for the still-second-place USA Today
  • 916,911 average daily circulation for the freshly-paywalled New York Times
  • 605k average daily circulation for the Los Angeles Times
  • 577k average daily circulation for the San Jose Mercury News
  • 550k average daily circulation for the Washington Post source
  • » A few things of note: If you guessed that the San Jose Mercury News benefited greatly from the change in data, you’re correct — MediaNews treats each newspaper on this page as an “edition” of the Mercury News (which seems a little number-inflating). Other notes: This data covers the daily circulation for the past six months — a period which only includes a tiny bit of the New York Times’ post-paywall circulation (so come back in six months to see if it was a success). But e-editions are doing quite well, especially for the Wall Street Journal and Detroit Free Press. One last thing: The numbers only cover paid newspapers, not free ones. (photo by Brent D. Payne)
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 May 2011 21:15

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World: Second try: The White House blows pretty major Bin Laden facts

  • yesterday Reports pushed forth by the White House suggested that Osama bin Laden had a weapon, and that he used his wife was a human shield, leading to her death.
  • today The White House changed both stories, noting that Bin Laden was unarmed (though others weren’t) and his wife was in fact not even killed, but just shot in the leg. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 May 2011 20:39

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World: UCLA researchers figured out where Osama was two years ago

  • The theory was basically that if you’re going to try and survive, you’re going to a region with a low extinction rate: a large town. We hypothesized he wouldn’t be in a small town where people could report on him.
  • UCLA geographer Thomas Gillespie • Describing the hypothesis that he, colleague John Agnew, and a bunch of students used to figure out that Osama bin Laden was hiding out in the general region near Abbottabad, Pakistan — back in 2009, when such a revelation was unexpected and amazing. “Caves are cold, and you can’t see people walking up to them,” Gillepsie noted, though also suggested he should’ve had a more inconspicuous home, instead of a fortress that stuck out like a sore thumb. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

03 May 2011 09:41

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U.S.: Birds Point levee blast eases pressure on Mississippi River

  • cause In a controversial move that may have saved a town but Missouri fought against in court (claiming it would hurt farms), officials started blowing holes in the Birds Point levee last night.
  • effect Since the initial blast, the Mississippi River’s level at Cairo, Illinois has gone down a solid foot, lowering the pressure and possibly ensuring that the town may avoid a massive flood. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 May 2011 09:15

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U.S., World: White House’s John Brennan: We can take out al-Qaeda now

  • We’re going to try to take advantage of this opportunity we have now with the death of al Qaeda’s leader, bin Laden, to ensure that we’re able to destroy that organization. We’re determined to do so and we believe we can.
  • White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan • Sounding a little boasty by saying that the next plan, post-Bin Laden, is to basically take down all of al-Qaeda. “We believe that we have damaged the organization, degraded its capability and made it much more difficult for it to operate inside of Pakistan as well as beyond,” he continued. Do you guys think he’s right, or just on a bit of a high right now? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 May 2011 01:29

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U.S.: Stay in school and you’re much, much more likely to get a job

  • This is why they tell you to stay in school, kids. Seriously, look at that discrepancy! Of course, the usual causation-correlation disclaimer is in effect here; maybe the kids who graduated college were the ones naturally more predisposed to keeping a job anyway? Nevertheless, this should give pause to any high schoolers considering dropping out. (source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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