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02 Jun 2011 15:45

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Biz, U.S.: Moody’s threatens U.S. credit rating downgrade over debt crisis

  • Full faith and credit: Moody’s Investors Service warns that a failure by the U.S. Congress to come to an agreement on raising the debt limit could imperil the country’s AAA credit rating: “The heightened polarization over the debt limit has increased the odds of a short-lived default. If this situation remains unchanged in coming weeks, Moody’s will place the rating under review.” You may remember a similar warning from Standard and Poor’s last April — it’s becoming increasingly clear that the debt limit struggle, in addition to the gaping chasm between what Democrats and Republicans would care to do on spending and deficit issues (such a chasm usually means gridlock), is causing angst for financial agencies. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Jun 2011 15:08

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Politics: Piper Palin would prefer a media-free family vacation

  • Thanks for ruining our vacation.
  • Piper Palin (daughter of Sarah, age 9) • Making a comment to a photographer during Sarah Palin’s massive bus tour. This strikes a rather awkward contrast, because media attention is precisely the intended effect of this tour as far as Mama Palin is concerned. (Seriously, did she not tell her what was going on?!?) Though we hope it’s obvious, we’ll strenuously make it clear that this isn’t intended as yukking it up at the expense of a young, innocent girl — we frankly can’t imagine what it would be like growing up in such a publicly prominent family, and one that does have its share of disgusting things written about it on the internet. There is something very emotionally evocative, rather, at the thought that the media attention which is basically the lifeblood of Sarah Palin’s career, political or otherwise, seems to be rankling her daughter, who just wants a nice vacation. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Jun 2011 14:59

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U.S.: FBI investigating China for hacking job

  • cause Hackers went after Gmail, but didn’t compromise many accounts. However, some of the hacked accounts belong to some pretty high-ranking officials here in the U.S. Google claims that the hack originated in China, and the accounts have since been secured.
  • effect The FBI is investigating the hacking, which the Chinese government is saying that they had nothing to do with. However, Google believes the attack originated from the same city as one that targeted U.S. companies last year, including Google. source
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Jun 2011 14:25

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U.S.: Romney announces candidacy, promises healthcare repeal

  • Mitt Romney officially announced his candidacy for 2012 today, shooting for his second run at the White House. He promised to repeal “Obamacare” (which he fathered, right?) and to make more jobs for Americans. His focus is to take power from the federal level and give it to the states, like a true Republican, and he talked extensively about his political credentials. But the important question is, does he really stand a chance against T-Paw and those ads? (photo via Gage Skidmore) source
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Jun 2011 14:21

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Politics: The San Francisco Giants say “It Gets Better”

  • A wonderful step: The San Francisco Giants have become the first professional sports team to join the “It Gets Better” campaign, with the release of this video. With this, the Giants are leading a charge in baseball similar to the Phoenix Suns in the NBA, meaning LGBT fans everywhere can now ask why their team hasn’t followed suit — likely the absolute best way to get more franchises on board with this message, and affect positive change. Incidentally, this isn’t the first time the Giants have set the example on a progressive social issue; back in 1993, they were the first team to give proceeds to AIDS research with “Until There’s a Cure” day. Enormous thanks to Barry Zito, Matt Cain, Sergio Romo, Andres Torres, and Hensley Meulens for doing this. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Jun 2011 14:18

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Tech: Tennessee lawmakers pass stupid anti-password-sharing law

  • Share your password on Netflix? If you live in Tennessee, you should stop. They just passed a law that makes it illegal to share your password to sites like Netflix and Rhapsody — even with permission. They’re the first state to do this. While you don’t have to worry about sharing within the same house, you might have to worry if you have a son or daughter in college, because they just might be sharing your password with everyone on their floor in their dorm. This is because the language of the law is super-vague and punishes mostly innocuous uses of password-sharing. And the punishments are steep too — up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine for $500 or less of “theft,” which the law treats as a misdemeanor. The recording industry, as you might guess, is behind this stupid law — and they hope other states will follow suit after this. source
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Jun 2011 13:57

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Tech: Meme theft drama: The Oatmeal takes on FunnyJunk

  • In one of the great battles of Memedom, this one might be remembered as the “War of Attribution.” What happens when a guy who draws a ton of memeworthy comics goes up against a site that aggregates comics just like his without any attribution whatsoever? Drama. That’s what happened when the guy behind The Oatmeal merely asked for a little credit for his work from the site FunnyJunk — after they stole all his content.
  • Many lulz, no attribution Matthew Inman, the creator of the famous webcomic The Oatmeal has a huge issue with FunnyJunk.com. Users of that site have been taking his comics, removing all forms of attribution, and posting them on the ad-laden site. He’s tried unsuccessfully to get them removed, but they keep showing up. “I realize that trying to police copyright infringement on the internet is like strolling into the Vietnamese jungle circa 1964 and politely asking everyone to use squirt guns,” Inman wrote, but he feels he needs to protect his rights.
  • Reasonable vs. immature All sorts of problems arose came from Inman just asking for FJ to link to his site — not exactly a huge thing — and the whole mess turned into a giant dramabomb that spread beyond The Oatmeal and FunnyJunk and hit Reddit and Facebook. It’s an interesting copyright battle that takes on some of the touches of YouTube vs. Viacom, except with more uses of anti-gay slurs and meme-talk. Honestly … we’re with Inman. And the guy who runs FunnyJunk is kind of an immature baby who tried to turn his entire userbase on Inman. source
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

02 Jun 2011 12:33

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Politics: Recalled Wisconsin State Senator: Let’s hope Dems are “sleeping”

  • We’ve got tons of government workers in my district — tons. From La Crosse to Prairie du Chien and to Viroqua and to Ontario and to Hillsboro, you can go on and on and on. We have to overcome that. We gotta hope that they, kind of, are sleeping on July 12th — or whenever the (election) date is.
  • Wisconsin State Sen. Dan Kapanke • Expressing fear that he might get recalled due to the fact that his district has a lot of public-sector union workers in it. A secret recording caught Kapanke saying this along with a few other things. He noted in the clip, taped last week at the Cedar Creek Golf Club in Onalaska, Wisc., that two other state senators were in serious danger of losing their seats, too, and offered up this harbinger: “If they gain control of the Senate, it might be over for us. Because redistricting will play a role, as you know, and we lose that power.” Well, that doesn’t sound optimistic, does it? (h/t ThinkProgress) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Jun 2011 11:03

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Tech: Windows 8 in action: Microsoft gives the mothership a shake-up

  • A refresh of “Start Menu” dynamics: Microsoft’s upcoming refresh of Windows is a bold reboot of an OS way-better known for its incremental updates. WIth an interface that’s closer to Windows Phone 7 than anything that the desktop OS has done, the GUI appears to be touch-first, mouse-second, but done in such a way that doesn’t necessarily turn off the mouse crowd. Honestly, this is the most-impressive GUI we’ve ever seen from Microsoft, if for no other reason than that most of their operating systems have been terrible, in our humble opinion. The ball’s in your court, Steve Jobs — whaddya got for us at WWDC? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Jun 2011 10:37

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World: Rare German strain of E.coli “more virulent and toxin-producing”

  • This is a unique strain that has never been isolated from patients before … [it has] various characteristics that make it more virulent and toxin-producing.
  • World Health Organization food safety expert Hilde Kruse • Describing what makes the mutant strain of E.coli — the one found mostly in Germany at this point — much more dangerous than previous versions. The disease, which sickened more than 1,500 and left nearly 500 with a rare type of kidney failure, is the third-largest outbreak of E.coli ever. So, where did it come from? “One should think of an animal source,” Kruse suggested. “Many animals are hosts of various types of toxin-producing E. coli.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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