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04 Sep 2011 16:42

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Tech: Is now the time to ditch your RSS feed? Possibly.

  • That’s what Ars Technica’s Jacqui Cheng suggests. “RSS was essentially created so that Internet users could stay up-to-date with every single posting made on a particular website,” she writes. “This was, of course, back in the day when every site on earth didn’t post 150 new stories per day, and your friend’s blog feed didn’t contain 60 cross-posted Twitter musings to crowd out the one real post per week.” We’re with her. Despite the fact that we follow a lot of news, keeping up with the grindy nature of an RSS feed is an exercise in force-feeding, and one a lot of people simply don’t have time for. In fact, just 6 percent of Internet users use RSS regularly, and somehow the other 94 percent don’t miss out on too much. We love our RSS readers, but if you choose to follow us on Twitter instead, we totally understand. Because we go months without actually checking into Google Reader, and days without checking into Pulse, because we already caught the important stuff on Twitter already. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Sep 2011 16:10

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Biz: James Murdoch turns down bonus; Rupert Murdoch takes his own

  • In light of the current controversy surrounding News of the World, I have declined the bonus that the company chose to award to me. While the financial and operating performance metrics on which the bonus decision was based are not associated with this matter, I feel that declining the bonus is the right thing to do.
  • James Murdoch • Explaining his reasons for not accepting a $6 million bonus from News Corp. in the wake of the News of the World scandal. Accepting the bonus would have increased his 2010 take-home pay by 74 percent. His dad Rupert, meanwhile, accepted a $12.5 million bonus of his own. Do you think James made the right move? And if so, should Rupert Murdoch have followed the same track? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Sep 2011 11:55

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World: Big news: Iran’s energy grid officially includes nuclear power

  • what Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant has just connected to the country’s grid for the first time, making it the first time the Middle East has produced its own nuclear power.
  • when The plant “joined the national grid” at 11:29 p.m. last night (that was 2:59 p.m. Eastern), and will have a ceremony to inaugurate the plant on September 12. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Sep 2011 11:37

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World: Guess who finally made it home to Paris? Dominique Strauss-Kahn!

Hey may not have a good reputation in his homeland anymore, and likely won’t become president in 2012, but at least he has his mansion. That’s something, right? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Sep 2011 11:23

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World: Mitch Landrieu to New Orleans residents: “Don’t go to sleep” on Lee

  • We’re not out of the woods. Don’t go to sleep on this storm.
  • New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu • Offering a word to residents about the possible danger Tropical Storm Lee poses, particularly because it’s not a quick moving storm. With the potential for heavy rains over extended periods, the storm could test the region’s support system for the first time since Katrina brought it past the brink back in 2005. A lot of rain has fallen in the Gulf Coast region thus far. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Sep 2011 10:45

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U.S.: Tropical storm update: Lee floods; Katia suddenly looks more dangerous

  • With Tropical Storm Lee proving to be a slow-moving rain-pourer over the Gulf Coast, the next storm looking to cause trouble is Hurricane Katia, whose projected path has changed much in the past day and is likely to get within shouting distance of North Carolina. While it’s still entirely possible that it’ll go back out to sea, many areas are still recovering from Irene, lending a little bit of understandable nervousness to the whole mess. We’re going to focus our coverage on Lee this morning, and hopefully, Katia proves to do little more than stir up the ocean. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Sep 2011 13:50

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Tech: CurationSoft: The latest tool on the content curation block

  • We have to parse through a lot of content quickly. So do lots of other people. In an influential post we like citing, Robert Scoble once put this point into strong emphasis, calling it a “billion-dollar opportunity.” Content curation’s biggest problem is that it always takes a lot of steps, and the app that figures out how to simplify the process is going to win. We’re, specifically, the target audience for this, so we have a lot of thoughts on the matter. The closest right now is Storify, though we’ve seen a lot of competitors show up with the express purpose of wooing Robert Scoble. The latest? CurationSoft. This Adobe AIR app allows you to easily drag-and-drop content from YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, or various blogs into your browser in a platform-agnostic way, which is pretty much its best trick. (Tumblr? Google Plus? WordPress? Works the same way.) From there, we worry a little. You can only do a single search at once, which seems like a step back in the age of multi-tab Twitter clients, and the pricing seems a little off ($40 for a single-user license? For just a year?) We think the idea is good, but the execution needs polish. Would like to see where this app is a year from now. Robert Scoble’s billion-dollar opportunity is still out there, kids. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

03 Sep 2011 12:49

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Politics: Obama presses Congress to pass job-saving transportation bill

  • Right away, over 4,000 workers would be furloughed without pay. If it’s delayed for just 10 days, we will lose nearly $1 billion in highway funding that we can never get back. And if we wait even longer, almost 1 million workers could be in danger of losing their jobs over the next year.
  • President Barack Obama • Speaking in his weekly radio address about the importance of passing the Surface Transportation Bill — a bill that funds the construction of highways, bridges and so on — before the end of the month. If not, he claims it could cost thousands of jobs, if not more. The AFL-CIO and Chamber of Commerce —a.k.a. unions and big businesses — both support the bill. But Republicans, of course, take issue with the way Obama is framing the debate. Sigh. JUST WORK, GOVERNMENT! source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Sep 2011 12:30

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Biz, Politics: Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz planning political town hall next week

This is the CEO’s follow-up to his call for more corporate responsibility, and it’s sponsored by No Labels. All we know is that there had better be free coffee. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Sep 2011 01:34

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Culture: Fox News columnist: Chaz Bono is a freak of nature

  • Chaz Bono should not be applauded for asserting she is a man (and goes about trying to look like one) any more than a woman who believes she will be happier without arms, has them removed and then continues to assert that she was right all along—her self-concept was that of a double amputee. Now, all is well.
  • Member of the “Fox News Medical A-Team,” Dr. Keith Ablow • In an unbelievably insensitive piece about Chaz Bono, the transgendered man who is about to become one of the latest contestants on “Dancing With the Stars.” Ablow, who goes on and on about how he disagrees with Bono’s choice, admits he will take heat for the article. “I already have for making similar statements in the past,” he notes. “So be it. I would rather be the one shouting ‘The Emperor has no clothes!’ than one of the happy-go-lucky villagers applauding the tragic parade.” Look, Bono is taking a lot of heat from conservatives for his decision to do DWTS, some of it clearly unnecessary. Ablow is just throwing chum in the ocean to whet the sharks’ appetite. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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