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25 Oct 2011 23:59

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World: Revolting, yet resourceful

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  • A Japanese art collective called Chim Pom is helping solve Tokyo’s rodent problem by catching the city’s rats, stuffing them, and painting them to look like Pikachu. Sweet dreams, everybody! source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Oct 2011 23:16

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Politics: People like Occupy Wall Street…for now

  • +16% Occupy Wall Street’s net favorability. 43% approve of the movement, while just 27% disapprove.
  • 30% of people are still undecided on Occupy Wall Street, according to the same CBS/NYT poll.  source
  • » What this means: While the movement does enjoy a plurality of support (in this poll, at this moment in time), a huge percentage of people haven’t yet made up their minds about it. This means there’s a lot of room for public opinion to swing either way, so decisions on the part of OWS’s still-emerging leadership over the next couple of months will be crucial in solidifying public support or rejection of the movement. This, in turn, will help determine whether or not OWS’s message actually ends up affecting legislation that comes out of Washington. Will Occupy Wall Street become the next Tea Party, which has had a huge impact on national politicians, or is it just a passing fad? According to this poll, the answer to that question is “to be determined.”
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Oct 2011 22:34

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Culture: Piling on the “man-child”

  • While we agree this was an avoidable situation, isn’t it a tad demeaning to refer to the guy as a “man-child?” Okay, so he loaded himself into an infant-sized swing, one for which he was clearly too big; this sounds, on the surface, somewhat baby-esque. But he did this to collect on a bet, not just for kicks. That is, there was a financial incentive at play. Also, the lede contends that he was “wailing like a baby,” but the original report just says he was “screaming.” It could have been more of a gruff shout, or perhaps an angry yell, or something else decidedly not baby-esque. So, we think Unnamed Vallejo Man is getting a bit of a bad rap. Especially given the valuable lesson he’s taught us all. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Oct 2011 20:07

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Politics: SF + M.C. Hammer + Brian Wilson + will.i.am + Ed Lee = Insane ad

  • San Francisco’s mayor gets uh, diverse support: M.C. Hammer’s music isn’t exactly setting the charts ablaze anymore (he’s moved on to search engines), but it works well in political ads, apparently, as this bizarre concoction above proves. Ed Lee, the current mayor of the city, was appointed after Gavin Newsom took over as California’s lieutenant governor, but the tech-friendly Lee hopes to get a full term. So do all the folks in this clip, ranging from top brass at Google to Twitter co-founders to insane pitcher Brian Wilson to M.C. FREAKING HAMMER, donning the parachute pants again to offer his support to the mayor. Gotta give the funders of this ad (tech entrepreneurs Ron Conway and Justin Timberlake Sean Parker) credit — it’s 2 Legit 2 Quit. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Oct 2011 15:35

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Offbeat: TSA leaves special note for female blogger traveling with vibrator

  • Get your freak on girl.
  • A note from the TSA • Found scrawled on a post-inspection luggage insert, which was in a bag owned by Feministe blogger Jill Filipovic. She had packed her vibrator in the luggage, which no doubt spurred this rather personal request. Said Filipovic: “Total violation of privacy, wildly inappropriate and clearly not ok, but I also just died laughing in my hotel room.” source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Oct 2011 15:12

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Culture: UNICEF + Threadless = good cause, good shirts (prices may vary)

  • Wearing your support: Pretty neat idea hatched between the folks at UNICEF and Threadless — you can now throw down for one of these rather charmingly minimalist t-shirts, and your money goes straight to African aid efforts. As you may have noticed, some of these shirts are hyper-expensive (not pictured, a $300,000 “cargo plane” shirt), which is because the amount you pay equals the cost of the sort of aid effort pictured. It’s a very cool and worthy example of humanitarian relief meeting up with design. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Oct 2011 14:44

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World: Prof. Richard Muller, leading climate change skeptic, changes his tune

  • When we began our study, we felt that skeptics had raised legitimate issues, and we didn’t know what we’d find. Our results turned out to be close to those published by prior groups. We think that means that those groups had truly been careful in their work, despite their inability to convince some skeptics of that.
  • UC Berkeley physics professor Richard Muller • Explaining how he went from being a prominent figure in the world of climate change skepticism and denial, to somebody convinced of its reality. Muller was no shrinking violet on this matter; he had once decried the scientific consensus on this issue as “polluted by political and activist frenzy.” However, after heading up the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, which analyzed a tremendous amount of temperature data, Muller found that his numbers matched up neatly with the scientific consensus on climate change (he found the earth’s temperature has risen about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1950s). Muller’s conclusion? “Global warming is real.” source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

25 Oct 2011 11:17

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Biz: Home prices rising or falling, depending on the metric you use

  • negative House prices are down by 3.8 percent from a year ago, according to the widely-watched Case-Shiller index, released this morning.
  • positive However, the number was up 0.2 percent from the prior month, making one analyst say that he sees a “glimmer of hope” in the data.
  • negative But when you break it down to granular data, just ten of the top twenty saw home prices rise. Like getting depressed? Enjoy. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Oct 2011 10:58

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Biz, Tech: Netflix’s stock, then and now: A steep, severe drop

  • $304.79 Netflix’s stock price on July 13, the day after they announced their unpopular price changes
  • $76 Netflix’s stock price as of this morning; it’s down more than 75 percent since July alone source
  • » How hard will moving forward be? During yesterday’s earning report, Netflix’s CEO, Reed Hastings explained off his company’s tough year like this: “We made a couple of big mistakes this year. It’s up to us to own up to those mistakes and to move forward.” But will owning up to those mistakes be enough to stop the bleeding amongst investors? A 75 percent drop in three months — when your stock is worth more than $300 — is just insane. It dropped 36 percent today alone. If you think Netflix is going to bounce back, though, now’s the time to buy their stock.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Oct 2011 10:46

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World: Why Muammar Gaddafi was buried in an unmarked grave

  • what Muammar Gaddafi was buried  (along with his son as well as a former defense minister) Tuesday, days after his death, in an unmarked grave. The ceremony followed Islamic traditions.
  • why Fear of vandalism, or the possibility that his grave might get turned into a shrine by his hard-line supporters. By keeping Gaddafi’s location hidden, it prevents his grave from being disturbed. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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