ShortFormBlogNovember 27, 2011

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$45B the amount spent during Black Friday weekend last year; that’s a 16 percent jump, for those playing at home
226M number of shoppers over Black Friday weekend; that’s also a huge leap from 2010, and a record number
$398 the amount spent per customer on Black Friday weekend — a jump of more than $40 from 2010 source

» A big win for retail, but for humanity … eh. The heavy spending this year came with a number of downsides, most notably in the form of a series of customers-acting-crazy moments. We covered a few of these over the weekend, including an overzealous pepper sprayer and a riot over $2 waffle irons. Sure, the economy needs a serious kick in the pants, but we hope we can get said kick in the pants while being nice to our fellow human beings. Fortunately, tomorrow is Cyber Monday, where the problems with physical shopping don’t exist. Unless you know a way to shut off your neighbor’s internet. In which case you’re evil and we don’t like you anymore.

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Nov 2011 20:11

Surely if electronic gadgets could bring down an airplane, you can be sure that the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration, which has a consuming fear of 3.5 ounces of hand lotion and gel shoe inserts, wouldn’t allow passengers to board a plane with an iPad or Kindle, for fear that they would be used by terrorists.
New York Times reporter Nick Bilton • Going in for the kill with his story regarding the use of electronic devices on planes — specifically, why can’t they be used as a plane’s taking off or landing? According to FAA spokesperson Les Dorr, the agency chooses to err on the side of caution, despite evidence that the usage of electronic devices have no effect on a plane. “There have never been any reported accidents from these kinds of devices on planes,” Dorr said, reluctantly. So, why the policy? Good question. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

His lawyers say there’s evidence of a second gunman. There are conspiracy theories around the other Kennedy shooting, too, and the man who went to jail for that one could get a second chance to defend himself thanks to fresh evidence discovered by his defense lawyers. “The state suppressed, destroyed and withheld a great deal of evidence,” claims lawyer William F. Pepper, who personally knew Robert F. Kennedy in the 1960s. He worked with fellow lawyer Laurie D. Dusek on the case. Their take? A second gunman put Sirhan Sirhan up for the fall, believing he would be more likely to get convicted due to the fact he was Arab, and the second man used hypno-programming to keep Sirhan in check, essentially making him an unwilling participant in the assassination. Furthermore, they say that the convicted shooter’s gun never actually hit Kennedy. Sirhan’s attorneys say in court papers claim the state “refuses to acknowledge that hypno programming/mind control is not fiction but reality and has been used for years by the U.S. military, Central Intelligence Agency and other covert organizations.” source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

Changes that Could hit the government and its people financially: Weeks after the Arab League suspended Syria over its handling of anti-government protesters, the influential regional organization ratcheted up the sanctions — with member countries agreeing to stop transactions to and from the country’s central bank and cutting off funding for infrastructure projects. The Syrian government has called foul on the sanctions, claiming on state television that the moves are “unprecedented measures aimed at the Syrian people.” Meanwhile, the violence that led to the sanctions continued unabated on Sunday. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink